Public performance reports

Education of children

Public Performance Reporting

The Council Plan Connect outlines our outcomes for 2022-27. Connect Outcomes should not be seen in isolation, they interact with each other and as we achieve success in one, we move closer to success in others. In delivering our vision to ‘improve the lives and prospects of everyone in South Lanarkshire’ our outcomes show how our work links with our partners including our Community Planning partners.

For daily updates, stories, and what’s going on in your area, visit our information and news website South Lanarkshire View.

Each year we publish Annual Performance Spotlights which summarise how we have performed in achieving our Connect Outcomes. To complement these we have created a suite of individual Public Performance Reports that focus on key areas of council business. This report outlines the performance of Education Resources and how this links to the outcomes.

The Education Resources Plan reflects the council’s key priorities for its schools and educational settings and is closely aligned with those set out in the council plan and in the National Improvement Framework.

The last two years have been challenging for everyone and the work undertaken by our schools and educational settings have been exceptional. We all hope we are now moving into a less turbulent period.

The national agenda for education is to close the equity gap. In summary, this includes improving the attainment of young people, particularly those from backgrounds of disadvantage, tackling poverty, improving literacy and numeracy, and in supporting learners to develop their skills for learning, life, and work. We will use the data we hold more effectively to help generate meaningful and sustained outcomes for children, young people, and families.

We will also ensure that Strategic Equity Funding is used to deliver targeted activities, approaches, or resources which are clearly additional to universal local improvement plans in line with the (Scottish Attainment Challenge Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress) and our own Equity Strategy.

Our priorities have been influenced and shaped following extensive consultation and engagement with stakeholders, including the views of children and young people.

There are over 49,000 young people attending nursery, primary, secondary, and additional support needs schools in South Lanarkshire. There are 124 primary schools one of which provides Gaelic medium education, 17 secondary schools one of which provides Gaelic medium education, seven additional support needs schools, and 23 supported provision bases in the South Lanarkshire area. Pre-school education is provided in 85 Early Years establishments, along with our partnership agreements with external providers: facilities include 65 nursery classes in schools, 20 community nurseries, and partnerships with 106 external providers.

You may find this ‘Glossary of Terms’ from the Education Scotland Parentzone website useful.

The expansion of Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) has brought a number of duties to the Local Authority under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. The council welcomed the opportunity for this development in recognition of how the expansion of ELC could help reduce the poverty related attainment gap and improve long term outcomes for children and families. In South Lanarkshire, all eligible children aged 2-5 years have been receiving 1140 hours of free Early Learning and Childcare. The council’s Expansion Plan presented an ambitious vision for ELC which extended beyond the national policy intention. We have delivered against the Early Learning and Childcare Delivery Plan approved in 2017 and have fully implemented the expansion of ELC across the council. The expansion was delivered through partnership working which included all of our stakeholders, our workforce, the Funded Providers and most importantly driven through continuous consultation with parents and carers and our youngest children.

Percentage of funded early years provision which is graded good/better
What this means	This indicator shows the quality of Early Years Provision by measuring the proportion of Early Learning and Childcare providers rated at least “good” for all quality themes, as a percentage of all funded Early Years Provision, which was inspected by the Care Inspectorate.
Why this matters	Improving the quality of early years provision is a cornerstone of the Early Years expansion programme. The aim is to provide high quality experience for all children, which complements other early years and educational activity to close the attainment gap and recognises the value of those we entrust to give our children the best start in life
Our performance and how we compare	Comparator	2019-20	2020-21	21-22	Are we improving?
	SLC	88.5	89.7	88.6	No
	Scotland	90.2	90.3	89.4	No
How we have performed	During the period following the re-opening of settings after the limitations of delivery during COVID, as well as dealing with the demands of the implementation of the delivery of 1140 hours, settings have been faced with a number of challenges which has reflected on inspection outcomes during this time. There has been a huge change in staffing, including management teams, across settings which in turn has impacted on the quality agenda as well as increased expectations from inspecting bodies during a time of change. Following support from South Lanarkshire Council and the Scottish Government Inspection Unit, we are seeing improvement within establishments and reinspection is confirming the improvements in most settings. All setting not achieving grades of good or above are participating in the Care Inspectorate ELC Improvement Programme.

The attainment of examination results by our young people is one way in which we can assess how well we are fulfilling our duties to educate our children.

The celebration of the success of young people also features prominently in schools and services as this helps to raise aspirations, self-esteem, and wellbeing. Young people achieved nationally recognised awards through the Youth, Family, and Community Learning Service, these included: the Duke of Edinburgh Awards (Bronze, Silver, and Gold), John Muir Awards, SQA Employability Awards, Dynamic Youth and Youth Achievement Awards.

The wider achievements of young people and their involvement in shaping their learning journey are having a positive impact with many achieving vocational qualifications, entering into modern apprenticeships as well as attending college to develop their skills through courses and learning programmes.

Achievement and Attainment
What this means	These are measures of the percentage of pupils gaining Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework awards. The Scottish Government provides a tool (Insight) that allows our results to be benchmarked with similar pupils from across Scotland. These are known as our "virtual comparator".
Why this matters	Raising the attainment and achievement of all children and young people helps to ensure that they are best prepared for life beyond school and helps to tackle the effects of poverty disadvantage and close the poverty-related attainment gap.
		School Session
Our performance and how we compare	Comparator	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	Are we improving? (see note below re direct comparison with the previous year)
Percentage of pupils gaining 5 or more awards at level 4 or better	SLC	88.0%	89.9%	91.2%	Yes
	Virtual Comparator	86.4%	87.6%	87.6%
	Scotland	85.8%	87.1%	90.0%
Percentage of pupils gaining 5 or more awards at level 5 or better	SLC	68.8%	72.6%	70.7%	No
	Virtual Comparator	69.8%	71.7%	70.4%
	Scotland	67.5%	70.4%	67.7%
How we have performed	The impact of different approaches to certification upon school leaver attainment due to Covid-19 means that care should be taken when making comparisons over time. Attainment figures for the years up to and including 2019 are derived from different awarding approaches than 2020 and, separately, 2021. For 2019-20 and 2020-21, the absence of external assessment information and the Scottish Government Ministerial direction to award estimated grades led to a different pattern of attainment than seen in previous years. The results for 2019-20 and 2020-21 should not be directly compared to those in previous years or future years. Performance of all school leavers in South Lanarkshire is generally in line with trends also shown in our Virtual Comparator and in the Scottish average results over the 3-year period. In session 2021/22 performance in South Lanarkshire is above the National level in all measures and above the virtual comparator in 2 out of 3 measures.

Percentage of Pupils from Deprived Areas Gaining 5+ Awards at Level 5 (SIMD) – not comparable to above as not based on leavers data	SLC	46.0	46.0	52.0	Yes
	Scotland	47.0	49.0	52.0	Yes
Percentage of Pupils from Deprived Areas Gaining 5+ Awards at Level 6 (SIMD) – not comparable to above as not based on leavers data	SLC	22.0	22.0	21.0	No
	Scotland	21.0	23.0	23.0	No
CHN12a Overall Average Total Tariff	SLC	936	1009	1007	No
CHN12a Overall Average Total Tariff	Scotland	930	972	981	No
How we have performed	The data in the table above are from the suite of measures published as part of the Local Authority Benchmarking Framework and are not directly comparable to those in the previous table as they are not solely based on school leavers. The impact of different approaches to certification upon school leaver attainment due to Covid-19 means that care should be taken when making comparisons over time. Attainment figures for the years up to and including 2019 are derived from different awarding approaches than 2020 and, separately, 2021. For 2019-20 and 2020-21, the absence of external assessment information and the Scottish Government Ministerial direction to award estimated grades led to a different pattern of attainment than seen in previous years. The results for 2019-20 and 2020-21 should not be directly compared to those in previous years or future years. The tariff scale indicator provides a measure of the latest and best achievement in each subject area for national qualifications and a range of wider awards. Performance in South Lanarkshire is generally in line with trends also shown in the Scottish average results over the 3-year period.

What this means	Children and young people, throughout their Broad General Education (P1-S3) are assessed regularly to ensure they are making progress. Each year, teachers at P1, P4, P7, and S3 stages report on the Curriculum for Excellence levels that have been achieved by their pupils. These teacher judgements are based on a range of evidence and are moderated within and between schools.
Why this matters	Curriculum for Excellence is designed to provide a coherent, more flexible, and enriched curriculum for children and young people from 3 to 18. The curriculum includes all of the experiences, which are planned for children and young people throughout their education.

Our performance and how we compare			School Session
Percentage of P1, P4 and P7 combined achieving appropriate CfE Level for their stage of better	Comparator		2018-19	2020-21	2021-22	Are we improving?
	SLC	Literacy	71.7%	70.2%	71.3%	Yes
	National	Literacy	72.3%	66.9%	70.5%
	SLC	Numeracy	79.2%	77.9%	79.1%
	National	Numeracy	79.1%	74.7%	77.9%
How we have performed	Please note there was no collection of data in 2019/20 due to Covid-19. In South Lanarkshire Council in 2021/22 performance improved and was above the national level in both literacy and numeracy. Direct comparison to previous years should take into consideration the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Further detail is available at: Scottish Exchange of Data: Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels

South Lanarkshire is a large authority with comparatively higher levels of deprivation. The ongoing work of the council and its partners to address the still significant issue of youth unemployment remains a priority. We continue to secure and offer many youth employability options catering for all levels of employability skills and experiences, including the Youth Employment Initiative, What’s With Work, H20 plus and Work it Out serving the earliest stages and young people with multiple barriers to employability.

Proportion of pupils entering positive destinations (initial destinations)
What this means	This measure assists schools in assessing how well they are preparing their young people for life beyond school.
Why this matters	By ensuring high levels of positive destinations for school leavers we are able to deliver the Developing the Young Workforce programme; enable young people to meet their potential; support a high skill economy and minimise the long term effects of long periods of unemployment.
Our performance and how we compare	Comparator	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	Are we improving?
	SLC	94.8%	96.2%	96.2%	Equal
	Scotland	93.3%	95.5%	95.7%	Equal
How we have performed	The proportion of pupils entering positive destinations in South Lanarkshire remains high and is above the national level.

Our customer satisfaction scores shown below come from the Scottish Household Survey which is undertaken by the Scottish Government in which a small sample of residents are asked questions about our Services. This survey is not routinely conducted with parents/carers of pupils attending schools and so we also show the scores from South Lanarkshire Council’s own Household Survey which is issued to all residents in South Lanarkshire.

Percentage of adults satisfied with local schools
What this means	This indicator tells us how satisfied residents are with the quality of public services delivered by our local schools. This data is taken from the Scottish Household Survey and is presented in 3 year rolled averages.
Why this matters	It is important to capture some element of the quality of children’s services in terms of the service user’s opinions. Currently, the only data for this, which is comparable across all 32 Scottish councils, is measured from data gathered by the Scottish Household Survey.
Our performance and how we compare	Comparator	2016-19	2017-20	2018-21	Are we improving?
	SLC (National survey)	76.1%	76.5%	75.8%	No
	Scotland	71.8%	71.8%	74.5%	No
How we have performed	In the Scottish household survey average for 2018-21, 75.8% of adults expressed satisfaction with local schools; this is below the national average. To see how we compare against other councils, links to the data are available in the 'Benchmarking' paragraph on the Improvement and how we compare page on our website.

In 2015 South Lanarkshire Council had the vision to transform our old school buildings into high quality, vibrant, modern, inspirational places of learning and teaching fit for 21st century education and Curriculum for Excellence. This was a programme of consultation and communication involving stakeholder representatives from a mix of teaching and other staff, parents, children, and the local community. Our children and staff deserve the best and, with a dedicated specialist team in place, we embarked on the largest school building programme in the UK. By autumn 2019 the council’s ambitious modernisation programme of all Nursery Establishments, Additional Support Needs (ASN), Primary and Secondary schools was complete. With a capital cost of approximately £1.2 billion, the programme has consisted of the new build, or major refurbishment, of 12 Nursery Centres; 124 Mainstream Primary Schools (including 63 nursery classes); 4 ASN Primary Schools; 3 ASN Secondary Schools and 17 Mainstream Secondary Schools – making a total of 160 modernised educational establishments.

Every school pupil in South Lanarkshire is now taught in a modern education establishment that supports and contributes to high quality learning and teaching.

National data is only collected once every two years. The table below gives a comparison of the last 3 available data collections.

Follow this link for Information on how to support your child through school.

Percentage attendance at school
What this means	We collect information on the number of times pupils attend school and show this as a percentage of the total number of possible attendances. National data is only published every second year.
Why this matters	A high level of pupil attendance will ensure that there is more opportunity for all pupils to engage and increases the continuity of their learning. Through Integrated Children’s Services, each locality has an attendance tracking process that ensures there is early identification of any issues and provides children and their families with additional support if required.
Our performance and how we compare	Comparator	2016-17	2018-19	2020-21	Are we improving?
Overall attendance	SLC	93.4%	92.9%	91.6%	No
Overall attendance	Scotland	93.3%	92.9%	92.0%	No
How we have performed	There was a slight decrease in the attendance rate compared with the previous results in SLC and at the national level. However, during 2020/21 there was disruption to school attendance caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. To see how we compare against other councils, links to the data are available in the 'Benchmarking' paragraph on the Improvement and how we compare page on our website.

Exclusion incidents per 1,000 pupils
What this means	These indicators measure the number of exclusion incidents per 1,000 pupils. National data is only published every second year.
Why this matters	Schools minimise exclusion by meeting the needs of all pupils who are part of their school community, whatever their ability, background, or social circumstances, and by promoting positive relationships and behaviours. Exclusion is a last resort when all other reasonable courses of action have been exhausted or are inappropriate.
Our performance and how we compare	Comparator	2016-17	2018-19	2020-21	Are we improving?
Exclusion incidents per 1,000 pupils	SLC	27.9	21.2	12.6	Yes
Exclusion incidents per 1,000 pupils	Scotland	26.8	21.7	11.9	Yes
Exclusion incidents per 1,000 looked after pupils	SLC	239.32	156.35	81.57	Yes
Exclusion incidents per 1,000 looked after pupils	Scotland	210.15	152.16	77.81	Yes
How we have performed	Exclusions in schools are not common and the exclusion rate per 1,000 pupils remains very low (approximately 0.02% of attendance). The results show exclusions per 1,000 pupils reducing in 2020/21. However, during 2020/21 there was disruption to school attendance caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The exclusion rate can fluctuate but tends to be in line with the national average. To see how we compare against other councils, links to the data are available in the 'Benchmarking' paragraph on the Improvement and how we compare page on our website.

Council Outcome: Communities and Environment

Children and young people are actively engaged in activities that empower them to influence and shape decisions that affect them and their communities through for example the Youth Council and the Youth Forum which was established by young people for young people following COP26 in Glasgow.
Young people and staff are actively involved in tackling some of the actions to improve climate change with a Sustainability Working Group established and a Youth Forum up and running.
A total of 378 participants have been involved in the Pathfinder Programme project over the course of the year providing a caring and secure base and safe haven for young people.
Schools have been empowered to lead their sustainability plan in a range of ways, including via the Young Person’s Sustainability Forum and the Climate Emergency Newsroom. Both mechanisms are led by young people who are then provided with opportunities to take their learning and leadership skills back to their learning communities and lead initiatives in the context of their local area.
A refreshed Local Child Poverty Action Report and the summary was published to ensure effective delivery of tackling poverty policy and raise awareness of the priorities across all partner organisations
Work on reducing the ‘cost of the school day’ continues with financial support for families affected by poverty being provided through, Free School Meal (FSM) and the highly successful SLC Winter Clothing Campaign with over 1000 new or nearly new winter jackets donated and distributed.

Council Outcome: Education and Learning

Over 5,700 Chromebook devices were procured and made available to pupils as part of a successful bid for funds from the Scottish Government. 570 mobile wifi (Mifi) devices were also distributed to families who had little, or no, internet access.

Council Outcome: Health and wellbeing

Guidance has been developed for schools to support the implementation of a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing. The new Joint Assessment Team (JAT) guidelines have been launched in all Secondary Schools and training provided for all Headteachers and Pupil Support DHTs. Multi-agency training commenced with input from the GIRFEC Strategy Group and Child Protection Committee.

Council Outcome: Children and young people:

The roll out of the ‘care experienced employability pilot’ continued to support care experienced young people aged 16-24 to develop their skills and experiences to achieve sustained positive destinations with 5 young people supported to take up Modern Apprenticeship posts with the council.
Young people continue to gain a range of nationally recognised awards through Youth Family and Community Learning programmes, including Discovery, Dynamic Youth, Elementary Food Hygiene, Steps to Excellence, Incredible Years, John Muir, Hi5, National Navigation, Sports Leaders, Young STEM, Wilderness Skills, and Duke of Edinburgh. There was an online awards ceremony held in March that was hosted by the Provost.
Over 800 learners participated in nationally recognised awards through participation in Youth Family and Community Learning achieving achieved a range of awards including Duke of Edinburgh awards, John Muir awards, Youth Achievement, and PSP Awards.
MCR Pathways currently supports 346 care-experienced and disadvantaged S1-S6 young people across 6 Secondary schools in South Lanarkshire ensuring learners are supported to make informed decisions regarding future careers and course choices.

Council Outcome: Delivering the Plan and achieving Best Value

The Foundation Apprenticeship (FA) and GradU8 programmes have continued to be delivered throughout the academic year 2021/22. All learning was delivered in person in college or FA hubs. The majority of young people completed as planned despite the additional challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Both Larkhall Academy and St Andrew’s and St Bride’s High School were awarded the highly prestigious ‘Excellence in Professional Learning Award – Quality Mark by the General Teaching Council for Scotland.

Resource Plans are prepared each year by all council Resources to outline the key developments they intend to take forward in the year. Performance and actions relating to Education of children can be found in the following Resource Plans:

Twice a year, performance reports are presented to council committees on progress against the Resource Plans. In addition, reports detailing progress against the Council Plan Connect objectives are prepared. See Quarter 2 (September) and Quarter 4 (March - year end) performance reports for further information.

More information on our outcomes can be found in the Council Plan Connect and also the Annual Performance Spotlights.

Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) allows councils to work together, to use performance information in a way which will help understand variations, share knowledge, expertise and good practice, with a view to making improvements. For more information and links relating to this framework go to the 'Benchmarking' paragraph on the Improvement and how we compare page on our website.

The information contained within this report reflects the position based on the data available at the time of publication (March 2023).