Scottish Attainment Challenge: Call for Evidence

The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills has confirmed her intention that the Scottish Attainment Challenge programme (including Pupil Equity Funding for schools, and Strategic Equity Funding and Care Experienced Children and Young People Funding for Local Authorities) will continue beyond 2025/26 and into 2026/27. This gives assurances to local authorities and schools and other partners working with them and supported by SAC funding for a further year.

Therefore, this call for evidence seeks your views and any evidence you may have, about how well the current programme is working, and what new ideas or approaches might help to inform the future of the Scottish Attainment Challenge programme and work to close the poverty-related attainment gap from 2026 onwards.

This feedback will be a key source of information to help inform future planning for approaches to closing the poverty related attainment gap and improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty. Scottish Government recognise that many of you will have previously fed in evidence in different engagements/discussions about the successes and challenges of SAC to date and they will engage a range of stakeholders to discuss such issues in the coming months. However, they would like also to offer stakeholders with an interest in the SAC programme and its mission the opportunity to set out in writing your opinion about how the programme or a body of work to achieve this mission could look in the future.

Scottish Government is keen to hear your views on any or all of the following questions in terms of the Scottish Attainment Challenge and its current mission to use education to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, with a focus on closing the poverty related attainment gap:

• What is working well and what actions should Scottish Government and partners either continue to do or do more of?
• Are there elements of the SAC programme (in terms of SEF, PEF, CECYP, the national programmes and support from Education Scotland Attainment Advisors) or related policies, actions or approaches that the SG and/or partners could consider doing differently or stop?
• Are there new or alternative elements to the Scottish Attainment Challenge or related policies, actions or approaches that SG should consider implementing or having SAC link more closely to?
• How can SG, Education Scotland, local government and other partners work differently or better to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, and care experienced children and young people and close the poverty related attainment gap?

As you consider these questions, please be mindful of the broad themes below in terms of your experience of the SAC programme to-date or what this work may look like in future:

• Impact on attainment, health and wellbeing for children and young people living in poverty.
• Culture/ethos in schools and other settings influenced by SAC.
• The impact of covid; cost of living crisis and other external factors on the programme.
• The financial context; budget pressures; additionality; numbers and types of staff funded; how embedded the funding is.
• Where to direct support/funding (both geographically and in terms of parts of the education system – essentially schools, LAs, the third sector or a combination of them – or other services).

Please provide examples of effective practices where available, for each question.

The Process 

Please complete the submission template. This also includes a background note which can support you as you develop your response.  You are invited to share any research, evaluation or findings which are relevant to this call for evidence.  You can attach any published reports, research on lived experience, or internal pieces of work you may hold along with your submission.  

You may have alreadyprovided information on your experiences and shared proposals/solutions, but if there is anything else you wish to share or highlight – including existing evidence/research – please include this in your response.

What will happen to responses

All of the feedback received via this written call and other planned engagement activities will be collated and analysed.  This body of information will then be used alongside existing evidence and learning to inform the future of the SAC.

Please return your submission to SAC at sacprogrammeoffice@gov.scot by Friday 27th June. 

Email here if you have any questions.

Help Embed Youth Work Within the SAC

Over the last few months, Youthlink Scotland has gathered the views and experiences of youth work practitioners and managers to understand progress towards achieving the SAC mission from their perspective. Our evidence suggests that, to accelerate progress, more needs to be done to embed youth work within the SAC. This includes adequate and stable investment and continued support from YouthLink Scotland’s SAC national programme.

As part of our response to this call for evidence, YouthLink Scotland is keen to gather further evidence and examples from across the sector. If you would like to contribute examples to our response, please contact Marielle Curran by 9th June.

Check out our new report – Youth Work Perspectives on the SAC