The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

The Scottish Budget 2003-04

3 EDUCATION AND YOUNG PEOPLE

Note
1 The budgets for 2002-03 and 2003-04 reflect a transfer of resources to Local Government of 137 million to assist Local Authorities to meet their duty to secure pre-school education for all three and four year old children whose parents wish it

Aim

To give every child and young person the best possible start in life

To achieve this aim, we are working to:

• enhance the quality of life of all people of Scotland by ensuring that they have a supported and safe childhood and are well prepared when they leave school for the next steps in their lives
• close the gap for those children and young people who are not sharing the general level of attainment and wellbeing by early intervention, providing a continuing and integrated response to their care, education and other needs, helping them play their full part in society, and ensuring full involvement in cultural, social and sporting opportunities
• work effectively with and for the people of Scotland, by responding to their information needs, engaging them in decision making, and ensuring and reporting openly on the quality of public services

To achieve these, we have established a set of priorities. All depend for their success, to a greater or lesser extent, on working effectively across the Executive and with those responsible for the provision of services.

Our main priorities are:

• Closing the Gap - by promoting equality, inclusion and diversity and reducing structural inequalities of opportunities, expectations and outcomes
• Building capacity - by investing in infrastructure, and ensuring that the workforce has the capacity to deliver high quality services
• Ensuring excellence - by setting clear standards, and evaluating and reporting on quality of outcomes

Our specific priorities are:

• Putting children, young people and their families first by recognising their rights, listening to and involving them in decision making, and ensuring that services reflect and meet their needs
• Ensuring all children and young people are safe and do not threaten the safety of others - by intervening early where necessary, by making sure child protection policies and procedures are effective, by supporting those who pose a risk to themselves and by providing effective programmes for those who offend or are at risk of offending
• Maximising Achievement and Attainment - by raising standards of educational attainment for all in schools, especially in the core skills of literacy and numeracy, and achieving better levels in national measures of achievement including examination results
• Establishing an effective Framework for Learning - by supporting and developing the skills of teachers, the self discipline of pupils and by enhancing school and other learning environments so that they are conducive to teaching and learning
• Promoting Inclusion and Equality by promoting equality and helping every pupil benefit from education, with particular regard paid to children looked after by local authorities and those with disabilities and special educational needs, and to Gaelic and other lesser used languages. Also by ensuring access for all children and young people to mainstream services such as childcare and youth work, and ensuring that all who need it get extra support and help through integrated services provided across professional and organisational boundaries
• Developing Values and Citizenship - by working with parents to teach pupils respect for self and one another and their interdependence with other members of their neighbourhood and society and by teaching them the duties and responsibilities of citizenship in a democratic society
• Providing a basis for Learning for Life - by equipping pupils with the foundation skills, attitudes and expectations necessary to prosper in a changing society and encouraging creativity and ambition
• Promoting the highest standards of provision - by setting standards and targets for delivery, by evaluating and reporting publicly on service delivery, and by encouraging and promoting self-evaluation and continuous improvement

In planning and managing our work, our priorities are:

• Doing the right things well - by business and financial planning and management (and continuous performance improvement) of the work of the Department and its associated Agencies and other national bodies, to ensure that key issues are identified, strategies and policies are developed and implemented, outcomes are delivered, and Value for Money is achieved
• Effective Decision Making - by providing Parliament, individuals and organisations with information, working effectively with colleagues across the Executive and in local and national organisations, engaging users and providers of services in decision making, and by ensuring that decision making is informed by objective evidence and analysis of needs, and by best national and international practice

What the Education and Young People budget does
www.scotland.gov.uk/who/dept_education.asp

The Education and Young People budget supports central government policies aimed at schools, children and young people and also provides specific grants in this area. The budget also provides funding for social work training. The majority of the rest of the funding for schools, education, children and young people is allocated to local authorities through the Local Government budget and is accounted for in Chapter 9. schools, education, children and young people is allocated to local authorities through the Local Government budget and is accounted for in Chapter 9. Grant aided spending by local authorities on school education and social work for children was 3.3bn in 2001-02.

Table 3.1 Broad categories of spending (Level 2)

Note
¹ The reduction of the Children and Young People budget between 2001-02 and later years reflects a one-off transfer of resources to Local Government of 137 million to assist Local Authorities to meet their duty to secure pre-school education for all three and four year old children whose parents wish it.
All of the amounts planned for 2003-04 are subject to change following the Spending Review 2002

What we will do with the money

The education and young people budget will be used to:

• support local authorities, health boards and voluntary organisations through the Changing Children's Services Fund in delivering better outcomes for the most vulnerable and deprived children through more effective and integrated service delivery. This will include resources targeted specifically at drug misuse by (or affecting) children and young people
• continue to provide resources to the Family Fund Trust to support families with children with disabilities
• continue to support the effective operation of the children's hearings system
• continue to support Scotland's secure units to maintain and upgrade their structures and facilities
• continue to support the voluntary sector in its work with children and young people
• encourage the take-up of qualifications in the early education and childcare workforce
• provide revenue funding support for school public private partnership (PPP) projects
• make sure there are high quality Initial Teacher Education and Continuing Professional Development opportunities for teachers
• continue to support measures to make sure that education is inclusive and enables all children to develop their full potential
• continue to support, promote and monitor pupil welfare, anti-bullying measures, the development of a positive ethos in schools and implement recommendations from the Discipline Task Group
• continue to develop the School Improvement Framework, supporting schools and local authorities in target setting, and co-ordinating the identification and sharing of good practice to help secure improvements
• take forward the development of the next generation of ICT infrastructure and services by promoting broadband facilities in Scottish schools
• support the development of the National Grid for Learning, www.ngflscotland.gov.uk including web services, modern infrastructure and staff development
• make sure that the school curriculum meets the needs of all pupils and improve provision in key areas such as literacy, numeracy, science and modern languages
• strengthen assessment at all stages, and develop and improve the provision of National Qualifications www.sqa.org.uk/

« Previous | Contents | Next »