Attainment Scotland Fund Evaluation: School Survey Report, 2025

Background and objectives

Background

The impact of economic inequality on educational achievement is well established and has been a focus of the Scottish Government’s education policy for some time. The Scottish Attainment Challenge, which has the aim of closing the poverty-related attainment gap between children and young people from the least and most disadvantaged communities, was launched in 2015. In 2022 it was refreshed with a new mission:

‘To use education to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty with a focus on tackling the poverty-related attainment gap to deliver on the Scottish Government’s vision of equity and excellence in education’.

The Attainment Scotland Fund (ASF) supports the Scottish Attainment Challenge and is made up of various funding streams totaling £1 billion. The ASF currently covers primary, secondary, and special schools, via an annual investment of up to £200 million to support children and young people impacted by poverty. It includes:

• Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) made available to schools directly, based on the number of children in primary school and S1-3 of secondary school known to be eligible for free school meals and benefitting 97% of schools in Scotland
• Strategic Equity Funding (SEF) distributed annually to every local authority based on Children in Low Income Families Data
• Investment to support Care Experienced Children and Young People (CECYP)
• Investment in national programmes supporting the Fund’s aims.

A programme of evaluation has been ongoing since 2015.

Over the years of the Fund the evaluation has analysed evidence from a number of sources, such as surveying headteachers and local authority stakeholders. As part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge refresh in 2022 a need to include a greater range of stakeholders in evaluation activity was identified, in order to maximise understanding of the impact of activities at all levels, from national, to regional, local authority, school, and community. As well as a commitment to an in year rather than retrospective evaluation approach as part of a multi-year Evaluation Strategy, the Evaluation scope was widened to include the Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund, and interaction between the National Programmes and the Scottish Attainment Challenge programme.

This 2025 school-based staff survey was commissioned as one part of the overarching evaluation programme, to provide up-to-date insight into the experiences and perspectives of Scottish schools on the impact of activities supported by the ASF.

Research aims

This survey research was commissioned alongside qualitative case study work in a small number of schools across Scotland (the case study research is reported on separately). The aim of both elements of the research was to provide insight to the Scottish Government and stakeholders in Education Scotland, local authorities, and schools to help them maximise the impact of the ASF, and to explore what factors are helping to improve attainment and close the poverty-related attainment gap. Specifically, the research aimed to provide evidence to answer the following impact evaluation questions:

Impact Evaluation questions addressed in this research

To what extent did the Fund contribute to a closing of the attainment gap between the most and least socio-economically disadvantaged children and young people, in line with stretch aims?

To what extent did the Fund contribute to an education system which encourages, reflects and values the breadth of achievements that contribute to improved outcomes for children and young people?

To what extent did schools, local authorities and other stakeholders, including pupils, families and communities, feel there had been progress towards achieving outcomes?

To what extent was there improvement in children and young people's readiness to learn through focusing on engagement, attendance, confidence and wellbeing?

To what extent was culture and ethos based on education equity embedded in the education system that promotes high aspirations and recognises broader achievement for all children and young people and their families?

Following a full review of the detailed evaluation questions and objectives, and with input from the Research Advisory Group (RAG) set up for this research, a survey questionnaire was developed to provide key data to feed into the overall evaluation questions outlined above.