Which of its policies contribute to its goal of closing the attainment gap, and how much it has spent on such policies in each year since 2…

The Scottish Government’s vision for education is to achieve excellence and equity. Therefore, consideration of equity, which includes in terms of poverty, is a factor in all education policy. However, the Scottish Attainment Challenge is the principal policy and investment to address the poverty related attainment gap. The Scottish Attainment Challenge began in 2015, when funding was distributed to targeted local authorities through the Schools Programme and Challenge Authorities. In 2017, the Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) was introduced, providing funding direct to schools. In 2018, the Care Experienced Children and Young People fund (CECYP) began, providing funding to local authorities to enable them to target initiatives, activities, and resources that will improve the educational outcomes of this group of young people.In 2022, the Scottish Attainment Challenge was refreshed, and the ‘Schools Programme and ‘Challenge Authorities’ funds were replaced by Strategic Equity Funding (SEF) which provided grants to all 32 local authorities.The National Programmes include a range of initiatives to policies to close the poverty related attainment gap, including support for various third sector organisations including Young Scot, Child Poverty Action Group and Youth Link; investment in Education Scotland attainment advisors, CELCIS work in co-ordination the virtual school headteachers network, teacher leadership training, training of educational psychologists.There is a further suite of policies, outwith SAC, which contribute to both the government’s vision of excellence and equity and the ambition to eradicate child poverty by reducing the cost of the school day and improving readiness to learn. These have contributed to reducing the poverty related gap by 60% (or three-fifths) since 2009-10 for young people leaving school and going on to a positive destination, such as work, training or further study 9 months after leaving school. So, regardless of socio-economic background, most young people leaving school today are going on to a positive destination.Programme2015-162016-172017-182018-192019-202020-212021-222022-232023-24 SpendSpendSpendSpendSpendSpendSpendSpendSpendPupil Equity Funding£ -£ -£ 120,176,584£ 122,213,775£ 122,517,320£ 122,539,980£ 147,001,246£ 130,416,035£130,537,358Challenge Authorities£ 5,907,923£ 24,977,288£ 34,979,317£ 40,516,358£ 41,731,213£ 42,454,170£ 42,692,377£ -£0Schools Programme£ 2,329,113£ 3,993,678£ 6,140,383£ 6,865,926£ 6,853,700£ 6,934,355£ 6,979,808£ -£0CECYP£ -£ -£ -£ 705,889£ 15,187,742£ 11,736,270£ 11,574,478£ 11,103,762£10,617,843National Programmes£ 639,885£ 4,933,612£ 4,844,047£ 5,111,211£ 5,392,290£ 5,370,063£ 6,091,808£ 8,820,344£2,045,152SEF £ 44,635,398£43,318,610Total£ 8,876,921£ 33,904,577£ 166,140,331£ 175,413,159£ 191,682,265£ 189,034,838£ 214,339,718£ 194,975,539£186,518,962