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I am sorry, but I thought that you said that we could not quantify it.

I have two very quick questions. You have a quarterly progress meeting with the Scottish Government on the topics that we have been discussing. Where would one go to find the inputs and outputs of those meetings?

Good morning, and welcome to the 13th meeting in 2022 of the Education, Children and Young People Committee. Agenda item 1 is an evidence session with Education Scotland officials as part of our Scottish attainment challenge inquiry. I welcome Craig Clement and Patricia Watson, who are strategic directors; Pamela Di Nardo, who is a senior regional adviser; and Elizabeth Sommerville, who is an attainment adviser.

Just before the meeting started, we were celebrating the fact that this is our first committee meeting in this parliamentary session in which everybody—committee members and witnesses—has been in the room. We are really happy about that; we hope that it is a sign of good times to come.

I want to share a quote from Education Scotland:

“Education Scotland will evaluate the impact of their work against the outcomes and measures set out in the organisation’s corporate plan and draw on stakeholder feedback to support this; and through the Attainment Scotland Fund evaluation by Scottish Government.”

What outcomes and measures are we talking about?

Before we get too far into the meeting, I should say that whoever is in the best position to answer a question should indicate so, and I will bring them in. Who is best qualified to answer that question?

Willie Rennie is right. It has dawned on a lot of us in the committee that headteachers’ leadership calibre is the critical factor in the performance of a range of indicators. We heard some amazing stories when we were interacting with teachers and parents. The committee would be interested in learning more about the leadership development programmes that are being used and successfully deployed, and the effect of those programmes. That is a subject that we would want to come back to.

Michael Marra has a supplementary question.

Our next petition is PE1668, on improving literacy standards in schools through research-informed reading instructions. The petition, which was lodged by Anne Glennie, urges the Scottish Government, first, to provide national guidance, support and professional learning for teachers in research-informed reading instruction—specifically, systematic synthetic phonics—and, secondly, to ensure that teacher training institutions train new teachers in research-informed reading instruction, specifically systematic synthetic phonics.

Our committee papers provide an outline of the action that was taken on the petition during session 5 by the Public Petitions Committee and the Education and Skills Committee. The session 5 Education and Skills Committee was undertaking an inquiry into initial teacher education and the early phase of teaching. Ahead of the formal evidence sessions for its inquiry, the committee agreed to take evidence from the petitioner to allow the broader issues raised by the petition to be explored. It also agreed that the session would include a focus on any issues that could inform the inquiry.

The session, which was set for 18 March 2020, did not take place, as a result of the Covid pandemic, and the committee was unable to restart its inquiry on ITE owing to other work that it undertook on scrutinising the response to the pandemic.

Do members have any comments on the petition?

Absolutely—the cudgels will still be there to be picked up.

Ruth has summed it up nicely.

That is a fair point. Ruth’s summary captures the sentiment of everyone who has spoken.

That brings the public part of the meeting to an end. I ask members to reconvene on Microsoft Teams in a few minutes. Come to think of it, there is no one on Teams. We will consider our final items in private. I wish those who are watching proceedings a very good afternoon.

Good morning, and welcome to the 12th meeting in 2022 of the Education, Children and Young People Committee.

The first item on our agenda is an evidence session as part of our Scottish attainment challenge inquiry. We will take evidence from representatives of local authorities. I am delighted to welcome to the committee room Ruth Binks, who is the director of education, communities and organisational development at Inverclyde Council; Gerry Lyons, who is the head of education at Glasgow City Council; Tony McDaid, who is the executive director of education resources at South Lanarkshire Council; and Mark Ratter, who is the director of education at East Renfrewshire Council. Good morning to you all. I think that this is the first time in the sixth session of the Parliament that we have been able to have all our witnesses with us in the committee room, which is wonderful. You are making a little bit of history today. I thank you for your time.

I will begin with a couple of straightforward questions. We have often heard it said that the additional funds that have come through attainment challenge funding have been used to plug gaps that have arisen because of cuts that would otherwise have had to be made because of the reduction in central Government funding for local government. How do you react to that? Is there a case for saying that that has happened? Is it still happening? Let us start by hearing from Ruth Binks.