COSLA Response to “Empowering teachers, parents and
communities to achieve excellence and equity in education: A
Governance Review “
Introduction
1. Local Authorities play a fundamental role in the lives of children and young people in
Scotland: their role as education authority bound through legislation1 with wider
responsibilities for children’s and family services, and underpinned by Getting It Right For
Every Child (GIRFEC). Execution of this responsibility, which is democratically
accountable to locally elected members, has been praised independently by Education
Scotland:
“At education authority level, senior officers show a strong commitment to
improving outcomes for children, young people and families…there is a sound
understanding of the Getting it right for every child approach and of the
importance of multi-agency working to ensure that the needs of children and
their families are met effectively and successfully.”2
2. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) is the national voice for local
government in Scotland. As a key partner with statutory responsibility for delivery of
education, we welcome the opportunity to contribute views to this consultation. Our
response is formed following collaboration and discussion with colleagues across the
Local Government family including SOLACE, ADES, parent representative organisations,
Trade Unions and, of course, local elected members.
3. While COSLA fully supports the aims of improving raising attainment and ensuring every
child is nurtured to achieve their potential, we have serious concerns about the premise of
this governance review and flawed assumptions which are fundamental to the document;
that schools are not currently empowered to make decisions about individual learning and
school life, that regional collaboration does not currently occur, and perhaps most
worryingly that a focus on school education alone can achieve the most positive outcomes
for children and young people.
4. It remains unclear what educational benefit this governance review seeks to achieve. It
has not been designed to address any specifically identified issue and, from our
consultation exercises with local authorities, teachers, headteachers and parents, we
cannot find support for such drastic measures. This risks becoming a distraction from
what our joint focus should be - improving outcomes for all through integration and
communication between services including (but not limited to) education.
5. We have chosen not to follow the structure of the prompt questions to allow for the fullest
and most coherent presentation of the Local Government position. We look forward to
further dialogue on the points raised.
1
Children and Young People (Scotland) Act Part 3
Education Scotland, Getting it right for every child: Where are we now?- A report on the readiness of the
education system to fully implement Getting it right for every child (2012)
2
Key Points and Principles
6. The COSLA position is underpinned by key principles which are held as fundamental to
our position:
a. The best interests of children and young people should be the primary
consideration: COSLA believes that the interests of children and young people
should be at the centre of this debate: this requires active recognition of the
interconnectivity of services supporting children and young people which cannot
be achieved by a focus on schools alone. Education is a critical component of
modern children’s services but it must be considered as only one element of a
multifaceted picture;
b. Every child and young person in Scotland should be nurtured to achieve
their full potential: COSLA shares the Scottish Government’s strong
commitment to narrowing the attainment gap and supporting every child to
achieve their potential but this cannot be achieved in the classroom alone. We
believe that the proposed approach puts at risk the multi-agency improvements
that national and local government has made so far towards improving the
situation for children and young people living in poverty;
c. A whole system approach is essential: The Christie principles of prevention
and early intervention mean that synergy between all components of learning pre-school, school, out-of-school and further education - is crucial. Consideration
must be given to ensuring any forward approach is a whole system approach
across all streams of learning and all supports available through children’s and
family services;
d. The role of Local Authorities is crucial to delivering a democratically
accountable “whole system approach” service to families and
communities: Councillors are elected by local communities to provide support
and challenge to officers delivering local services. There can be no more local
service than that provided by a school. The Local Authority brings together
professionals and colleagues across multiple services to provide a joined up
service for young people and their families and officers and elected members
ensure accessible points for accountability. There is no evidence that teachers
and head teachers are hindered by their local authority colleagues in addressing
the attainment gap and improving the delivery of education;
e. Working collaboratively produces positive outcomes towards improving the
lives of children, young people and families: The aim of Local Authorities is
and remains to develop effective collaboration which supports the statutory duty
of councils of their education function and to drive improvement by being effective
at individual authority, regional and national level. However, this can only be
achieved within a framework which acknowledges and is agile to the reality of
what works: guided by the core values of organic growth, flexibility and
adaptability towards a commonly shared goal, without diluting local
accountability. Imposed structures will not lead to successful collaboration.
Strength of the Education System
7. The Governance Review paper is based on an assumption that the education system is
‘broken’. It is not. Levels of attainment and achievement continue to improve year on
year. Results from the 2015/2016 academic year saw improved passes at all qualification
levels –academic and vocational. Links with further education have driven changes to
learning outcomes which in turn has an impact on traditional attainment measures3 but the
Scottish Government lauded success in the breadth of qualifications as “welcome
progress” which serves to “demonstrate the changing nature of Scotland’s education
system…to prepare our young people better to enter the world of work by offering them
much more choice and flexibility in their education path than traditional qualifications
alone.”4
8. Improving Schools in Scotland: an OCED Perspective5 recognised core strengths of
education delivery; schools are inclusive, students are resilient and attainment levels are
increasing. It also highlighted the positive progress which has been made on a systemwide basis to lessen bureaucracy and support teaching and learning.
9. In addition to the focus of the OECD report on schools and Curriculum for Excellence
(CfE), wider progress within the education system has been made via other reforms such
as GIRFEC, Developing the Young Workforce and integrated Children’s Services
Planning.
10. The GIRFEC approach, integrated children’s service planning, community planning, and
developing the young workforce have all been implemented in the last decade. These,
together with CfE, have embedded a culture of multi-agency, child-focused improvement
which has been embraced across the system. This approach acknowledges the
importance of considering the whole system which supports all aspects of development
from pre-birth to early adulthood.
11. The needs of the child or young person are central to their learning journey at all stages,
during compulsory schooling and in moving towards a post-education destination. In real
terms, this means that where a child or young person needs extra support – either as a
result of additional support needs, vulnerability, disadvantage or English as a second
language – the starting point is to assess that child’s needs together as agencies. The
combination of agencies which may become involved is endless and dependent on the
needs of that child: social workers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech and
language therapists, specialist disability workers, dieticians, family support workers and the
third sector all have the potential to become involved.
12. As a young person progresses through their learning journey, the same principles of
collaborative support are key to identifying a learning pathway and supporting the young
person towards it. Attainment can no longer be measured on the number of qualifications
attained by a certain age to a certain level. As above, it is acknowledged as forwardlooking that attainment can be considered on the basis of achieving a positive destination
such as vocational study as well as traditional qualifications.
3
Links between schools and colleges mean that legitimate learning pathways can include supporting young
people at school to enter courses on, for example, hairdressing. This may not line up with traditional
measures of attainment in terms of achieving a certain number of qualifications at a certain level, but the
outcome for the young person is no less important.
4 http://news.gov.scot/news/results-day-for-scotlands-young-people
5 http://www.oecd.org/education/school/Improving-Schools-in-Scotland-An-OECD-Perspective.pdf
13. It is concerning that the consultation document focuses only on education in the narrowest
sense of classroom learning and does not reference the positive advances which have led
to system-wide collaboration to ensure every child is supported when and how they need
to be to achieve their individual potential.
Devolved Accountability
14. There is a long held and wide respect for local democracy across the world. Decisions
must be taken as close as possible to the communities which are affected by them – the
principle of subsidiarity. However, this is only democratic if those decisions are taken by
representatives who have been democratically elected to take those decisions and to be
held accountable for them. There is a real risk that by “devolving accountability” as
described in the consultation document, we allow unelected officials to take significant
decisions on behalf of communities who already struggle to be heard. Individuals can be
affected by their own views/prejudices rather than a systematic approach to using
evidence to provide the best possible public service for local people. Decisions relating to
locally delivered public services and the use of locally collected taxation/public money
must remain with locally elected politicians. This is a principle agreed by all member of
the local government family – councils, professional associations, trade unions and parent
organisations.
15. There are inherent tensions in the Governance Review paper between the “clear objective
to devolve decision making and funding to teachers, schools, parents” and ensuring that
teachers and schools have the “flexibility and freedom to teach”. Firstly that increasing
bureaucracy at school level is at odds with a focus on learning and teaching, and secondly
in the suggestion that more extensive inclusion of parents and communities in decision
making is in line with devolving decision making to schools.
16. While the principle of parental involvement and involvement of children and young people
in decision making is positive, there is a real risk that, in practice, the representation of
views from vulnerable and chaotic households will be lost to the strong voices of the
already engaged. There is a real risk that schools in the most affluent areas, articulate
and involved parents will be afforded more choice through engagement: widening the
divide between the most and least well off in our society. Ultimately, it will be the most
vulnerable children and young people who suffer the consequences of this.
17. Any system must recognise that there will be parents who will never engage and whose
voice will not be heard. The reality is that these parents are likely to be from the least
affluent areas. There must be a mechanism for the perspective of vulnerable households
to be represented when those households are disinclined to represent themselves through
barriers both real and perceived. This is currently achieved at Local Authority level
through the understanding of these families and communities built in delivering a
multiplicity of services for them.
18. On ensuring freedom and flexibility to teach, teachers and head teachers have been clear
with COSLA that they do not want financial accountability or to be accountable for service
delivery decision: they want to be leaders of learning and learning communities. Similarly,
parent forums have told us that they think the balance between parental input and the
professional input of education professionals is about right - that they want the school to
be responsive to their engagement or requests for help but that they do not want to "run"
schools.
19. The current structure supports this. A balance is achieved between school decisions and
Local Authority support in a number of ways including CfE and Devolved School
Management (DSM). Schools are empowered to make decisions about learning and
teaching of an individual child but also about the overall school community in the design of
CfE– a key principle of which was to allow the flexibility for schools to build a curriculum
which suited their children, within their community: “leaders of schools and centres focus
strategically on what they want their curriculum to look like in the future.”6
20. Financially, schools are empowered to make decisions and have a budget to do so
through DSM which is designed to “provide headteachers and other school staff with the
autonomy and flexibility to make decisions at the appropriate level and to make the most
effective use of resources which best suit local circumstances.”7 Priorities should be
influenced by local priorities and issues as well as local partnership working. While the
governance review mentions DSM, there does not seem to be an understanding of what it
means to schools on the ground.
21. While teachers appreciate the level of responsibility and flexibility around funding within
their schools, afforded to them already by devolved school management, their talents and
motivation are for leading the learning of children and young people, and they are clear
that this should remain the primary focus of their role.
22. Education professionals, support staff and parents appreciate the essential role which
Local Authorities play in support and challenge, which is fundamental to continuous
improvement and development; the support which schools can rely on at a Local Authority
level in the provision of, amongst other services, school catering, cleaning, legal, human
resource and ICT; the central organisation of children’s and family services which schools
can easily utilise; and local accountability both at officer and elected member level.
23. The difficult financial environment in which councils and schools deliver education cannot
be ignored and although cuts have led to restructuring of these services, the support at a
local authority level continues to be welcomed. Collective savings could not be achieved
at a school level to the current extent and there is a risk that dilution in the role of local
authorities in providing these functions could also lead to dilution in the support and
challenge role which officers in local authorities provide, and the scrutiny of the overall
service undertaken by local elected members.
24. To add another layer of bureaucracy in the accountability for further devolved funding flies
in the face of prioritising a focus on learning and teaching. This would also certainly be
true if further responsibilities – including legal responsibilities for delivering education and
raising standards8 – were devolved. The risk is of schools becoming insular in autonomy,
with less scrutiny and less accountability.
6
Education Scotland, Curriculum for Excellence pages
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/thecurriculum/buildingyourcurriculum/curriculumpl
anning/creatingaplan/index.asp
7 Devolved School Management Guidelines (2012)
http://www.improvementservice.org.uk/documents/DSM/DSMguidelines.pdf
8 As suggested on page 9 of the consultation document
Improving Attainment and Reducing Inequality
25. COSLA shares the aim to reduce inequality and improve educational outcomes for
children and young people in Scotland. Every child should be supported to achieve their
potential. However, there is a strong body of evidence that attainment cannot be improved
by schools alone.
26. Children do not come to the classroom equal in opportunity. As much of 80% of a child’s
performance is attributable to factors out of school 9 – the influence of parents (including
parental expectation), the family and neighbourhood environments cannot be understated.
27. This differential can begin pre-birth through maternal health and lifestyle choices, with
further impacts during early childhood when cognitive development is rapid. By age 5, the
gap between children from low-income and high-income families can be 10-13 months.10
Access to resources at home and family support have a continuing impact on this gap, as
can shocks to the family situation such as unemployment or problems with welfare
benefits. A measure of the impact of this in Scotland can be drawn from food bank
statistics, with the Trussell Trust alone reporting that 32% of 3 day emergency food
supplies distributed in Scotland last year were for the benefit of children. 11
28. The school environment – however good - cannot "fix" the environment in which some
children live. The poverty-related attainment gap is fuelled by inequalities of support,
security and safety, as well as practicalities like a table to sit at to do homework. Families
suffering from economic deprivation and poverty require an economic solution. The
impact of economic deprivation on children and young people cannot be underestimated
with access to food and a warmth not guaranteed for every child in Scotland in their home
environment.
29. A multi-agency, holistic approach which puts the child at the centre is needed to address
all of the contributors to attainment. To take forward a governance review based on the
assumption that attainment is a school-based issue creates a separate silo in policy and
practice which is at odds with the move towards collaborative working between services
and agencies as required by GIRFEC, and could conversely work to widen the gap.
Regions and Opportunities
30. Local Authorities currently engage in collaboration to an extent which the consultation
document does not acknowledge. Across the country there is cross-border and crossinterest collaboration. Moving forward, Local Authorities would keenly engage in further
collaboration but within a framework which acknowledges and is agile to the reality of what
works:
a. The success of existing regional collaborations has been rooted in organic
growth, flexibility and adaptability. This cannot be achieved by arbitrarily
imposed regional borders or externally determined priorities.
b. ‘Regions’ should not be set entities. For true collaboration to be achieved, there
should be a common sense approach: not all partners within a region should be
Rasbash, J. et al (2010) Children’s educational progress: partitioning family, school and area effects
(Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 173[3) as referenced in Will Cook, (2013) How intake and other
external factors affect school performance (available at http://www.risetrust.org.uk/performance)
10 https://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/files/education-attainment-scotland-summary.pdf
11 43,962 of a total 133,726 3-day emergency food parcels, https://www.trusselltrust.org/news-andblog/latest-stats/
9
compelled to be party to each element of collaboration; the fact of being party to
one collaborative region should not exclude the possibility of entering
collaboration with another region; and regions need not be determined by
geography.
c. A whole-system approach to collaboration is required; both across the breadth
of children’s services, social work and health and across all stages of education
including early years and Further Education. The structural organisation of local
authorities is such that education cannot be singled out from the wider system
and local authorities do not believe it should be.
d. Impact cannot always be measured quickly, and early evaluation is not always
positive or useful.
e. Continued local accountability is essential. Regional partnerships must be
accountable to local authorities who have the statutory responsibility for the
delivery of services, as well as answerability to the electorate.
f.
There are opportunities for collaboration around delivery, improvement and
performance which are aided by a shared understanding of what this may
involve, for example:
i.
Continued Professional Learning and Development
ii. STEM (Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics)
iii. Languages – both 1+2 and the Gaelic education requirement
iv. Work force planning
g. Increased collaboration requires resources to be considered in different ways.
This is in terms of support which can be provided by national organisations such
as Education Scotland, and also in terms of financial resource. It is difficult to
dedicate resources to a collaborative partnership with one year budget cycles.
For the opportunities for collaboration to be realised, national resources must be
considered in the round.
Conclusion
31. COSLA, as the national voice for local government in Scotland, is committed to improving
education alongside other children’s services to ensure we improve outcomes for the lives
of every child and young person in our communities. We are clear that a governance
review of classroom learning will not achieve this and diverts focus from important
discussions around supporting integration, workforce planning and the availability of
resources which are key.
32. We note that the consultation document has a number of leading questions and have
therefore provided a response which clarifies the local government position and we hope
this constructive approach will be recognised by Scottish Government. We look forward to
working with Scottish Government alongside our other key stakeholders as this national
and local discussion continues.
COSLA
December 2016