Education Scotland has published its latest report monitoring and evaluating the impact of the government’s ongoing push to close the attainment gap via the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC).
The report is the third and final to be published for the 2023-24 period and is part of the cycle for reporting on the implementation and delivery of SAC, in which the government invests roughly £200 million each year.
This latest edition provides an overview of the progress of all 32 local authorities between April and June 2024, much of it relating to the Pupil Equity Fund (PEF).
‘More impactful interventions’
One of the eight key messages flagged in the report is: “Increased support at local authority level for the planning, reporting and quality assurance of PEF has resulted in more impactful interventions for children and young people.”
Last month the Scottish Liberal Democrats hit out at councils saying that since 2022-23, over £3.5 million of PEF money, which goes directly to headteachers to invest in interventions to drive up attainment, had been “clawed back” by 13 local authorities to pay for administration costs.
At the time, a number of councils robustly defended the move.
North Lanarkshire Council told Tes Scotland that administration costs comprised around 5 per cent of PEF and included support for schools in terms of finance, human resources, procurement and IT.
The council said that central support was “a far more cost-effective approach” than heads acquiring services individually.
Glasgow education director Douglas Hutchison, meanwhile, said that the administration fee his authority charged heads was “a fraction of the actual cost”.
Today’s report says that the role of finance officers who provide regular advice and budget reports was “positively highlighted”. It acknowledges that “in a few examples, schools contribute a proportion of PEF to help fund this support” and that there is “variability in the proportion of PEF contributed”.
It also says the support from councils has resulted in “a reduction in PEF underspend across the country”.
The government invests around £200 million in SAC annually, with around £130 million going directly to headteachers via PEF.
In the early days of PEF, there were large underspends - often because schools struggled to recruit additional staff. For example, in 2017-18, around £50 million of PEF money (40 per cent of the total amount available) was not spent and was carried forward to the following year.
The report finds that “strategic equity funding”, which is distributed to councils and amounts to roughly £43 million annually, is mainly spent on: staff employment; development of literacy and numeracy; use of data to support improvement; improvements in attendance; and family support and/or learning.
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