Scottish first minister John Swinney “should have been clearer” when he made claims about closing the poverty-related attainment gap, the UK’s statistics watchdog has said.
The chairman of the UK Statistics Authority has contacted Mr Swinney following his statement during First Minister’s Questions in February, after the issue was highlighted to the UKSA by Scottish Labour.
Mr Swinney had said that “the overall poverty-related attainment gap has reduced by 60 per cent since 2009-10”.
UKSA chair Sir Robert Chote says the attainment gap is monitored through 13 measures under the National Improvement Framework (NIF).
School leavers data relied on by FM
However, the figure cited in February instead relates to data on school leavers’ destinations; Sir Robert noted that this measures outcomes when students have left school, not their attainment while in school.
He said: “When making claims about a reduction in the ‘overall’ attainment gap, we would expect the government to use the NIF to help evidence this, and that this assertion would reflect a reduction in more than one measure relating to attainment.
“The first minister should have been clearer that he was referring to a specific set of statistics to evidence his claim, particularly as it was based on data which is not part of the NIF.”
Sir Robert added: “To maintain trust and confidence in their statements, ministers should take care that when they claim progress of their policies, it is by their own defined measures, or otherwise clearly explain the source of separate data so that it is readily accessible for policy experts and the public to understand.”
UKSA has raised these matters with the first minister’s office.
The UKSA had been alerted to Mr Swinney’s statement by Labour’s education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy.
She said: “This letter demolishes John Swinney’s claims and exposes the truth - he failed in his task to close Scotland’s attainment gap.”
FM ‘acknowledges’ UKSA letter
When Ms Duncan-Glancy raised the letter at First Minister’s Questions today, Mr Swinney said he “acknowledged” its contents, adding: “I’ve used one particular measure of the attainment gap; I could use others.”
He added: “The poverty-related attainment gap between young people from the most- and least-deprived areas meeting standards in literacy is at a record low in primary schools, and the attainment gap has reached record lows between secondary pupils achieving third level in literacy and numeracy.”
The first minister said he accepted that an attainment gap remained, but added that money from the Scottish Attainment Challenge was improving outcomes.
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