School Attendance (Care-experienced Young People)

Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at 2:00 pm on 19 September 2024.

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Photo of Roz McCall Roz McCall Conservative 2:00, 19 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve the school attendance of care-experienced young people. (S6O-03738)

Photo of Jenny Gilruth Jenny Gilruth Scottish National Party

I am committed to supporting improved school attendance for all young people. I recently asked Education Scotland to undertake a deep dive to support greater understanding of the issue, and its report includes five recommendations for improving practice. Education Scotland and the Scottish Government are working together to support those actions, including on an online package of support, designed with local authorities and schools.

In addition, Education Scotland is working with councils on providing practical support, with the first cohort of the improving attendance quality improvement programme beginning shortly. I have also asked the chief inspector of education to identify successful approaches that can be shared more widely, as part of inspections.

Finally, I read with interest the Children’s Commissioner for England’s report on children and young people’s attendance, and I hope to meet Dame Rachel de Souza to discuss it soon. Officials have been working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland on the development of a framework for education to support improved educational outcomes for care-experienced children and young people, including their attendance.

Photo of Roz McCall Roz McCall Conservative

The findings contained in the University of Stirling report “Permanently Progressing? Building Secure Futures for Children in Scotland” are deeply concerning. Its study found that, out of the 1,836 participants, it was not possible to link educational attendance, exclusion and absence data for a whopping 1,086. Moreover, 60 per cent did not have a Scottish candidate number. The cabinet secretary will be aware that children are issued with an SCN when they start school, but because that number was not available for the majority of the cohort, linkage with educational data was not possible.

What more is the Scottish Government doing to ensure that our data gathering is robust and includes all children who have experienced care? How can we ensure that the Promise is fulfilled if we do not have the appropriate data set—

Photo of Annabelle Ewing Annabelle Ewing Scottish National Party

Thank you. I think that the cabinet secretary has got the gist.

Photo of Jenny Gilruth Jenny Gilruth Scottish National Party

I thank the member for raising the issue. It is a hugely important point, and I very much recognise the importance of using the SCN as a data set to gather information on young people and to track their progress through the educational system. I am concerned by what the member has outlined to me today, and I am more than happy to engage with her directly on that. However, I should put it on the record that, in relation to the Promise, I am recused, as my wife sits on the implementation board.

Photo of Annabelle Ewing Annabelle Ewing Scottish National Party

I will take two supplementary questions, if both members can be very brief.

Photo of Audrey Nicoll Audrey Nicoll Scottish National Party

Will the cabinet secretary set out some of the reasons why there has been an increase in anxiety and other factors that have caused young people to be less able to engage in their education than was previously the case?

Photo of Jenny Gilruth Jenny Gilruth Scottish National Party

As we have discussed across the chamber in recent months, it is clear that the pandemic continues to have an impact on behaviour in schools and has impacted children and young people in lots of different ways. It was a very significant life event, impacting social and emotional development, affecting the transition between primary and secondary schools and causing an increase in anxiety about physically attending school.

We also know from the behaviour in Scottish schools research that other impacts include increased mobile phone use; indeed, I set out some of the response to that in the weeks prior to our returning to Parliament. I will continue to work with our school leaders on how we can best support our young people and our teachers post the pandemic, as those effects are still being felt in our schools today.

Photo of Martin Whitfield Martin Whitfield Labour

I have no intention of embarrassing the cabinet secretary, so I will just ask that, following the publication today of the update on keeping the Promise, her department write to me on what work is being done on the Promise in education framework that deals with the absenteeism of care-experienced children.

Photo of Jenny Gilruth Jenny Gilruth Scottish National Party

I am more than happy to have my minister write to the member with that information.

Photo of Annabelle Ewing Annabelle Ewing Scottish National Party

I can squeeze in questions 7 and 8, but I will need brief questions and answers.