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The Scottish Budget 2003-04: Summary
Chapter 3 Education and Young People
Cathy Jamieson MSP: Minister for Education and Young People
In 2001-02, the Education budget was 311m, supplemented by 197m of Specific Grants. Among other things, this money:
- supported pre-school education for 80% of 3 year olds and 97% of 4 year olds
- increased the number of classroom assistants to 4300
- reduced class sizes in P1-P2 to 30 or below in all eligible classes
- provided additional support for school building repairs
- funded the increased intake in Initial Teacher Education
- supported the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to make sure that the 2001 results were delivered accurately and on time.
Our budget for 2002-03 is 216m 1, supplemented by 190m of Specific Grants. Among other things, we expect this to go towards:
- increased spending on modernising school buildings and equipment
- training for childcare workers to increase the level of qualified staff
- supporting children and families through the introduction of the new Changing Children's Services Fund and the roll-out of the New Community School approach
- supporting the development of second generation ICT training for teachers, building on the training provided through the New Opportunities Fund
- supporting a National Debate on Education that will provide the basis for a long-term vision for education in Scotland
- reducing class sizes in P3 to 30 or below in all eligible classes
- providing targeted support for the teaching of literacy, numeracy, science and modern languages
We plan to spend 213m on education and young people in 2003-04, supplemented by 226m of Specific Grants. Among our key priorities for 2003-04 are to:
- increase support for the continuing professional development of teachers
- increase support for children and families through the Changing Children's Services Fund
- provide support to children with special educational needs and disabilities through the Inclusion Programme, the Innovation Fund and grants for school staff development
- improve National Qualifications, develop a coherent assessment system and re-establish the credibility of SQA.
Aim
To give every child and young person the best possible start in life.
Our three main objectives to achieve our aim are to:
- enhance the quality of life of all young people in Scotland by making sure that they have an enjoyable and safe childhood, and are well prepared when they leave school for the next steps in their lives
- to close the gap for those children and young people who are not sharing in 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 sport 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.
What the budget does
www.scotland.gov.uk/who/dept-education.asp
The Education and Young People budget supports our 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 funding for schools, education, children and young people is allocated to local authorities through the local government budget.
Table 3.1 Broad categories of spending on Education and Young People (Level 2)
m | 2001-02
plans | 2002-03
plans 1 | 2003-04
plans |
Schools | 132 | 141 | 137 |
Children and Young People | 168 | 63 | 64 |
Social Work Training | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Information, Analysis and Communication | 1 | 2 | 2 |
Total | 311 | 216 | 213 |
Specific Grants | 197 | 190 | 226 |
1 The reduction in the Children and Young People budget reflects a transfer of resources to local government of 137m to help local authorities secure pre-school education for all 3- and 4-year-old children whose parents wish it.
All of the amounts planned for 2003-04 are subject to change following Spending Review 2002.
Schools
We share responsibilities for providing school education in Scotland with local authorities as education authorities (EAs) and individual schools. We believe that all three parties should work in partnership, and with other agencies, to deliver education services designed to fulfil the potential of each pupil.
In relation to school education, our responsibility is to:
- secure the provision of well trained teachers, and support the improvement of school infrastructure
- give direction to education authorities and schools about the main priorities they should follow, and set up a system of performance measurement to judge progress against these priorities
- support and encourage education authorities and schools through guidance, advice, benchmark information and specific support for new developments
- provide guidance on the curriculum, an assessment system, and a system of National Qualifications
- provide quality assurance through national inspection of schools and education authorities.
What we will do with the money
Main areas of spending will include:
- continuing to implement the agreement 'A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century', investing 15m in 2003-4
- supporting developments in school organisation, and developing a comprehensive buildings strategy in partnership with local authorities and investing in school infrastructure
- enabling each child to fulfil his or her potential through the New Community Schools initiative, and through a range of initiatives to support pupils with Special Educational Needs
- promoting pupil health, welfare, self-esteem and participation, through drug education and the work of the Scottish Health Promoting Schools Unit, the Anti-bullying Network and the Scottish Schools Ethos Network
- working to mainstream equality into everything we do
- investing in curriculum development through core funding of more than 3m for Learning and Teaching Scotland ( www.ltscotland.com/)
- investing 4m in 2003-04 in improved arrangements for assessment throughout the pre-school and school years in Scotland
- improving National Qualifications and re-establishing the Scottish Qualifications Authority ( www.sqa.org.uk/) as a highly regarded organisation
- leading a National Debate on Education to inform development of a long-term strategy for the future of school education in Scotland
- supporting new educational developments in a range of ways. Investing in ICT content (3.6m in 2003-04) and staff development (3.8m in 2003-04)
- promoting improvements in standards, quality and attainment in Scottish education through first-hand, independent evaluation by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/hmie/)
Mainstreaming Equality We are committed to making our policy priorities reflect the importance we place on equality. Over the next few years we will make sure that our budget statement reflects the expenditure allocated to addressing inequality, particularly inequality based on gender, race, disability and social origin. The following spending on aspects of school education supports our equality agenda: The Excellence Fund for Schools - 515m over 2000-03 to raise standards in schools and promote social inclusion. There are nine strands to the Fund including the Inclusion Programme to promote inclusion and equality for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN), the Early Intervention Programme to raise standards in literacy and numeracy in the early years of primary school, and initiatives to support Alternatives to Exclusion SEN Innovation Grants Programme - 168k to MELDI ( Minority Ethnic Learning Disabilities Initiative) 1999-02 to look at the social inclusion of minority ethnic children with SEN SEN Specific Grant to support in-service training, and the training of educational psychologists - 5.4m in 2001-02 and 8.4m in 2002-03 and in 2003-04 9m added to the general local government revenue grant in 2003-04 to implement accessibility strategies under the Education (Disability Strategies & Pupils Records) Bill 100k to the Anti-Bullying Network to provide in-school training, a consultancy service to support individual schools and disseminate good practice to combat all forms of bullying, including racist, sexist or homophobic attitudes |
Children and young people
The budget allows organisations to provide a range of services for children and young people, particularly the most vulnerable. The main spending is channelled through local authorities and health boards.
Our role is to help service users and service providers by providing a policy and legislative framework, giving strategic direction and guidance, providing quality assurance through inspection and national standards.
What we will do with the money
We will allocate:
- 29.5m in 2003-04 to the Changing Children's Services Fund. For example, the problem of drug misuse by (or affecting) young people is specifically targeted through a partnership arrangement with the Lloyds/TSB Foundation (total of 8.75m). It will support more than 120 projects tackling education, prevention and treatment issues for young people across Scotland
- 2.2m in 2003-04 to the Family Fund Trust to support families with children with disabilities. Over 5,000 additional children have already received support through Sure Start Scotland and we will allocate for 2003-04, 19m to local authorities for Sure Start Scotland to expand support for families with very young children
- 21.2m to support the children's hearings system and include resources to expand the range of programmes for young offenders
- 1.8m to support the voluntary sector in its work with children and young people, specifically in areas such as fostering and adoption, youth work, childminding, pre-school education and care together with family support
Specific grants
We give specific grants to local authorities for projects:
- to improve the quality of education
- for in-service training of teachers and other staff in special needs education
- for Gaelic education
- for Social Work services, including drug misuse
What we will do with the money
- we will continue to support key national priorities for education through a specific grant scheme
- funding for school buildings will support repairs and improvements to existing schools and is intended to support the development of PPP projects
- provide specific grant funding for Special Educational Needs (SEN) in-service staff development and training for staff dealing with children with SEN. We also support the training of educational psychologists. 34 educational psychologists are currently trained every 2 years
- make sure that each local authority provides appropriate social work training for their social services staff. This in turn will promote high quality social services for all their customers
- we will also provide specific grant funding for Gaelic education.
Objectives and Targets
These are some of our objectives and targets. There is a fuller list in our main Annual Expenditure Report.
Objective | Improve school infrastructure |
Target | Build or substantially renovate 100 schools by 2003 |
Objective | Continue the development of the workforce in the pre-school education sector, to increase the level of qualified staff |
Target | Increase the proportion of suitably qualified staff from current levels of 50% to 100% in the long term |
Objective | Support children with severe disabilities |
Target | Provide at least 8,000 grants to support families with severely disabled children in 2003-04 |
Objective | Secure cost-effective and sustainable ICT infrastructure and services, and high quality digital learning material |
Target | Increase the number of modern computers to 1 for every 5 secondary pupils and every 7.5 primary pupils by 2002, and improve their support for learning by providing broadband connections for schools |
1The 2002-03 budget reflects a transfer of resources to Local Government of 137m to help local authorities to secure pre-school education for all 3- and 4-year-old children whose parents wish it.
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