Strategic Equity Funding: national operational guidance 2026-2027

Use of Strategic Equity Funding

How can it be used?

This funding should be used by local authorities to undertake strategic approaches to achieve the mission of the Scottish Attainment Challenge, with a clear focus on delivering equity through improving outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty.

The three organisers of learning and teaching, leadership, and, families and communities, should shape local approaches.

Within those, the following five key indicators may be helpful to take into consideration when deciding which approaches would have the most impact for children and young people impacted by poverty.

• Attainment and Achievement
• Attendance
• Inclusion
• Engagement
• Participation

The funding should be focused on appropriately targeted resources, activities and approaches for learners impacted by poverty, and which will lead to improvements in literacy, numeracy and support health and wellbeing.

High-quality early learning and childcare (ELC) can make an important contribution to children’s outcomes, life chances and continuing readiness to learn, particularly when they are growing up in more disadvantaged circumstances. It can also supports children to recover from the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is clear evidence that high-quality support in the earliest years is critical to ensuring all children have the chance to learn and develop to their full potential. Strategic Equity Funding can therefore be used to provide support for a learner’s transition between ELC settings – such as nurseries – and primary schools. Families who access their ELC in private and third sector settings are equally eligible for this support. Funding should not be used in ways that stigmatises children and young people or their parents and carers.

Research clearly outlines that effective learning and teaching plays an integral part in closing the poverty-related attainment gap and having excellent practitioners will have the biggest impact on learning and teaching. Evidence suggests this has a significant impact on children and young people. Therefore, approaches that improve learning and teaching and build leadership capacity to ensure a sustainable impact should be considered.

Education Scotland have also published a range of evidence detailing how the Attainment Scotland Fund programmes, are helping to close the poverty related attainment gap.

Local authorities should work strategically across their school communities, which includes children and young people and their families, and collaboratively with their school leaders to develop approaches to improving the health and wellbeing and educational attainment and achievement of children and young people impacted by poverty.

To contribute to this, local authorities may wish to consider the School Aged Childcare provision.

The provision of school age childcare (SACC) contributes to improving outcomes for children and families, tackling child poverty, and reducing inequalities. High-quality SACC can promote positive social interactions and relationships, build social skills and confidence, and can help improve attendance, behaviour and attainment. These benefits can be particularly important for children from low-income families.

Schools play an important role in enabling access to affordable and accessible SACC and some schools already use Scottish Attainment Challenge funding for this purpose. This funding may be used to support such as provision breakfast clubs, which help children and families at the start of the day, or activities/childcare clubs after the school day which can also provide much needed support.

Consideration should be given to how the local authority can work with wider local services, such as Community Learning and Development, Social Work, Family Services or income maximisation/support services, and with community or third sector partners to put in place sustainable partnership approaches to supporting the health and wellbeing, attainment and outcomes of children and young people impacted by poverty.

Consideration can also be given to approaches that encompass Learning for Sustainability (LfS). LfS is a cross-curricular approach which enables learners, educators, learning settings and their wider communities to build a socially just, sustainable and equitable society. An effective whole-setting approach to LfS weaves together global citizenship, sustainable development education and outdoor learning to create coherent, rewarding and transformative learning experiences.