Attainment Scotland Fund Evaluation: Interim Report, 2025

Thematic Evaluation

Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the thematic approach to the evaluation, the areas of focus and key insights which have emerged from the thematic approach which support our developing understanding in relation to ‘what works’ in closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

The ASF Evaluation Strategy 2022-26 included a new thematic strand of evaluation. The consideration of a range of thematic areas has been an integral part of the Strategy, allowing an in-depth focus on collaboratively agreed areas of enquiry. This approach allows the evaluation to respond to emerging system priorities and to provide learning and increase the evidence base on ‘what works and what could be improved, for whom and in what circumstances’ at the thematic level.

Three initial areas of focus were chosen as a result of discussions with internal and external groupings.^[34] These include:

• Families and communities;
• Readiness to learn;
• Engagement in decision-making (children and young people, families and communities).

These areas were selected based on focused discussion around outcome domains within the SAC Logic Model (and associated ASF Evaluation Questions) where there was either limited evidence or a need for a more focused evaluation approach in order to build understanding prior to developing an evidence base.

In March 2024, a summary report providing an overview of the thematic approach was published alongside individual companion reports for each thematic area.^[35] The summary report provided a ‘stock take’ on progress on the thematic evaluation strand as part of this deeper dive into the selected outcome areas in the Logic Model.

Following publication of the summary report on the thematic approach, Learning and Teaching was selected as a further thematic area of focus.

Insights from the thematic areas

The following sections provide insights which have emerged to date from the focus on the four identified thematic areas.

Families and communities

Approaches to support engagement and support for families and communities have been embedded through local authorities’ use of ASF.

Impact of family link workers (and similar roles and teams) – strengthened relationships between schools and with families and communities; increased awareness within schools of poverty and its impact on pupils and their families.

Families and communities are a key area of focus for local authorities in relation to their use of the ASF. This is outlined above and below with the findings from the thematic report. This is also apparent from the School Survey where evidence supports the findings that meaningful engagement is key along with building relationships over time and effective supports through collaboration with partners.

• There is a developing picture of engagement with and support for families and communities. Families and communities have been increasingly considered a strategic priority by local authorities in relation to their approaches to the Scottish Attainment Challenge.
• Family development/link workers play an important role in approaches, often working to support school attendance, engagement and participation as well as wider support to parents and carers such as income maximisation and signposting to other services.
• Learning has built on priority approaches developed during COVID-19 pandemic and learning that such approaches provided. Evidence from this period of COVID-19 response highlighted the importance of building positive relationships which can lead to families turning to schools for support.

Learning suggests that impactful approaches involve:

• Meaningful and proactive engagement with families and maintaining this over time;
• Effective links, collaboration and joint working with wider public and third sector partners;
• Continuing to learn from ongoing experiences of engaging with families and communities in order to refine and improve engagement and supports accordingly.

The School Survey has several findings of note in relation to engagement with and support to families and communities. There were relatively high levels of reported engagement with children and young people in decision-making (two thirds overall said they had engaged with pupils to a great or moderate extent) and families and communities (three fifths) – and this was more commonly reported by those working in schools in the most deprived areas.

In terms of collaboration as a result of ASF funding, families and communities were noted as the second highest group at 62%, just behind collaboration with other schools. In relation to sustainability, headteachers and senior leaders reported building partnerships to support families (59%) as being a key way to address the sustainability of their approach beyond the current phase of the ASF Programme.

Readiness to Learn

Children and young people’s views of readiness to learn is not a clearly defined concept. However, from explorations with children and young people to date, it is clear that readiness to learn coves a range of aspects related to what they need outside school, inside school, in the classroom and from the adults around them to feel ready to learn.

Having enough food and not being tired or stressed are key aspects of being ready to learn for children and young people in primary and secondary school settings.

The evidence indicates that readiness to learn is an important element of local authority approaches to closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

Readiness to learn is not a clearly defined concept. Exploring children and young people’s perspectives of what ‘readiness to learn’ means has been a key area of focus for the thematic strand. Two projects funded as part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge National Programmes have been supporting an exploration of what readiness to learn means for children and young people. These projects, led by Young Scot and by Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland Cost of the School Day Project, are outlined below.

• Young Scot has been exploring Readiness to Learn through the #YSEquity Panel of children and young people established as part of its work in relation to the Scottish Attainment Challenge. Initial work by Young Scot with #YSEquity Panel members led to the co-design of the ‘What I need to learn’ survey which gathered over 1,000 responses from children and young people aged 11 year olds upwards across Scotland in late 2023/early 2024.
• The survey findings suggest that readiness to learn is associated with a range of aspects of children and young people’s lives in relation to attending and engaging in school including being prepared, having the material resources needed, not being hungry or stressed, feeling or being safe, valued, respected, feeling supported and being confident and happy. What I need to learn survey findings are available from the Young Scot website.
• Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland Cost of the School Day Project has explored readiness to learn with children and young people across primary and secondary schools participating in the Voice Network established as part of the project through the Big Question. The Big Question has provided insights from young people into what they need outside of school, in school, in the classroom and from the people around them to feel ready to learn.
• Having enough food and not being tired or stressed emerged most commonly for children and young people in primary and secondary schools. In primary schools, feeling that adults are listening to you and that your opinions are important, and being able to take part in the same things at school as your friends and classmates were most frequently highlighted following not being tired or stressed. For those in secondary settings, having the resources needed for school and being able to take part in the same things as your friends and classmates were most frequently highlighted.

Collectively, these two projects have deepened our understanding about what readiness to learn means for children and young people.

Evidence from the SAC Leads Survey 2023 and 2024 indicated that readiness to learn is a strategic priority for local authorities, and that ASF was being used to support the development of approaches to readiness to learn within local authorities.

The School Survey findings indicate that readiness to learn is not only a key area of focus but also an area where improvements have been identified as a result of the ASF:

• For School Survey respondents who reported a focus on readiness to learn was part of their approach to a great or moderate extent (84%), this was also where improvements were seen with two thirds indicating they had seen improvements in readiness to learn to a great or moderate extent (66%).
• Additionally, there were greater improvements in readiness to learn reported by respondents from schools with at least 25% of pupils living in the most deprived areas.

There will be a continued exploration of children and young people’s perspectives of readiness to learn, and the impact of readiness to learn, in the final phase of the current evaluation.

Children and young people’s voice/engagement in decision-making

To emphasise the importance of involving children, young people, families, and communities in decision-making, the 2022 Scottish Attainment Challenge Logic Model introduced a new outcome domain focused on their engagement.

The thematic work has focused on engagement of children and young people. Initially, this focused on mapping children and young people’s engagement in decision-making across the Scottish Attainment Challenge. This would then allow us to assess:

• the extent to which children and young people are engaged in decision making;
• how this differs across schools and local authorities, and across the learner journey;
• emerging evidence of the difference such involvement is making, what is working well and what could be improved.

The 2023 and 2024 SAC Leads Surveys indicated that engagement of both children and young people and families and communities is a strategic priority for most local authorities. This is borne out in the recent School Survey which showed that two-thirds of school staff engaged with children and young people to a great or moderate extent and three-fifths had engaged with families and communities to the same extent.

Local authority respondents highlighted a range of interventions, programmes and approaches in place. For example, Participatory Budgeting^[36] (PB) was noted as an important mechanism for increased engagement in decision-making by children and young people in relation to PEF. However, there was also acknowledgement by some survey respondents of the need for further work.

Case studies exploring work currently in progress engaging children and young people in decision-making across the SAC have also been gathered as part of the thematic approach, with a number of insights emerging.

The case studies demonstrate the range of activity in progress to engage children and young people in decision-making in relation to the SAC. Whilst some engagement of children and young people is specific to the ASF, much is part of wider engagement of children and young people in decision-making within local areas.

The case studies provide examples of effective engagement. This included engagements undertaken through the SAC National Programmes, through local authorities, and other settings. Resources to support children and young people’s decision-making in relation to the SAC are also developing. The case studies also show that engagement of children and young people is an area of ongoing development.

Learning and Teaching

As noted, Learning and Teaching was selected as a further thematic area of focus for the evaluation. Rather than developing a separate thematic report, the preferred approach has been to integrate this theme within other aspects of the evaluation. For example, a number of questions on Learning and Teaching were included in the School Survey.

Views on the impact of ASF on Learning and Teaching from the School Survey are broadly very positive. There were high levels of agreement overall by respondents that:

• Their school routinely use approaches, tools and/or resources in learning and teaching to support pupils affected by poverty (92% agreement);
• Leadership support classroom staff to develop their skills and utilise approaches/resources to ensure the needs of pupils affected by poverty are met (88%);
• As a result of the ASF, staff are more aware of how they can support pupils affected by poverty (84%);
• Staff know where/how to access support (83%); and,
• Classroom staff have the skills to do this (83%).

However, there were lower levels of agreement amongst respondents in relation to whether their school has sufficient resources to support pupils affected by poverty, with only 56% agreeing with this, 16% neither agreeing nor disagreeing, and a further 26% disagreeing with this statement. Classroom teachers were more likely than any other group to disagree about having sufficient resources (with 35% of classroom teachers disagreeing with this statement).

Linked to the above question in the School Survey on views on Learning and Teaching approaches, survey findings also indicate that practices initiated by the ASF have been embedded at the classroom level. The majority (62%) said that learning and teaching approaches are embedded to a great or moderate extent, and 26% said this happened to some extent. There were a number of differences in patterns of response. For example, respondents based in schools with the highest proportion of pupils from deprived areas were most likely to report embedding of learning and teaching approaches at the classroom level.

Further insights on learning and teaching will be drawn from evidence presented in the impact commission case study research which will report later this year.

In addition, Education Scotland is leading on a project to evaluate SEF-funded numeracy approaches, with a focus on local authority approaches. This will report this autumn.