Item 08 - Strategy for Excellence and Equity
West Dunbartonshire Council · 26 November 2025
Back to Educational Services Committee — 26 November 2025 and its agenda
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL Report by Gillian Hamilton, Chief Education Officer Educational Services Committee: 26 November 2025 Subject: Strategy for Excellence and Equity 1. Purpose 1.1 To provide an update on progress to deliver improved outcomes for excellence and equity; and to outline how the service is building capacity for national education reform. 1.2 This report is for noting. 2. Recommendations 2.1 The Educational Services Committee is asked to note: the robust improvement programme implemented to deliver improved outcomes; the programme to implement an exit from the Strategic Equity Fund; and current and future expectations on schools to deliver reform in curriculum, assessment and qualifications. 3. Background 3.1 As reported to Committee in September, the service continues to make strong progress in delivering outcomes for excellence and equity. 3.2 The strategy for excellence and equity is designed to strengthen progress made in Early Years, Broad General Education and Senior Phase attainment and achievement in session 2024. 3.3 The strategy takes account of the tapered Strategic Equity Funding, 2022 to 2027 which has been used to support West Dunbartonshire’s progress with excellence and equity outcomes. 3.4 In June 2025, the Scottish Government published a progress update and outlined next steps for reforming curriculum, qualifications and assessment (Appendix 1). The reform places a strong emphasis on excellent learning and teaching as a key driver of improved outcomes. It signals a shift away from the perceived over-reliance on high-stakes annual examinations in the Senior Phase, towards more engaging, inclusive learning experiences and broader recognition of achievement throughout a young person’s learner journey. An indicative timeline for reform is 2025 to 2031. ITEM 8
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3.5 The service is committed to setting clear, streamlined expectations and priorities for schools—supporting both the phased exit from the Strategic Equity Fund and the effective delivery of national reform. 3.6 Committee will receive regular updates on service readiness and progress in delivering the reform programme, ensuring robust governance and accountability throughout the implementation period. The Chief Education Officer will monitor progress at the Excellence and Equity Board and a newly established Education Reform Board. 4. Main Issues 4.1 The Improvement Framework West Dunbartonshire’s progress in performance outcomes is underpinned by a robust improvement framework, strengthened through strong collaboration between officers and schools. A key priority this session is to reduce variability within and across schools and early learning centres. 4.1.1 Between September and November, officers conducted visits to all schools and early learning centres to review: Attainment and equity gap performance Progress with implementing improvement plan priorities. Quality of provision across indoor and outdoor learning environments. Staffing arrangements. Use of data to inform targeted interventions and deployment of Pupil Equity Funding. Staff and pupil wellbeing. 4.1.2 Headteachers have partnered with officers to conduct a series of ‘deep dive’ monitoring visits across seven schools, using national indicators to evaluate leadership, learning, teaching, assessment, wellbeing, and attainment. The visits provide opportunity for review of performance and sharing of practice by colleague headteachers. 4.1.3 In the second year of strengthened secondary attainment reviews, headteachers have been consulted on extending the approach to include Curriculum and Principal Teachers. Staff participating in the programme engage in professional dialogue and collaborative evaluation with senior officers, senior leaders from other schools, and the attainment advisor. This strengthened model is designed to build collective capacity for improving attainment and equity outcomes. 4.1.4 A second cohort of Data Leads are maintaining our strong focus on using data to drive improvement. A new Early Stages Data Leads programme will, support early years practitioners to maximise use of the Broad General Education Toolkit and Early Years datasets. This model promotes data- informed practice across all establishments, ensuring that improvement priorities and resources take account of a school’s data profile.
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4.2 Strategic Equity Fund Exit Strategy Workstreams have been adjusted to reflect the tapering of Strategic Equity Funding. 4.2.1 In 2025/26, West Dunbartonshire’s allocation is £851, 743 compared to £2,043,815 in 2021/2022. 4.2.2 In academic session 2025/26 funding is directed to officers leading service- wide and targeted improvement priorities with a focus on: School leadership. Learning, teaching, and assessment. Curriculum provision. Data use and performance analysis. Management of the Pupil Equity Fund. Wellbeing supports to include and engage children and young people. 4.2.3 Schools continue to utilise PEF to deliver a range of wellbeing and attainment programmes during and beyond the school day. Detailed planning for session 2025/6 is outlined in school improvement plans. Headteachers are currently reviewing short- and long-term posts supported by PEF, in line with the Scottish Government’s commitment to maintain this funding until 2027. 4.3 Curriculum, Qualifications and Assessment Reform West Dunbartonshire is committed to strong partnership working with stakeholders to develop plans for education reform. The service will build on existing strong work and review the impact of current and future change on priorities and resource provision. 4.3.1 WDC Curriculum Review: Primary and secondary headteachers are reviewing the curriculum and qualifications offer to identify what is working well in meeting learner needs, supporting progression, and assessing skills from primary through early secondary into the Senior Phase. Headteachers are committed to building on existing good practice and are actively engaged in review and development within their own schools, across Local Learning Communities, and with third sector partners 4.3.2 Learner Profile: a sample of primary and secondary schools are participating in a national pilot of the Skills Development Scotland learner profile, called ‘My Profile’ which is a digital tool that allows learners to record achievements, skills and strengths from all areas of their life – school, home and the community. West Dunbartonshire’s primaries are in a strong place to profile children’s learning using the West Dunbartonshire Competencies Framework which supports progression in six key skills: creativity, collaboration, communication, character, citizenship, and critical thinking. From the upper stages of primary into secondary, the focus shifts to the development of meta-skills aligned with the national profile. Detail about meta- skills is provided at (Appendix 2).
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4.3.3 Assessment and Moderation: lead teachers from all schools meet each term to share standards about quality assessments in primary and secondary. A key priority of this work is the promotion of the value of a range of ways to assess learning ensuring a balance of pupil dialogue, written work and formal assessments. This work is building quality assessment practices across all schools. 4.3.4 Learning and Teaching: this is year 3 of the authority ‘Visible Learning Strategy’, which promotes high-quality interactions between teachers and learners to improve outcomes. Staff have evaluated their impact on children’s learning by gathering assessment evidence and feedback from children and young people. The programme has also encouraged staff to taking on coaching and mentoring roles in their schools to moderate the quality of teaching and learning practices. 4.2.3 Local Learning Communities (LLCs) Priorities for curriculum, wellbeing and assessment are being developed in each LLC with early years, primary and secondary staff working together under the leadership of 5 seconded LLC Lead headteachers. 4.4.1 Vale of Leven (LLC): A cross-sector curriculum initiative—Your Vale, Your Vision is underway involving consultation and collaboration with children and young people about their future aspirations for the community. The project encourages children to develop skills in communication, creativity and collaboration. To strengthen shared knowledge of curriculum from primary to secondary a depute headteacher from Vale of Leven Academy undertook a week-long placement at Bonhill Primary to review learning, teaching, and assessment approaches. 4.4.2 Clydebank High (LLC): school leaders are co-designing a curriculum overview to ensure progressive, skills-based experiences across all stages. Staff are participating in the authority-wide Count With Me training programme to embed consistent, high-quality numeracy practice in all classrooms. 4.4.3 Our Lady and St Patrick’s (LLC): a family- based approach to monitoring attendance is being piloted with joint early years, primary and secondary school staff providing support for families needing support. Another joint project underway is moderation of maths assessments primary / secondary which is supporting a review of how assessment evidence is used to inform planning maths / numeracy primary 7 to first year. 4.4.4 St Peter the Apostle (LLC): Leaders and teachers are building assessment- capable practice across sectors, focusing on effective feedback to improve learning and teaching. A test of change involving three schools and three ELCCs on the Learning to Read Early Years Programme to support consistent, high-quality reading instruction from early years into primary.
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4.4.5 Dumbarton Academy(LLC): Staff continue to embed the CIRCLE Framework, with Early Years focusing on Up, Up and Away aimed at improving inclusive practices using a consistent approach from early years through to secondary. All schools are aiming to achieve Silver Rights Respecting Schools Awards following all achieving Bronze last session. 5. People Implications 5.1 As reported to Council in June 2022 the Scottish Attainment Challenge funding enabled the provision of additional temporary (seconded) funded posts within the education service, partner council services and external providers. The annual (tapered) decrease in funding by 2026 will reduce the number of staff available to deliver in these areas with the seconded staff returning to their substantive posts, and any backfill element will cease. 5.2 The tapered decrease in funding by 2026 will reduce the number of Strategic Equity Funded posts: 2021/22 - 41.5 funded posts 2022/23 - 39.0 funded posts 2023/24 - 35.0 funded posts 2024/25 - 28.0 funded posts 2025/26 - 24.07 funded posts 5.3 In addition to the Strategic Equity Fund allocated to the local authority, West Dunbartonshire schools also receive Pupil Equity Funding (PEF). A funding commitment has been confirmed until 2026/27. Since the introduction of PEF in 2016, temporary funded posts have been established to support children and families. In academic session 2024/25, West Dunbartonshire schools received £3.1 million through PEF. Table 1 below outlines how this funding was used: Table 1 Pupil Equity Fund use in West Dunbartonshire schools in 2024/25 % Used Teachers 47% Pupil and Family Support Workers, Learning Assistants and Early Learning and Childcare Officers 24% Classroom Materials 7% Administrative Costs 3% Professional Learning 6% Residential and Experiential Learning Trips 2% Food and Uniforms 1% Transport 1% Other 10%
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5.4 Changes to funding is particularly pressing given the increasing number of children with Additional Support Needs, West Dunbartonshire’s equalities health profile and higher-than-average poverty levels. Reduction in personnel places additional strain on support services for children and families. 6. Financial and Procurement Implications 6.1 The Education Committee will be aware that funding from the Scottish Government underpins the Strategy for Excellence and Equity. Following the announcement of a tapered reduction in Strategic Equity Funding in 2022, West Dunbartonshire has experienced a decrease in annual income. This reduction has directly impacted the service’s capacity to deliver key strategic priorities aligned with excellence and equity 6.2 Since its inception in 2015/16 to March 2024 the Council received £15,834,008 in funding. Please note that in financial year 2025/26 the funding available to West Dunbartonshire has reduced by over 50% compared to 2021/22.Table 2 provides the detail of the annual reduction in funding up to 2026: Table 2 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 £2,043,815 Reduction of £298,018 (-15%) £1,745,797 Reduction of £298,018 (-17%) £1,447,779 Reduction of £298,018 (-21%) £1,149,761 Reduction of £298,018 (-26%) £851,743 6.3 While the Scottish Government has committed to continuing Strategic Equity Funding into the first year of the new parliamentary term, the specific allocation for West Dunbartonshire has not yet been confirmed, creating uncertainty around future planning and service delivery capacity. 7. Risk Analysis 7.1 Current budget constraints and the reduced funding model could impact negatively on sustained improvement in future academic sessions. However, we will continue to monitor this closely to inform future planning. 8. Equalities Impact Assessment 8.1 A full Equality Impact Assessment was submitted to Committee in March 2022 and identified that the decrease in funding will reduce capacity. Scope exists to mitigate impact with the development of the Strategy for Excellence and Equity 2023-2027.
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9. Consultation 9.1 Legal Services and the Section 95 Officer have been consulted in relation to the content of this report. 10. Strategic Assessment 10.1 This report reflects the Council’s overarching priority to support our communities to thrive. Gillian Hamilton Chief Education Officer 11 November 2025 __________________________________________________________________ Person to Contact: Julie McGrogan, Senior Education Officer, Department of Education, Learning and Attainment, Council Offices, 16 Church Street, Dumbarton, G82 1QL Email: julie.mcgrogan@west-dunbarton.gov.uk Appendix: 1. Scottish Government, June 2025 Curriculum, Assessment and Qualification Reform 2. Skills Development Scotland Meta Skills Poster Background Papers: Equality Impact Assessment – March 2022 Wards Affected: All wards
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