Education and Skills Committee Wednesday 28 November 2018 Session 5 © Parliamentary copyright. Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body Information on the Scottish Parliament’s copyright policy can be found on the website - www.parliament.scot or by contacting Public Information on 0131 348 5000 Wednesday 28 November 2018 CONTENTS Col. DECISION ON TAKING BUSINESS IN PRIVATE ....................................................................................................... 1 SCHOOL SUPPORT STAFF (DATA) ...................................................................................................................... 2 EDUCATION AND SKILLS COMMITTEE 29th Meeting 2018, Session 5 CONVENER *Clare Adamson (Motherwell and Wishaw) (SNP) DEPUTY CONVENER *Johann Lamont (Glasgow) (Lab) COMMITTEE MEMBERS *Dr Alasdair Allan (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP) *Jenny Gilruth (Mid Fife and Glenrothes) (SNP) *Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) *Ross Greer (West Scotland) (Green) *Gordon MacDonald (Edinburgh Pentlands) (SNP) *Rona Mackay (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (SNP) *Oliver Mundell (Dumfriesshire) (Con) *Tavish Scott (Shetland Islands) (LD) *Liz Smith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con) *attended THE FOLLOWING ALSO PARTICIPATED: Alasdair Anthony (Scottish Government) Roger Halliday (Scottish Government) Laura Meikle (Scottish Government) Mick Wilson (Scottish Government) CLERK TO THE COMMITTEE Roz Thomson LOCATION Committee Room 6 1 28 NOVEMBER 2018 2 Scottish Parliament School Support Staff (Data) Education and Skills Committee 10:01 Wednesday 28 November 2018 The Convener: Item 2 is an evidence session on the availability of information on school support staff data collected as part of the school staff [The Convener opened the meeting at 10:01] census. The session will focus on the changes to the presentation of statistics, including the merging Decision on Taking Business in of categories relating to additional support needs Private support staff and the changing of the publication status of a number of categories so that staff The Convener (Clare Adamson): Good figures are available on request as opposed to morning and welcome to the 29th meeting in 2018 being published as standard. of the Education and Skills Committee. I remind I welcome to the meeting from the Scottish everyone to turn their mobile phones to silent, or Government Roger Halliday, who is the chief off, so that they do not disrupt the meeting. statistician and data officer; Alasdair Anthony, who Agenda item 1 is a decision on whether to take is a statistician and head of the school, staff and item 3 in private. Do members agree to take that pupil census statistics team; Laura Meikle, who is item in private? the learning directorate’s head of the support and wellbeing unit; and Mick Wilson, who is acting Members indicated agreement. deputy director, education analysis. I invite Mick Wilson to make opening comments. Mick Wilson (Scottish Government): I thought that it would be useful to put the data that we are here to discuss and the points that you have listed into a bit of context, in terms of both the statistics and the processes that are used to collect, assess and publish those data. A range of data collection exercises are undertaken on education throughout the year. A number of those are census-type collections, which are conducted in parallel over the autumn. We are at the end of the 2018 collections across a range of things. Although all those collections are related and happen in parallel, they are distinct exercises and have important differences between them. No doubt we will come to some of those throughout our conversation. Our primary sources of data are the pupil census and the teacher census, which are probably the most well-recognised collections across the system. We also conduct the non- teaching school staff census from which the support staff data come, the primary school class data collection and the school establishment collection. Every two years, we collect data on attendance, absence and exclusions in schools. A range of other collections are carried out throughout the year, including collections on school meal provision and physical education provision, and a range of data exercises relating to pupil performance and outcomes. The autumn administrative collections are supplied to the Scottish Government directly by local authorities and, in some cases, by schools, particularly grant-aided schools. The quality 3 28 NOVEMBER 2018 4 assurance process starts with their initial collection sources of information on the same or similar of the data, which they use for the day-to-day topics. Our approach is generally to publish as running of the education system. They hold those much information as possible in as accessible a data on their management information systems for format as possible, without releasing data that we regular use. know to be misleading, incomplete or erroneous. Quality assurance is built into each stage of the Education data are probably more in the process, so schools, local authorities and the spotlight now than at any other time in recent Scottish Government all have a role to play in that memory. That brings a requirement to continually process. The precise arrangements vary a little bit improve their fitness for purpose; it also more between the collections, depending on the nature often brings us closer to the practical limits of the of the data and the amount of detail that we power of the data that we collect. Therefore, collect. Ultimately, the data are signed off by simply replicating what has gone before will not directors in local authorities prior to being always provide the most useful or accurate data, published by the Scottish Government. and it is right that we take action to investigate and address any anomalies in the data or issues During those administrative data collections, we raised by data providers throughout the process. collect and process what amounts to tens of millions of pieces of data relating to 2,500 schools, No decision to make changes to the around 700,000 pupils, 70,000 teachers and more presentation of official statistics is taken lightly. In than 20,000 support staff across the system. That this case, the requirement to reflect on-going enables us to publish more than 100,000 statistics. changes in the relative importance of support staff In addition, we release bespoke data sets and data, as against other elements of education analyses throughout the year for a wide range of data—teachers and class sizes, for example— users, including researchers and academics, the meant that a deeper examination was warranted media, the general public, politicians and when a potential issue was highlighted to us. The parliamentary committees. resulting changes provide a more reliable data set than would have been the case if we had left those The code of practice for official statistics sets a unaddressed. framework for our approach to handling data and producing statistics. It is there to ensure the Ross Greer (West Scotland) (Green): On the quality, value and trustworthiness of the statistics process for the timeline of publications, typically, that are produced by organisations such as the the data is collected for a date in September, the Scottish Government, and it provides us with initial publication is in December and guidance on specific aspects of producing supplementary data is published in March. For the statistics, such as ensuring that the burden on most recent set of data, the supplementary set data providers is proportionate and that came in July. Was that a one-off, because this appropriately qualified professionals are used was the year in which you began making the throughout the process. The ultimate responsible changes that we are here to discuss, or will that be for ensuring that the code of practice is adhered to the new timeline for the publication of data? in the Scottish Government rests with the chief Alasdair Anthony (Scottish Government): statistician. Yes, that is right—the data was released slightly The purpose of the administrative data later than it has been in the past because of the collections in education, as with all other sectors, additional quality assurance checks. We have is to describe—it is to paint a picture of the subject announced that the supplementary data from the to which the data relate. They can only ever play staff census, pupil census and whatnot will next back practice in the system or paint a picture of come out in March 2019. the system. They do not and should not define or Ross Greer: Brilliant—thank you. constrain practice in a system. However, they do and should facilitate debate and discussion about When the supplementary data was published practice in the system. Any statistical collection or earlier this year, it came with a notice explaining publication does not exist in isolation or for its own that additional data would be provided on request. sake; it needs to remain relevant, reflecting current When I requested that additional data, my request or likely future situations, while ensuring that as was treated under freedom of information rules. robust and accurate a picture as possible can be That seems like an odd and onerous process to go presented. through when soliciting requests for additional data. Will that be the process going forward? What we publish and how we publish it needs to be a balance between a number of factors. Those Alasdair Anthony: The data that we will publish include known limits or restrictions to the data, in March 2019 will be available on the website as previous practice on publication, public interest, normal as part of the published stats tables. We current issues and the context in which we are have not yet decided what we will do about the presenting the data, and the availability of other information that we released as management 5 28 NOVEMBER 2018 6 information—the additional categories of staff that assistants and ASN auxiliaries, as we did in the were not proactively published originally.