The Scottish Government

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EDUCATION & LIFELONG LEARNING PORTFOLIO CHAPTER

Portfolio Responsibilities

The Education and Lifelong Learning portfolio is responsible for government policy for further and higher education, community and adult learning and development, skills and training, and for schools, children, young people and social care. The portfolio contributes substantively to all our Strategic Objectives and is the principal driver of our 'Smarter' Strategic Objective. Access to education and support for learning is vital for delivering a more successful Scotland and reducing inequality.

The portfolio funds further and higher education through the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council and the Student Awards Agency for Scotland and is responsible for policy relating to all aspects of lifelong learning, including science, skills, community and adult learning, and literacy and numeracy. Our responsibility for the provision of school education and community learning and development is shared with local authorities, individual schools and Community Planning Partnerships, and is to:

• work with local authorities, providing direction on priorities and measuring progress against those priorities;
• support and encourage local authorities and schools through guidance, advice, benchmarking of information and specific support for developments, including workforce planning; and
• provide guidance on the curriculum, the assessment system, the national qualifications framework and quality assurance through national inspection.

Responsibility for the provision of children's services and social care is also shared, both with other portfolios and with a range of service providers. The central Scottish Government budget supports workforce development and broader improvement in social services and the development of a range of policies and services for children and young people, particularly the most vulnerable. This involves working with, and through, local authorities and health boards as well as the voluntary and independent sectors that are largely responsible for the delivery of services. Our role is to assist service users and service providers by providing a policy and legislative framework, giving strategic direction and guidance and providing quality assurance through inspection and national standards.

Summary of Key Spending Priorities

The Education and Lifelong Learning budget supports the Government's over-arching purpose of increasing sustainable economic growth by ensuring that:

• We are better educated, more skilled and more successful, renowned for our research and innovation. (National Outcome 3);
• Our young people are successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens. (National Outcome 4);
• Our children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed. (National Outcome 5); and
• We have improved the life chances for children, young people and families at risk. (National Outcome 8)

Some specific examples of the activity supporting these outcomes are briefly described below:

• focus classroom practice upon the child and around the four capacities of education by investing £135.6m to develop a range of policies with local authorities and schools, notably the Curriculum for Excellence;
• ensure all children and young people have the best start in life and promote early intervention to protect vulnerable children and families at risk £106.2m by developing policy focused on improving children's services and users of social care;
• support implementation of Skills for Scotland with funding of £176.6m for Skills Development Scotland;
• support students with funding of £504.7m, with a total of £30.0m for a phased transition from student loans to grants, starting with part-time students; and
• invest £1,570.5m in further and higher education institutions in Scotland, recognising their central role in supporting our overall Purpose and Strategic Objectives; and in addition, increase capital investment to £191.6m.

Spending plans for 2009-10 are set out below.

Table 4.01: Detailed spending plans (Level 2)

Table 4.02: Detailed spending plans (Level 2 real terms) at 2008-09 prices

Budget changes

Our spending plans include the following changes made since the publication of Draft Budget 2008-09:

Schools

a transfer of £0.5m per annum to the First Minister's Portfolio for Gaelic funding;

Children, Young People and Social Care

£0.8/0.7/0.6m of the ELL Research budget held within Other Lifelong Learning has been transferred to Information & Analytical Services within the Children, Young People & Social Care Directorate;

Student Awards Agency for Scotland

£3m per annum has been transferred from SAAS to Other Lifelong Learning to provide additional funding for English for Speakers of Other Languages;

Scottish Further and Higher Funding Council

A transfer of £20.0m to the Health and Wellbeing portfolio in 2009-10 to be repaid in 2010-11 in respect of the acceleration of the Affordable Housing Investment Programme adopted as part of a package of Scottish government actions to strengthen the Scottish economy (see page 52).

a transfer of £4.2/7.0/7.2m from the Rural Affairs and the Environment portfolio for the reassignment of the funding of the Scottish Agricultural College to the Funding Council; and

Other Lifelong Learning

The skills agency, Skills Development Scotland Ltd ( SDS), has a budget of £176.6m in 2009-10. This has been sourced with budget transfers from Scottish Enterprise (£142.1m) and Highland and Islands Enterprise (£15.7m) with existing Lifelong Learning skills related budgets being subsumed into SDS as follows:- Scottish University for Industry £9.7m; Skills Strategy £7.9m; Careers Scotland - Support for Schools and Colleges £1.2m.

The ELL Research budget (£1.4/1.3/1.1m) held within Lifelong Learning Other has been transferred to the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser within the First Minister's portfolio, and to Information & Analytical Services within the Children, Young People & Social Care Directorate.

The budget for Fellowships administered by the Royal Society of Edinburgh has been transferred to Science-related Programmes delivered by the Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser.

£3m per annum has been transferred to Other Lifelong Learning (English for Speakers of Other Languages) from SAAS.

Schools

Table 4.03: More detailed spending plans (Level 3)

What the budget does

Whilst the majority of expenditure on school aged education is funded by local authorities from the budgets outlined in Chapter 9, the Schools budget supports all aspects of policy and related workforce development needs. This involves working with local authorities and others to create the best possible conditions for excellent school-aged education in Scotland so that all our children and young people can be successful learners, effective contributors, confident individuals and responsible citizens. It also supports the inspection programme of HM Inspectorate of Education and the activities of other public bodies such as Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority.

Working with our partners, we will provide a better learning experience and improved outcomes for children and young people through:

• the development of an integrated curriculum from 3-18 which meets the needs of every child and young person focusing on Skills for Learning, Skills for Life and Skills for Work, preparing them for lifelong learning, the world of work and their role as citizens in a global society;
• the development of a better qualifications and assessment system which is aligned to the aims of the 3-18 curriculum and the skills agenda, supports the economy and meets the needs of young people;
• ensuring sufficient numbers of teachers are in training, allowing authorities to maintain teacher numbers at 2007 levels and, in the face of falling school rolls, reduce class sizes for primaries 1-3;
• providing additional support for every child and young person who needs it as well as extending the entitlement to nutritious free school meals to all primary and secondary school pupils of families in receipt of both maximum child tax credit and maximum working tax credit from August 2009;
• the provision of a school estate and IT infrastructure appropriate to twenty first century learning and teaching; and
• the provision of a well trained, supported and led teaching profession and support staff.

Budget changes

Our spending plans include a transfer of £0.5m per annum from Schools Directorate to the First Minister's Portfolio for Gaelic funding.

Children, Young People And Social Care

Table 4.04: More detailed spending plans (Level 3)

What the budget does

Most of the spending on children's services is channelled through local authorities with better value for public money spent on children and young people coming through from this radical reform of how we manage public services.

The Children, Young People and Social Care budget supports workforce development in the social care sector and sponsorship of the Scottish Children's Reporters Administration and Scottish Social Services Council. In addition, it supports a broad range of activity to improve children's services including commitments shared with local government and set out in the Concordat, such as:

• work with local government towards improving the learning experience for children and young people by improving the fabric of nurseries, ensuring access to a teacher for every pre-school child; and making substantial progress towards a 50 per cent increase in pre-school entitlement for 3 and 4 year olds;
• deliver a long-term early years strategy in order that everyone involved in supporting this critical stage of children's lives are signed up to a shared vision;
• implement the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Act to improve protection for children and vulnerable adults and to reduce the bureaucratic burdens on those working with them;
• develop and work with local government to implement strategies for child protection, fostering and kinship care and youth justice, to improve support for the children, young people, families and communities most at risk. This includes providing allowances for kinship carers of looked after children and in addition funds the programme of work of the Social Work Inspection Agency and the Education Analytical Services (including schools, children and young people and lifelong learning); and
• take forward the national delivery plan to address issues for children and young people affected by domestic abuse.

Budget changes

£0.8/0.7/0.6m of the ELL Research budget held within Other Lifelong Learning has been transferred to Information & Analytical Services within the Children, Young People & Social Care Directorate.

Student Awards Agency For Scotland ( SAAS)

Spending Plans 2009-10 to 2010-11

Table 4.05: More detailed spending plans (Level 3)

What the budget does

The Student Award Agency for Scotland budget meets the cost of the agency's functions which are to provide financial support and advice to Scottish domiciled students undertaking higher education courses in the UK and abroad and to EU students studying in Scotland. The level of spend is demand led, depending on the student population in a given year, but capped by the overall control maintained on the number of students for which the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council funds institutions.

The Agency administers schemes covering undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as bursaries for nursing and midwifery students. It administers the Individual Learning Accounts Scotland scheme in partnership with Skills Development Scotland.

Budget changes

£3m per annum has been transferred from SAAS to Other Lifelong Learning to provide additional funding for English for Speakers of Other Languages.

Scottish Further And Higher Education Funding Council ( SFHEFC)

Table 4.06: More detailed spending plans (Level 3)

What the budget does

The Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council budget supports the teaching and learning research and wider technology transfer activities of 19 higher education institutions (including the Open University) (20 from 1 August 2008 when the Scottish Agricultural College becomes a fundable body) and Scotland's 43 colleges.

Budget changes

Our spending plans include a transfer of £4.2/7.0/7.2m from the Rural Affairs and Environment portfolio for the reassignment of the funding of the Scottish Agricultural College to the Funding Council; and

A transfer of £20.0m to the Health and Wellbeing portfolio in 2009-10 to be repaid in 2010-11 in respect of the acceleration of the Affordable Housing Investment Programme adopted as part of a package of Scottish government actions to strengthen the Scottish economy (see page 52).

Other Lifelong Learning

Table 4.07: More detailed spending plans (Level 3)

Notes

1 Lifelong Learning provides Local Authorities with Specific Grants for Determined to Succeed which amount to £19.2m per year.

What the budget does

Much of the spending on community learning and development, lifelong learning and encouraging more young people to engage with education, training and the world of work, is channelled through local authorities. The Lifelong Learning budgets (Student Awards Agency Scotland, Scottish Further & Higher Education Funding Council and Other Lifelong Learning) support policy and development relating to all aspects of lifelong learning, including:

• improve research links between colleges, universities and business to get the best Scottish ideas from the campus to the marketplace and enhance capacity in Dundee to support life sciences in Scotland;
• promote parity of esteem for vocational learning and qualifications and academic skills and work in partnership with local government, colleges, local employers and others to give more school pupils opportunities to experience vocational learning;
• work with our partners to provide more positive and engaging opportunities for all young people, allowing them to develop the enterprise and entrepreneurial skills and attitudes they need for the workplace. This will ensure that Scotland's young people have more choices and more chances to take advantage of opportunities in work, education or training;
• the implementation of Skills for Scotland, through Skills Development Scotland, to develop smarter demand for and use of skills in the economy and to deliver high quality training and learning provision across the population;
• publish a new science strategy for Scotland, outlining how science will underpin our success as a nation; and
• refresh the Adult Literacy and Numeracy strategy and work jointly with local government, Scotland's colleges and the voluntary sector to improve English for speakers of other languages provision, which can contribute to integration and improving life chances.

Budget changes

• The skills agency, Skills Development Scotland Ltd ( SDS), has a budget of £176.6m in 2009-10. This has been sourced with budget transfers from Scottish Enterprise (£142.1m) and Highland and Islands Enterprise (£15.7m) with existing Lifelong Learning skills related budgets being subsumed into SDS as follows:- Scottish University for Industry £9.7m; Skills Strategy £7.9m; Careers Scotland - Support for Schools and Colleges £1.2m.
• The ELL Research budget has been transferred to the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser within the First Minister's portfolio, and to Information & Analytical Services within the Children, Young People & Social Care Directorate.
• The budget for Fellowships administered by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (£1.2/1.7/2.3m) has been transferred to Science-related Programmes delivered by the Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser.
• £3m per annum has been transferred to Other Lifelong Learning (English for Speakers of Other Languages) from SAAS.

Central Government Grants To Local Authorities

Table 4.08: More detailed spending plans (Level 3).

What the budget does

Following the Concordat agreement between the Scottish Government and local authorities, most of the previous budget for ring-fenced grant was added to the budget for general support to local authorities. This table shows the remaining area where there are ring-fenced grants to local authorities (or similar bodies) for lifelong learning purposes.

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