Consultation on the Improvement in Scottish Education Bill

Local Improvement Objectives

Why Objective Setting?

1. Scotland's school system has been traditionally described as a national system locally administered. This has been one of its strengths. There are national features - particularly in terms of the examination system - but there is important local variation in key aspects of the system. Key decisions on implementation should be made at local level by schools and authorities in consultation with their communities. Recent curricular reforms have illustrated the balance between local and national direction.

2. Scottish Ministers wish to ensure that the benefits of the proper balance between national and local direction is maintained in future. Ministers should be able to identify key national priorities for education. They propose that these priorities would be identified by means of performance indicators developed in consultation with local authorities. The indicators chosen would ensure that those functions that are at the core of the education service and central to continuous improvement are identified and are given proper attention.

How the Process Would Work

Scottish Ministers would publish performance indicators based on national priorities following consultation with local authorities and other parties

3. Scottish Ministers would identify national priorities and may set national targets for key aspects of educational performance. To support these priorities performance indicators - which allow the measurement of a particular outcome - would be identified. Performance indicators are already part of the Best Value initiative and the indicators below are in use:

• Pre-school education - the number of three and four year-olds receiving a free part-time place.
• School occupancy - the percentage occupancy of individual schools.
• Pupil-teacher ratios and class sizes - the ratio of pupils to teachers in secondary schools and class sizes in primary schools.
• Attainment - examination results at standard grade and 5-14 assessments.
• Attendance and exclusion - the number of half-days absence from school.
• Special educational needs - the time taken to prepare records of needs.
• Per pupil expenditure - identified in relation to primary, secondary, special schools, etc.

4. Scottish Ministers would be required to consult authorities and would consult other organisations such as the Accounts Commission before identifying the priorities and the indicators for the purposes of this framework. However, the indicators listed would form the basis of initial discussions. The Scottish Executive would welcome any initial views on this list prior to a more detailed consultation. However, levels of attainment and attendance will feature in any final list.

5. Authorities would be required to set objectives for improvement in each of the areas of national priority. In some cases Ministers may decide to set a lower limit or range within which authorities would be required to establish their objective. These would reflect key national priorities. In identifying priorities and objectives, the Scottish Executive will, in some cases, look beyond the coming year to a level of improvement that might be expected over a period of three or more years. Guidance would set out the factors which authorities would have to take into account and benchmarking and other information would be made available. An example of this is set out below.

6. While this gives an example of how a range might work, in most cases Ministers do not expect to set a range. Benchmarking guidance should assist authorities in setting challenging objectives that are appropriate to their particular circumstances. If Ministers wish to set a lower limit or range they would be required to consult authorities before doing so. A range would apply to all authorities: Ministers would not set particular values for specific authorities or groups of authorities.

Local authorities consult locally on the performance indicators

7. Each local authority would be required to consult locally before setting local improvement objectives. Scottish Ministers do not intend to regulate how this consultation process should be conducted, that is for the authority to decide. Some guidance on the range of organisations and interested persons to be involved may be offered. Schools and parents would be central to this process.

8. An authority may decide to use this process to consult on a wider range of objectives than those identified by Ministers.

Local authorities set and publish local improvement objectives

9. When the consultation process has been completed the local authority would be required to set a local improvement objective in respect of each performance indicator. Objectives should represent improvements on present or recent best levels of performance. They should take account of appropriate comparisons between authorities and schools and Ministers will ask the Scottish Executive Education Department to work closely with authorities to ensure that the highest quality comparative benchmarking information is widely available. Ministers will also prepare guidance on the range of factors which might appropriately be taken into account.

10. Having considered these factors the authority would be free to set the improvement objective it considers most appropriate for local circumstances, except in those circumstances where Ministers have set a lower limit or range for the indicator. In that case the objective would be required to fall within the range. In all cases the objectives would have to represent an improvement on existing levels of performance.

11. An authority would be free to set further improvement objectives reflecting local interests. Scottish Ministers consider that this would allow authorities to respond to concerns expressed through the consultation process or more generally. But again this would be a matter for the authority to determine. This process will work with existing service and other planning _ it does not replace or extend it. It will however ensure a shared strategic framework across all authorities.

12. The Scottish Executive attaches high importance to local improvement objectives and does not want to rush the process. For this reason it proposes that the first year for which objectives should be set by authorities would be the 2001/2002 academic year. They will therefore provide a practical framework to succeed existing school level targets in the key areas of attainment and attendance which are for the 3 year period ending in 2001. Subject to Parliament's consideration of the Bill, extensive development and piloting of the framework will be undertaken in discussion with authorities and schools during the year 2000/2001.

13. Each authority would be required to publish its statement of local improvement objectives and expected to make copies available to School Boards, parents and others with an interest. Copies would also be made available to Scottish Ministers. Although Ministers would receive a copy of the statement of objectives their approval of the statement or particular objectives would not be required.

14. Although the authority would be required to publish only the objectives, in practice, authorities may find it helpful to include some contextual information on the objectives so that they are more easily understood. This might include baseline information and a brief overview of the action the authority is taking to meet the objective. An example is offered below.

Reporting on performance against local improvement objectives

15. Following the completion of each academic year the authority would be required to prepare and publish a report into performance against the local improvement objectives. Again it is intended that this should be a brief document that focuses on the objectives themselves. It would be for authorities to decide what contextual information should be included. Many authorities are working to develop standards and quality reports covering their schools. Where authorities wish to include such material on their performance against objectives within those reports it would be appropriate for them to do so. Ministers would keep progress at a national level under review and report to Parliament accordingly.

16. An example of how the report on one indicator might look is below.

17. The authority would be required to make copies of the report available to parents, School Boards and others with an interest. Scottish Ministers would also receive a copy.

18. The first report would be required by the end of December 2002 and would report on objectives set for the academic year 2001/2002. December is proposed because by that date information on final examination results will be available. As with objective setting, if authorities agree, the report may be piloted informally in December 2001.

19. Particular views are invited on -

• The areas in which local authorities should be required to set local improvement objectives.
• The timing of the process.
• The arrangements for consultation.

20. The table below shows how the various elements of the process would work. School development plans, which should be linked to local improvement objectives, and which are considered in the next section of this document, are also included.

School Planning

1. Schools in Scotland already prepare annual school plans. Plans have been effective in focussing attention on improvement at school level and provide a basis for the allocation of resources to development priorities. However, school inspection reports have identified that while there is a strong commitment to planning, improvements could be made particularly in the consistency and rigour of setting objectives.

2. It is proposed to build on the current arrangements for school development planning by giving the process statutory backing. This will ensure a greater consistency in implementation. Scottish Ministers therefore propose that each local authority should be under a duty to ensure that each school for which they are responsible has an annual school plan.

How the Process Would Work

3. Although the duty would be placed on the local authority, in practice the school would determine the contents of its plan. Scottish Ministers and the local authority will issue guidance to help schools in this process and to ensure consistency. In all cases schools would have to give careful consideration to the improvement objectives set by the authority and relevant information on comparative performance. In the same way that authorities would be required to produce a statement of local improvement objectives, the school would be expected to set school-level objectives in the form of targets in key areas such as attainment, attendance and exclusion. The plan would be expected to include a resources component to link expenditure to outcomes and would reflect the authority's Devolved School Management arrangements.

4. The mechanism for preparing the school plan would be closely linked to the preparation of local authority local improvement objectives. Targets should be consistent with the authority's objectives. They should be realistic and stretching taking account of the full circumstances of the school and appropriate comparisons with others. Although the plan is to be considered annually, the targets and activities identified may cover a longer period if that were considered appropriate.

5. As shown at the end of the previous section, the planning cycle would be linked to the timetable for preparing annual statements of improvement objectives. The school would be required to consult with the School Board (if there is one) and with parents on the proposed contents of the plan and the targets to be included.

6. Parents will have a major interest in the plan and the authority would be required to ensure a summary was made available to them. It is important that their role in supporting the school and their children is developed and schools should be encouraged to include specific objectives in this area within their plans.

7. The school would prepare an annual report for parents on implementation of the plan and progress against the targets and objectives it has set. The school may find it helpful to publish a combined plan and report (if this does not delay publication of the plan). As for authorities, this could form part of, or complement, a standards and quality report.

8. The school and the authority would be required to keep the implementation of the plan under review and the school would be able to make changes to the plan if it no longer reflected the school's circumstances.

9. Careful monitoring of all aspects of the plan by schools and authorities will be essential. The annual reporting cycle is intended to provide a framework for that. Where a school is facing difficulties in delivering the plan - or making progress against targets identified in it - the authority will have to consider how best to support it. In some cases their approach may be linked to their framework for identifying and taking action to promote continuous improvement in schools under the proposals described later in this document.

10. The table below shows the consultation and reporting arrangements for national priorities, local improvement objectives and school level targets.