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Building a Sustainable Scotland: Sustainable Development and the Spending Review 2002
EDUCATION AND YOUNG PEOPLE
To give every child and young person the best possible start in life
1. How does the Education and Young People programme contribute to the indicators and targets published in Meeting the Needs...
?
The Education and Young People Programme contributes to nine of the 24 indicators and targets of sustainable development for Scotland:
Work: People as a Resource
The
Framework for Economic Development in Scotland makes it clear that sustainable economic development requires a sustainable increase in the rate of growth of productivity. It is recognised that economic development will not only generate higher incomes and better quality employment but in so doing will also help achieve our goals of social justice and sustainability. Educational policies are making a critical contribution towards enhanced productivity by increasing
human capital. The national priorities are aimed at equipping children with the core skills that they will need in their later education and work. Ensuring that children are equipped with the skills demanded by the competitive global economy means that they are more likely to be successful in gaining employment in later life thus contributing directly to the target of reducing the percentage of unemployed working age people.
Services such as Surestart and the Childcare Strategy also have a key contribution to make by maximising the support provided to our children, families and young people to enable them to develop as individuals, and to contribute as effective citizens.
Waste Production, Waste Recycling, Energy, Transport
Schools have the potential to make a significant contribution to these indicators and associated targets. Work is underway to develop a national school estate strategy, complemented by local authority school estate management plans, and these should take account of sustainable development issues. It has been proposed, for example, that schools and local authorities should be invited to declare and report on resource and energy targets and this will be explored as part of the school estate strategy. The significant amount of
new build and school refurbishment work which is already underway or planned, will also go some way to addressing sustainable development issues.
The first step towards sustainable development, however, is for a greater awareness of the effects of development on the environment, and the environment on human wellbeing. The Scottish Executive's policy is to ensure that guidance to education authorities and schools and the framework of national qualifications provide ample opportunities for
teaching Sustainable Development at every level of the school curriculum. While Environmental Studies provides the focal point for contexts and content, education for sustainable development should be seen as a cross-curricular aspect which can and should contribute to all other curricular areas, for example: Personal and Social Development, Health Education, Religious and Moral Education. LTScotland form part of the Sustainable Secondary Schools Partnership (SSSP), along with SNH, WWF, Equal Schools Scotland, IDEAS, RIAS, RTTI and RSPB, formed to take forward a four-year initiative on education for sustainable development (ESD) in secondary schools. SEED are also in discussion with the SSSP on utilising its expertise and experience in a wider educational context and providing a source of advice on the promotion and development of ESD in schools.
In addition, Scotland is one of 23 countries which actively participates in the
Eco-Schools Programme. This is the leading programme in environmental education for sustainable development, which involves a participatory environmental management process and certification scheme. The Programme covers seven areas of action - Litter, Waste Minimisation, Energy, Water, Transport, Healthy Living and School Grounds - and is used to implement policies for environmental education and awareness, environmental management, involvement of children and youth, and Europe-wide integration. In Scotland, the programme has been included as a performance measure for the National Priorities in Education under Values & Citizenship. Local authorities have been asked to report on "the number and percentage of schools participating in the Eco-Schools programme or similar accredited environmental award".
Home Life
This indicator recognises that poverty and lack of opportunity in childhood are more likely to lead to poverty of experience as a young person and adult. The Education and Young People Programme makes a very significant and essential contribution to this indicator through school education and services which maximise support to children, families and young people. In order to ensure that the effectiveness of this contribution is maximised we are:
focusing a high proportion of additional spend on closing the opportunity gap - for example
Sure Start Scotland is a programme which is aimed at improving social inclusion and achieving better life outcomes for children. It is founded on the notion that children will be able to make the most of later opportunities, including pre-school education, if they have a positive start in life. Sure Start Scotland targets families with very young children (0-3 years), particularly the most vulnerable and deprived families;
targeting investment in new ways - to make more effective and efficient use of the full range of service providers to deliver integrated services to children and their families.
New Community Schools provide a model for delivery.
Changing Children's Services Fund provides a mechanism to promote more effective joint working and sharing of resources across service providers, including the vital voluntary sector;
investing in policies that enable parents to take up employment, education or training - The
Childcare Strategy, for example, increases access to high quality, affordable childcare (for children aged 0 to 14) in every neighbourhood, thus helping parents to afford to take up employment, education or training.
Out-of School Care clubs are a vital component of the Strategy, enabling parents to enter the workforce, or extend their working hours, secure in the knowledge that their children are being well looked after. The expansion of clubs in disadvantaged areas is especially important in helping parents into work;
investing significant amounts in
school infrastructure - to provide learning environments that meet the needs of the 21st century and give all children access to 21st century communications;
investing significant amounts in the
children's services workforce - to ensure the availability of effective, well motivated and well managed staff working across the full range of services for children and young people;
investing in Personal Learning Plans, assessment and
National Qualifications and targeting support for those at risk of falling out of the education, employment and training system at age 16; and
investing in the provision of integrated and inclusive approaches for children and young people with special educational needs and disability. Early intervention enables these children and young people to have the best possible start in life and maximises their opportunities for learning and contributing to society.
The Education and Young People Programme therefore has a key contribution to make to the
Home Life target of "reducing the proportion of children living in workless households", both in the short term and long term.
Preparing for Life
Education is central to enabling all children and young people to develop as individuals, reach their full potential and contribute as effective citizens. The
National Priorities in Education are aimed at ensuring that each young person in Scotland has the skills required to ensure a successful transition from school to further education or directly into working life. Academic achievement and attainment is just one of the National Priorities in Education. There is also an equal focus on values and citizenship, on inclusion and equality, and the skills needed to equip young people for lifelong learning, such as creativity and ambition.
The provision of part-time, grant-funded, pre-school education to all 3 and 4 year olds whose parents want this, aims to give every child the best start in life and to provide opportunities to help children learn and develop. The curriculum framework for children aged 3 to 5 provides a structure within which early years staff can plan activities and experiences which promote children's development and learning of the world about them.
Informal education and the youth work sector provides other opportunities to involve young people in developments within their communities. Young people can learn new skills, and gain from opportunities to broaden their personal development.
In particular, young people have demonstrated their interest in environmental issues, and questions of sustainability, through membership of such groups as the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, Community Service Volunteers and the Woodcraft Folk, all of which receive some support from the Executive. This interest can further be demonstrated by the work of the Scottish Youth Parliament. Amongst other issues Members have used their structure of working groups to address rural questions and "green" transport.
Crime
The Executive's policies on
Youth Crime, particularly those aimed at tackling persistent young offenders, have an important contribution to make to building safer communities. Scotland's Action Programme to reduce youth crime was launched in January 2002 and sets out a framework of priority areas for youth justice teams to focus in their provision of programmes to tackle offending. The Youth Crime Action Plan launched in June 2002 sets out additional activities to tackle persistent offending and reduce the harmful effects on communities.
Volunteering
Two parts of children's services depend particularly heavily on voluntary effort - the Children's Panel, fostering and adoption. The Department provides funding to support this work and develop it further. More generally, there is also significant voluntary activity (and funding of voluntary organisations) in the child-care field.
Health
The Education Department invests in a number of cross-cutting policies which contribute to improvements in health outcomes, for example:
2. How do you justify assertions you make about contributing to sustainable development?
A significant amount of evidence has been collected and analytical work conducted, to identify and assess the impact of our policies. An economic appraisal, for example, will identify and assess the different type of impacts associated with different policy options, including financial, social and environmental impacts. In addition, evaluations of numerous policies have been conducted/are underway to assess the impact and to gauge the extent to which objectives are being met as a result of the interventions introduced.
3. What are you doing differently as a result of the Executive's new commitments to sustainable development?
As a result of
Meeting the Needs... we have taken a more holistic approach to sustainable development. As well as introducing a number of programmes which have very direct impacts on sustainable development, the broad definition of sustainable development adopted in
Meeting the Needs... suggests that all policies will have some impact on one or more of the sustainable development indicators/targets.
Meeting the Needs... has therefore encouraged us to consider how we can make all of our spending more sustainable, including opportunities to use existing resources more productively (e.g. New Community Schools initiative).
4. What are the information gaps you need to fill to answer these questions?
A significant amount of further analytical work - appraisal, monitoring and evaluation - is required to assess the impact of Education and Young People policies on sustainable development and to feed back into the enhancement of future policy.
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