Education Scotland reports regarding the impact of the COVID- 19 and funding provided: FOI release

Information requested

1. Any reports or assessments conducted by Education Scotland regarding the impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic on education in Scotland, including any measures proposed or implemented to address these impacts.
2. Information regarding the number of schools in Scotland that have received inspections from Education Scotland in the last year (2022), broken down by local authority area.
3. Details of all grants or funding provided by Education Scotland to schools or educational institutions in Scotland in the last year (2022), including the amount of funding provided, the purpose of the funding, and the names of the recipients.

Response

Question 1

Please find the links below to reports/assessments conducted by Education Scotland regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education in Scotland.

• HM Inspectors undertook a suite of national reviews of the response to the pandemic to further support and improve the delivery of high-quality and effective remote learning.
• Undertook and jointly published with Scottish Government (SG) an Equity Audit to deepen our understanding of the impact of Covid 19 and school closures on children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Joint publication of an e-sgoil impact report in June 2021, which attempts to reflect on and learn from the experiences of online education during the pandemic.

• Joint publication of the Closing the poverty-related attainment gap: progress report 2016 to 2021. Due to the timing of this report, it acknowledges and explores the detrimental impact of Covid-19 on progress towards closing the poverty related attainment gap.
• Findings and recommendations of the Closing the Poverty-Related Attainment Gap: progress report 2016 to 2021 and the Equity Audit fed into the plans for the Scottish Attainment Challenge 2022/23 – 2025/26. This aims to support recovery from the pandemic andaccelerate progress in closing the gap.
• What Scotland Learned – building back better - January 2021 (education.gov.scot)
• what-scotland-learned_100stories.pdf (education.gov.scot)
• Recalibrating Equity and Social Justice in Scottish Education: Bouncing forward after COVID- 19 lockdowns | Research | National Improvement Hub. This is more of a resource, but does look at research measuring the impact of COVID-19 on learning and advises on approaches to help rebuild.
• This document was published between lockdowns and concentrates more on wellbeing. It is a reflective tool to help practitioners consider the impact of COVID-19 on learners. Getting It Right For All Learners during Covid-19 (education.gov.scot)

The link to the CLD Standards Council (CLDSC) report detailing the impact of the pandemic on CLDSC members and services.

Pandemic and lockdown: how CLD practitioners have responded | CLD Standards Council for Scotland

Other resources available on the Education Scotland website are:

• Local approaches to recovery
• Responsive, supportive and resilient communities
• Health and wellbeing
• Successful approaches to learning outdoors
• HMIE engagement in Scotland’s Colleges
• National review of local authority approaches to quality assurance as part of the alternative certification model.

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the links above, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Question 2

Education Scotland paused the routine school inspection programme on 13 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Education Scotland resumed routine inspections of schools in September 2022. Please find attached at Annex A, a list of the number of schools inspected in 2022.

Please note the following:

• The period covered is 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022.
• The numbers are provided for each local authority.
• A separate figure is provided for inspection of independent schools.
• The numbers reported relate to inspections and further inspections of schools.
• The numbers reported relate to inspections completed i.e. the inspection report has been published on the Education Scotland website.

Question 3

Please find attached at Annex B, a list of all grants/funding provided by Education Scotland in the financial year 2022/23.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202300349546 - Information Released - Annex A

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PDF

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104.8 kB

FOI 202300349546 - Information Released - Annex B

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6 page PDF

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151.6 kB