Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Official Report 1225KB pdf

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Education Reforms

The next item of business is a statement by John Swinney on Scotland’s education reforms. As usual, the cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of his statement.

14:22  

The aim of the Government’s education policy is to achieve excellence and equity for all our children and young people in a high-performing education system. To make that a reality, we must raise the bar for all and close the attainment gap in our schools.

Our education system is already delivering improving results. For the third year in a row, we have seen more than 150,000 higher passes, despite falling pupil numbers, and nearly 60,000 skills-based awards and achievements. We have seen the proportion of young people who get qualifications at Scottish credit and qualifications framework levels 4, 5 and 6—mainly national 4s, national 5s and highers—increase, and it is increasing fastest in the most deprived areas. Almost 23 per cent of school leavers in the most deprived areas are going into higher education compared with 16.5 per cent seven years ago.

International evidence demonstrates that successful education systems are those in which decisions about our children’s education are made as close to them as possible. That is why our approach is to empower schools—to empower headteachers, teachers, parents and the wider school community—to make key decisions that will affect the educational outcomes of children and young people. We set that out in our manifesto, in saying that we will

“put teachers, parents and communities in the driving seat”.

We have a great many high-quality professionals working in Scottish education, but they are not currently sufficiently empowered to work together and to use their skills, judgment and creativity in the way that they think best. It is critical that they can do so to ensure that the potential of curriculum for excellence is achieved.

Empowered professionals must also be supported by specific measures in the national improvement framework to secure improvements in Scottish education. The combination of the Scottish attainment challenge and pupil equity funding is already delivering results by empowering the teaching profession. Teachers and headteachers are taking radical, focused and innovative approaches to improve outcomes because that funding puts them in the driving seat.

The interim evaluation of the attainment Scotland fund showed that 78 per cent of headteachers had seen an improvement in attainment and wellbeing as a result of the fund and that nearly all headteachers—97 per cent—expected to see further improvements in the coming five years.

Some people say that all of that is progress enough and that the system does not need further interventions from the Government; some people say that many schools enjoy the empowerment that our reforms aim for and that great work is being done in a number of areas—and it is. In other words, some people say that children and young people have got the education system that they need and that some of them will reach their potential. However, it is simply not good enough that some children will reach their potential. We must raise the bar and close the gap for all.

A year ago, we published “Education Governance: Next Steps—Empowering Our Teachers, Parents and Communities to Deliver Excellence and Equity for Our Children”. Since then, significant progress has been made. We have worked intensively with local government to reach agreement on regional improvement collaboratives to provide additional support to schools. All six regional improvement collaboratives are up and running, their leaderships are appointed and they are collaborating with Education Scotland to respond to local needs and aspirations. The first set of regional improvement plans has been developed, and the second set of plans is due in September. All of that has been achieved at a pace that would previously have been thought highly unlikely—if not impossible—as a result of creative joint working between national and local government.

“Education Governance: Next Steps” also committed the Scottish Government to working with partners to support readiness for a school and teacher-led system. That has led to a rationalisation of the existing structures and governance arrangements in Scottish education.

I chair the Scottish education council, which brings together young people, education leaders and representatives from local authorities, the teaching profession and our partners in the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. It works collaboratively to ensure that there is a system-wide focus on improvement and to agree priorities for improvement activity and delivery.

Education Scotland has taken significant action to deliver on its enhanced role and remit. The Scottish College for Educational Leadership is now integrated into Education Scotland, building further the culture and the capacity of leadership throughout the system.

Last November, we consulted on proposals to achieve empowerment through an education bill, which included proposals for a headteachers charter. Our aim is to ensure that schools have wide-ranging powers over their own management, staffing and what is taught in their classrooms, thereby creating a culture of empowerment that enables all professionals to contribute to the improvement agenda.

The consultation analysis, which was published in March, showed that a great many people agree whole-heartedly with our aim of school empowerment, although many were not convinced about all the details of how we planned to achieve that aim. Those voices raised the question of whether we could deliver the headteachers charter faster and with less disruption in partnership with local authorities. If we could, why should we wait 18 months for an education bill?

In the light of those responses, I have been in detailed discussions with local government for some months. The work has not always been easy, but I can announce that we have reached a clear, shared commitment. I am today fast-tracking the reform of Scottish education. The Scottish Government and Scotland’s councils have reached an agreement that endorses and embraces the principles of school empowerment and that provides clear commitment to a school and teacher-led education system—and it does so without the need to wait 18 months for an education bill.

Although I am publishing a draft education (Scotland) bill today, along with its accompanying documents and appropriate impact assessments, I have decided that I will not introduce the bill to Parliament at this time. Instead of waiting for the passing of legislation that cannot be fully in force until 2019 or 2020, we have an opportunity to reform our schools more quickly through investment in consensus building and collaboration rather than through legislation.

In coming to my decision, I have also reflected on the advice of the international council of education advisers, which encouraged me to consider the benefits of pursuing a collaborative approach instead of legislating. I have listened to that advice and have taken the view that, by building on the joint agreement with local government, we have greater prospects of achieving more at a swifter pace. That means that the headteachers charter can become a reality faster and that school leaders will be able to make more quickly key decisions on the areas of curriculum improvement, staffing and budget, which are crucial to ensuring effective learning and teaching. By implementing our agreement jointly with local government and the education profession, we can develop guidance on empowerment and the charter as a matter of priority and more quickly than statutory guidance under an education bill.

On budget powers, we have begun work with our local government partners on new guidance for devolved school management schemes.

We will also launch a joint action plan on parental engagement next month and will continue the work that has been started in this year of young people to enhance the voice of pupils in schools.

Finally, on the General Teaching Council for Scotland, we will explore what can be done within the scope of current legislation to provide the benefits of regulation and registration to a wider group of education professionals. I accept the strength of feeling among teachers about the body’s independence and its guardianship of professional standards.

By taking the steps that I have set out to the Parliament today, we are demonstrating a clear commitment to working with local government and education professionals. We are fast-tracking progress, and we expect that progress to be sustained and swift. However, I make it very clear that, if sufficient progress is not made over the next 12 months to deliver the empowerment of schools that we have agreed with local authorities, I will return to the Parliament and introduce an education bill.

The approach that I have set out today requires tailored and targeted support. I am therefore announcing a total of £46 million of investment to support the improvement agenda.

I am announcing further investment of up to £4 million over three years, in addition to existing leadership development programmes, to ensure that headteachers can access high-quality professional learning. That includes further investment in the highly regarded Columba 1400 leadership academies.

I am announcing funding of up to £10 million to enhance regional capacity to support schools. That funding, through regional improvement collaboratives and Education Scotland working together, will help schools to close the attainment gap and tackle rural deprivation, and it will support collaboration to share best practice and the delivery of regional interventions.

To ensure that we maintain progress on the opportunities that are available for looked-after children, I will make available funding of around £8 million for the remainder of this year and £12 million in each of the subsequent two years to supplement pupil equity funding and the challenge authorities and schools programme.

This Government believes that every child in Scotland, whatever their background, should have the very best start in life, and the landmark agreement that was published today marks the next phase in reforming our school education system. It means that reform can be delivered more quickly than by legislation. It means that we will empower teachers to drive improvement in schools and help pupils to flourish. It means that the whole system—schools, councils and regional improvement collaboratives—will be focused on improving the outcomes for Scotland’s children and young people. Teachers and parents will be the key decision makers in the life of a school.

Education remains by far the most effective means that we have to improve the life chances of all our young people. I am confident that this approach—one that builds consensus and fosters collaboration, with high expectations of what we can achieve together—is the right approach for Scotland.

I thank the cabinet secretary for prior sight of his statement.

“A new education bill will deliver the biggest and most radical change to how our schools are run ... It will give headteachers significant new powers, influence and responsibilities, formally establishing them as leaders of learning and teaching.”—[Official Report, 5 September 2017; c 13.]

That was the flagship promise of the First Minister in the Scottish Government’s programme for government, just a few months ago. The cabinet secretary himself is on record saying that the education bill would be the best chance in a generation to reform our schools and raise attainment.

I am—frankly—astonished by the content of this afternoon’s statement, as will be thousands of parents, teachers and young people across Scotland. In that light, I have only one question. Is the cabinet secretary embarrassed by this complete shambles of a U-turn, which not only breaks the Scottish National Party’s promise to the people of Scotland but leaves schools with even more uncertainty about their future under this SNP Government?

The one-word answer to Liz Smith is no.

What I have done is pursued the Government’s policy objective, which is to empower our schools, and negotiated an agreement with local authorities that enables us to empower our schools faster than can be achieved through legislation. The policy intent of the Government is absolutely intact and we will pursue it, to deliver the objectives that the Government has set out.

On the experience of schools, I see schools in Scotland using the freedoms that this Government has given them through pupil equity funding—which Liz Smith voted against in the budget—to ensure that they are able to close the poverty-related attainment gap and improve opportunities for young people. What will come from the agreement that I have negotiated with local government is the opportunity, at a faster pace, to deliver the reforms to which the Government is committed and that it is determined to deliver.

I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement.

Well, what a shambles indeed. For two years, parents, teachers, educationists and the Government’s international advisers have told the education secretary that his education bill was unwanted, unnecessary and misguided, but he carried on regardless. Now, at the 11th hour, his flagship legislation has sailed off into the sunset. The First Minister’s top priority—her sacred obligation—is now reduced to just another last-minute, cobbled-together joint agreement. The only thing that is being fast tracked here is the mother of all ministerial climbdowns.

The cabinet secretary has failed—and he knows that he has—to marshal support for his bill, in or out of this Parliament. His blushes cannot be spared. Will he just own up and admit that his education bill is dead? Will he now do what he always should have done, which is to restore the 7.5 per cent that he cut from school budgets and address the 20 per cent erosion of our teachers’ pay?

Iain Gray talks about the marshalling of support for the bill. This has been the product not of last-minute discussion but of months of dialogue with local government, culminating in the unanimous agreement by local authority leaders of the contents of the education bill. That position was arrived at by COSLA leaders at their meeting at the end of May.

In my statement, I was responding positively to the discussions that we have had and recognising that we can achieve greater progress, at a faster pace, by working together with local authorities. That is what the Government has opted to do. However, I reserve the right to ensure that we progress that agenda in a speedy and timeous fashion and to return to Parliament if we are not able to pursue the collaborative approach that I have set out.

On the question of resources, I would have thought that, by now, Iain Gray might have welcomed the facts that, last year, local authority expenditure on education increased by 3.2 per cent and that, in the current financial year, local authorities are projected to increase their expenditure on education by 3.8 per cent. I would have expected that he might also have supported the £120 million in pupil equity funding that goes into our schools annually to transform the lives of young people. However, Iain Gray does not support any of that, because he voted against it in the budget. I am afraid that he cannot now wriggle away from the consequences of his foolish error earlier in the year.

As the cabinet secretary detailed in his statement, all six regional improvement collaboratives have now been established, and their respective leadership roles have been filled. How will the collaboratives help to drive improvements in learning and teaching at local level?

I remind members that I am parliamentary liaison officer to the cabinet secretary.

We expect regional improvement collaboratives to engage closely with the work that is going on with individual schools and to respond significantly to their demands and requests for improvement support. The agreement that I have set out today puts schools in the driving seat, with their being able to determine the enhancements to learning and teaching that they require and to seek them from the regional improvement collaboratives that are part of the combined work of local authorities, Education Scotland and the Scottish Government. In that very focused way, we want to support the enhancement of learning and teaching in the classroom. One of the key tests of the success and effectiveness of regional improvement collaboratives will be what they can achieve in improving classroom practice.

This is quite clearly a case not of job done, but of job too difficult. Given the cabinet secretary’s frequent pleas to the Parliament that the bill was essential for raising attainment, I want to ask: why did he bring forward the bill in the first place, why has he changed his mind and why he has brought to an end engagement with other political parties that might have been willing to work with him?

What has changed my mind is the collaboration that we have been able to build up with local authorities. I am very clear about that point. We have managed to get local authorities to a position where they are taking forward a shared agenda. They are committed to that shared agenda, which is focused on empowering schools through the design of a headteachers charter that will give headteachers much greater influence over curriculum, staffing, funding and improvement than is the case currently, and enable those headteachers to lead the process of improving educational performance in schools.

On the basis that I am constantly appealed to in this Parliament to build agreement and consensus, that is what I have sought. I have secured that agreement from local authorities and I am determined to work with local authorities to ensure that we deliver that impact on the education of young people. As Mr Mundell knows, that improvement is already being delivered, with the data that we published last week demonstrating that the attainment gap is starting to close and that the work that is being taken forward collaboratively in Scottish education is beginning to have an effect.

How will the cabinet secretary determine whether sufficient progress has been made in the next 12 months?

I will seek an independent assessment of whether sufficient progress has been made. I will look to that independent assessment to make a judgment about whether the commitments that have been made in the agreement have been fulfilled in a reasonable fashion within the 12-month period, and that independent analysis will be published and will inform my view as to whether to introduce legislation at a later stage. However, I make it clear to Mary Fee and to the Parliament that I would prefer not to do that, because I think that we could achieve more progress if we fulfil the spirit and the letter of the agreement that I have reached with local authorities.

I welcome the cabinet secretary’s funding announcement on enhanced regional capacity to support schools. Does he agree that closing the poverty-related attainment gap requires the collaboration of a wide range of public services, not just schools?

I accept Mr Adam’s point. A whole range of influences can be brought to bear on the opportunities that are available to young people. That support can be provided by a number of professionals, but the key element is that all those professionals must be focused on how we ensure that our combined actions get it right for every child. That focused policy approach is an essential part of how we engage in supporting young people and ensuring that they are able to fulfil their potential as a consequence of the joint working that takes place across our public services.

This is a humiliating moment for the education secretary, as he is forced to flee from Parliament. His proposals have been rejected by teachers, parents, young people, councillors and education experts, and he knows that they would be rejected by MSPs as well, so he is avoiding Parliament completely. The £10 million announced for the unwanted and unnecessary regional collaboratives could instead have been used for 260 desperately needed teachers for the rest of this session of Parliament. Can the Deputy First Minister accept that the number 1 issue in Scottish schools at the moment is a lack of staff and resources due to his budget cuts, and that shelving the doomed bill gives him a chance to admit the mistakes made over the past decade and to change course?

Unless I am mistaken, I am in Parliament just now, answering questions from members of Parliament and explaining the Government’s position, so, as a matter of pure technical reality, I can tell Mr Greer, in response to his question, that I am actually here.

In relation to the objectives of the Government’s agenda, I have set out clearly to Parliament today that the Government’s agenda to empower schools lies at the heart of the agreement that we have reached with local authorities, and the conclusion that I have come to is that I can make more progress working in a collaborative way with local authorities to advance that agenda than I can through legislation. If that results in the creation of a school-led, empowered education system in our schools, the Government’s policy objective will have succeeded. I am sure that Mr Greer will encourage us all the way.

On resources, I have made a number of announcements today about enhancing investment in education, but the Government has also been strengthening investment in education through pupil equity funding and the Scottish attainment challenge. We are seeing the effect of that in schools and in the closure of the poverty-related attainment gap. As a result of the Government’s budget settlements, improvements are being made in investment in education.

All those factors come together to demonstrate the important progress that we are making on education, which should give us encouragement about our prospects of closing the attainment gap and about every young person fulfilling their life chances. That is what the Government is unreservedly focused on achieving as a consequence of our education policy.

If education is the First Minister’s number 1 priority, why is she not here? Is the ministerial reshuffle more important than Scotland’s schools?

If the proposed bill is so important, why is the cabinet secretary ditching it, yet holding it as a sword of Damocles over our councils? Is it really collaboration to say, “Do as I say, or I’ll be after you”?

Just as I am here to answer questions, although Mr Greer did not seem to think that I was, the First Minister cannot be in two places at once. She is taking forward the Government’s agenda, as she always does, and I am here to explain our position on education reforms.

As for Mr Scott’s second point, he regularly encourages me to engage in dialogue with external parties. That is exactly what I am doing, and that has informed the conclusions that I brought to Parliament. However, it is only fair for me to make clear to everybody the Government’s determination to pursue the policy agenda. I want to ensure that the commitments that we have entered into with local authorities in good faith are taken forward and that we have every opportunity to strengthen Scottish education as a result, but I must reserve the Government’s position on legislating if we cannot make the progress that has been committed to in our agreement with local authorities.

How will the Government’s plans allow for new opportunities for professional development in teaching? How will that help to raise standards and close the attainment gap?

As a consequence of our dialogue with professional associations through the international summit on the teaching profession, one important priority is the design of additional career pathways for teachers, to allow them to enhance their professional development and professional skill in the classroom without having to seek other opportunities through administrative leadership.

To be frank, we have narrowed career development opportunities too much in Scottish education; we need to open them up again. We have invited Moyra Boland of the University of Glasgow to take forward a panel that will look at the development of career pathways, in consultation with the professional associations, to provide career development opportunities that will enhance teachers’ practice.

In addition, the resources that I have announced today and the focus of regional improvement collaboratives are all designed to strengthen learning and teaching in the classroom and to invest in that to enhance the opportunities that are available for young people.

Not long ago, the cabinet secretary confirmed that

“We will have the opportunity to vote in Parliament on the proposed education bill”.—[Official Report, 5 September 2017; c 69.]

Will that ever happen?

It might, but that will depend on whether we make sufficient progress through the joint agreement with local authorities. What matters to me is the outcome that we achieve. If the outcome is empowered schools that help to raise attainment, that will be job done, because we will be closing the poverty-related attainment gap and succeeding in our policy objectives. If we have to do that through legislation, we will have to do that, but I would rather pursue the approach of collaboration, which Parliament constantly asks me to take. We have secured the agreement and I look forward to progressing it.

I note that in the last five minutes, Councillor Stephen McCabe of COSLA has said:

“I am pleased that our concerns have been recognised by the Scottish Government and I believe that the principles we have agreed will allow us to focus on improving outcomes for children and young people.”

What discussions has the cabinet secretary had, and what discussions does he hope to have, with teaching unions as a result of today’s statement?

I engage extensively with the professional associations. We have discussed these issues over the past few months and I will continue that dialogue with them. I am particularly interested in their involvement in the career pathways development work and in the work of the regional improvement collaboratives. The associations will of course be integral to our discussions as we take forward this agenda to ensure that the legitimate and important interests of employees are properly taken into account in the reforms that we undertake.

The cabinet secretary says that he recognises the strength of feeling regarding the reputation and independence of the General Teaching Council for Scotland. That strength of feeling could not be overstated in the consultations that the Education and Skills Committee carried out, so why will he not commit to dropping his plan to abolish that vital institution?

First, my plan was not to abolish the GTCS; it was to ensure that the GTCS became a broader body that could regulate a wider range of organisations in the education workforce. However, my response recognises the strength of feeling that Johann Lamont highlights. I appreciate that she will not have had the time to look at the draft bill, but it does not include provisions to reform the GTCS.

I accept that those proposals should not go forward because there is not sufficient agreement for that move to be undertaken. I have asked the GTCS to explore how, within its existing legislative structure, it can undertake the regulation of a broader range of educational professionals, who I think we would all generally agree should be brought into the ambit of regulation. I am thinking in particular of music tutors. That is one of the groupings of staff that the GTCS is already exploring bringing within its locus. I look forward to continuing those discussions with the GTCS.

I welcome the cabinet secretary’s announcement of £10 million being made available through regional collaboration to tackle, among other things, rural deprivation. Can he say a little more about that? Does he recognise that the United Kingdom Government also has a responsibility to tackle rural deprivation, given the number of witnesses who have told the Education and Skills Committee that welfare reform is making it much more difficult to close the attainment gap in Scotland’s schools?

Mr Lochhead’s last point is beyond dispute. It is increasingly difficult to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap, and our challenge is made greater because of the implications of the UK Government’s welfare reform. That should not in any way diminish our determination to work to try to achieve our objectives, but it certainly makes the challenge all the greater.

Mr Lochhead made a point about the funding resources that I have announced. Those important funding resources will support the regional collaboratives around the country, particularly in rural areas, to overcome some of the challenges that exist, particularly those that are driven by rurality. They will also ensure that we have in place support for enhancement opportunities for members of the teaching profession, for example. It is about making sure that there is access to those learning and teaching enhancements despite the geographical challenges in rural areas. It is also about guaranteeing that, in rural areas, we have a comprehensive strategy to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap, which is less visible in our rural areas but is nonetheless just as significant and serious as it is in our urban areas, and the necessity of closing it is just as important.

Thank you very much. That concludes the statement. We will take a few seconds for ministers and members to change seats before we move on to the next item of business.