Pupil Equity Funding: national operational guidance 2026-2027

Resources

There is a package of national and local support available to assist schools in planning how to use their Pupil Equity Funding.

The Education Scotland report ‘Pupil Equity Funding: Looking inwards, outwards, forwards – sharing effective practice to maximise support for learners and practitioners’ provides a valuable resource highlighting effective practice in planning and implementing PEF approaches.

Scottish Attainment Challenge – Self-evaluation resource designed to assist schools and others bring about further improvement at this time of recovery.

Scotland’s Equity Toolkit: supporting recovery and accelerating progress is for all stakeholders who are involved in delivering the Scottish Attainment Challenge. It brings together, in one place, a wealth of guidance, professional learning materials and practice examples focused on key themes and approaches central to achieving the SAC mission.

A reflective tool for educators, Getting It Right For All Learners during COVID-19

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Toolkit provides an accessible summary of educational research designed to inform discussions on the most effective approaches to improving attainment, with a focus on 5-16 year olds and poverty disadvantage. It contains teaching approaches and interventions, each summarised in terms of their average impact on attainment, the strength of the evidence supporting them and their cost. It is useful for education leaders and practitioners to inform decision making on the use of Pupil Equity Funding, raising attainment and improving equity. Many of the strands now include challenge questions to help support professional discussions. The toolkit is intended to be used in conjunction with the range of interventions and approaches provided through the framework above to encourage and enhance professional dialogue taking full account of the local context.

The Attainment Scotland Fund invests in a suite of national programmes delivered through third sector and other partner organisations to enhance supports across the system. Each of the four programmes deliver multiple projects in supporting a range of national initiatives such as showcasing youth work’s role in closing the attainment gap, work to address costs of the school day, capturing young people’s views and supporting the virtual school headteacher network. More information can be found below regarding a small selection of each of the projects:

CELCIS

The Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection (CELCIS) are based at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. They improve children’s lives by supporting the people and organisations responsible for their care.

Virtual School Head Teacher Network

Virtual school roles provide focused support for care experienced learners within local authorities. CELCIS run Scotland’s Virtual School Head Teacher Network. This network provides knowledge, research, good practice, and peer support. Members across the network collaborate to improve education for all care experienced learners.

Virtual School Head Teacher Role Profile

CELCIS published a Virtual School Head Teacher role profile. The profile offers practical guidance to support local authorities. This ensures consistent support for care experienced children, young people, and their families.

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG)

The Child Poverty Action Group provide information, training and support to bring about a society free from child poverty, where all children can enjoy a childhood without financial hardship and have a fair chance in life to reach their full potential.

Cost of the School Day Project

The Cost of the School Day project is run by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG). It helps schools and local authorities reduce financial barriers to learning. Cost of the school day resources help schools and local authorities to:

• develop approaches to reducing the cost of the school day
• involve the whole school community
• share good practice to reduce costs
• support children and families on low incomes

Contact the CPAG project team for further support and advice.

Cost of the School Day Voice network

The Cost of the School Day Voice Network help children and young people to share their views. Any school in Scotland can join the network and create a learner group. Learner groups receive regular communication and information about new opportunities and activities. They can attend termly online meetings to share their experiences and views. Each term the network also runs a leader meeting. Attendees offer support, share practice and discuss new ideas.

Contact the Cost of the School Day Voice Network to find out more.

Young Scot

Young Scot provide universal services for all young people in Scotland.

The Young Scot Equity PanelThe Young Scot Equity Panel help young people shape national programmes and policies. The group ensures fair debate and conversation between young people and decision makers.

The panel has 25 members from diverse backgrounds aged 11 to 24. They have contributed to:

• Mobile Phone Guidance (ScottishGovernment)
• the relationships and behaviour joint action plan 2024 to 2027 (Scottish Government)
• Education Scotland Attendance Resources
• the evaluation of the Attainment Scotland Fund

The Young Scot learning survey

Young Scot’s What I Need to Learn Survey was created with input from the Young Scot Equity Panel. The survey received 1,035 responses from children and young people aged 11 to 25. It included questions on:

• readiness to learn
• barriers to attendance and engagement
• the impact of the pandemic and cost of living crisis

YouthLink Scotland

YouthLink Scotland is the national agency for youth work in Scotland. Youth workers work alongside schools in communities across Scotland to support wellbeing, readiness to learn and educational outcomes.

Youth Work and Schools Partnerships

The Youth Work and Schools Partnerships team at YouthLink Scotland offer advice, tools and resources to help schools and youth work teams to:

• build effective partnerships
• plan and evaluate joint working

They also provide case studies and other evidence to show how youth work can collaborate with schools to:

• support engagement and attendance
• personalise learning
• support positive post-school destinations and outcomes

Youth Work and Schools Collaborative

YouthLink Scotland run the Youth Work and Schools Collaborative. This network offers online events to share practice and contribute to national policy. Contact YouthLink Scotland to get involved.

Education Scotland

Education Scotland is refocusing its work and the way it works to align with the wider aspirations of educational reform. With its focus on the curriculum, it will continue to promote approaches to improvement, helping educators to achieve equity through the curriculum. As the refocused Education Scotland develops it will provide guidance on the support it can offer to assist local authorities in using Pupil Equity Funding.

Guidance on School Improvement Planning including Standards and Quality reporting from Education Scotland. Local authorities will also offer their own packages of support for schools to help them plan how to use the funding effectively.

• More guidance can be found for Primary schools and early learning and childcare here: https://education.gov.scot/media/0qid0vsw/data-guide-primary-and-elc.pdf
• Secondary schools guidance is here: https://education.gov.scot/media/ca3c2gki/data-guide-secondary.pdf