The Scottish Government

Improving our Schools

Summary of the Consultation on the Improvement in Scottish Education Bill

Improving Our Schools

"Education will be our highest priority with the stated intention of earning a world class reputation for the Scottish education system."
Partnership for Scotland, May 1999

The Improvement in Scottish Education Bill will:

• Help raise standards in Scottish education.
• Give us an education service:
• based on a shared vision;
• responsive to local needs; and
• giving every child the best start in life.
• Get communities and parents more involved in schools.
• Celebrate excellence and ensure we never accept second best.

Sam Galbraith, MSP
Minister for Children and Education

This leaflet summarises the proposals contained in Improving Our Schools. This was published for consultation on 7 July and comments are invited by the end of October.

"We will legislate at the earliest opportunity to continue the modernisation and improvement of Scottish education."
Partnership for Scotland, May 1999

Introduction

The Scottish Executive will work to ensure that all Scotland's schools are the best they can be. This Bill will help everyone - teachers, parents, children and young people, local authorities and the communities served by schools - to work together to identify priorities and raise standards.

Every school must keep improving, but they need help from local authorities to do so. The Scottish Executive wants authorities to continue to provide this help. The Scottish Executive will also work to support teachers and to strengthen their skills and professionalism. Schools can only be the best they can be if teachers work together with pupils with the support of parents and the community.

The Scottish Executive wants Scotland to have a school system that is at least as good as anywhere else in the world. A world class system means we must have world class standards. We must have the highest expectations of each child, of each teacher and every part of the schools system. Scotland's children are entitled to the best.

The Improvement Framework

The Bill will make schools and authorities responsible for their own improvement within an agreed framework of national priorities and shared ideas of how improvement can be assessed and promoted.

Scottish Ministers will be placed under a new duty to seek improvement in education services and standards. To help them do this Scottish Ministers would have new powers to :

• Identify performance indicators for Scottish education after consultation with authorities and others (a performance indicator is a measure of how well a service is delivered).
• Arrange independent, external inspection of the education functions of local authorities.

The power to identify national priorities in the form of a set of performance indicators will mean that Ministers can give leadership and direction to the education system. Authorities and schools would give local leadership and put priorities into action.

Inspection of schools and education authorities will support these priorities by making sure that best practice is followed and that standards and quality are maintained and improved. Inspection of education authorities will be subject to a Code of Practice.

Local authorities would also be placed under the duty to seek improvement in education services and standards. This will be additional to their existing duty to provide an 'adequate and efficient' education service.

Authorities will also be asked to:

• Publish improvement objectives based on national priorities identified by Scottish Ministers.
• Take steps to ensure they identify and take necessary action to keep improving schools.

The published improvement objectives will put into practice national priorities. In setting objectives the authority will take account of local circumstances and the views of parents, pupils and others.

This new framework will be supported by two existing initiatives that will be given statutory form. They will require authorities to:

• Ensure that each school has a plan.
• Establish schemes to delegate financial and management responsibilities to schools.

These initiatives have already proved effective in giving schools responsibility for their own performance and improvement. What is proposed is simply to give legal backing to the general approach with the detail of the policy continuing to be dealt with by guidance.

This group of powers and duties works as a package. Scottish Ministers will consult local authorities before they publish national priorities and authorities will decide how those priorities should be delivered locally. Authorities and schools will be asked to report annually on the process.

Other Measures

Scottish Ministers propose a series of other measures to improve the Scottish education system and to support other important commitments. The Bill will include measures on:

• Registration of independent schools and corporal punishment - to support the commitment to protect children.
• Self-governing schools - to fulfil the commitment to return 'opted out' schools to local authority control.
• Elections to School Boards - to make it easier for parents to be involved in schools.
• Pre-school education - to support the commitment that all pre-school year children and all three year olds have access to a quality part-time place by 2002.
• Placing requests - to help authorities meet the national target that class sizes for Primary 1, 2 and 3 should have no more than 30 pupils by August 2001 while continuing to allow parents to choose their child's school.

Consultation

You are invited to comment on the proposals. Under the Code of Practice on open government, responses will be made available to the public, unless respondents ask for their comments to remain confidential.

Please send any written comments by the end of October to:

Geoff Huggins
The Scottish Executive Education Department
Area 2A
Victoria Quay
EDINBURGH
EH6 6QQ
E-mail address: educationbill@scotland.gov.uk

Information and a discussion forum will shortly be established on the Scottish Executive web-site which can be found at - www.scotland.gov.uk (See the "Your Views" section)

If you would like further copies of this document or of the full consultation document please contact:

David Thompson at the above address,
Tel: 0131 244 5500,
Fax: 0131 244 0957.

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