Vote · 27 Jan 2016

Education

Amendment Motion S4M-15430.3 Lodged by Angela Constance SNP

Carried by 21

60 For 39 Against 14 Abstained 14 Did not vote

What this amendment would do

This vote was on an SNP amendment (S4M-15430.3) to the Liberal Democrats’ motion (S4M-15430). It was agreed, so the motion’s final vote was on the wording as amended, with words from the original removed. The final vote, on the motion as amended, was carried 60–39.

If agreed, the motion would read:

That the Parliament believes that

245 words removed by S4M-15430.3

the introduction of a pupil premium in Scotland would help enable every child to fulfil their potential, close the attainment gap and ensure a world-class education system; believes that it would give schools thousands of pounds of extra funding that they could spend to raise standards and increase attainment in every classroom; notes that it could provide practical support such as one-to-one tuition, extra staff and equipment, breakfast clubs and outreach programmes to help engage parents; recalls that Liberal Democrats in the previous UK administration successfully made the case for, and introduced, the pupil premium in England in 2011, now worth £2.5 billion a year, and that the party also subsequently secured its introduction in Wales; notes that Ofsted has said that the pupil premium “is making a difference” and that the National Audit Office observed that the gap between disadvantaged and other pupils narrowed by 4.7% in primary schools and 1.6% in secondary schools between 2011 and 2014, following its introduction; notes that, in comparison, the Attainment Scotland Fund only makes a difference in those areas and schools selected by Scottish ministers, currently ignoring the additional needs of disadvantaged children in 11 out of 32 local authorities; believes that tying funding to those children who need extra help the most, wherever they may live, through the pupil premium, would be fairer and more effective, and calls for it to be urgently introduced to help propel Scottish schools back to the top of the class.

S4M-15430.3 SNP the £100 million Attainment Scotland Fund, which is additional to the almost £5 billion invested in education every year through local authorities, is rightly targeted at the primary schools that serve the most deprived communities in Scotland, with over 300 primary schools, which together support 54,399 pupils from deprived backgrounds, 64% of the total number of such pupils, benefitting from the funding; notes that this funding is providing a wide range of support to close the attainment gap including additional teaching and other specialist staff, support for parents to engage in their children’s learning, literacy and numeracy tools and extra training for teachers; further believes that the package of universal support that has been drawn together through the Scottish Attainment Challenge, including the appointment of attainment advisors for every local authority, the introduction of the Attainment Challenge Innovation Fund and the continued progress of the Raising Attainment for All programme will help ensure that there is support for every local authority to close the poverty-related attainment gap; recognises that the Scottish Government will continue to work with key stakeholders to explore and consider further approaches that will support schools to close the attainment gap, and acknowledges that the OECD’s review of Scottish education recognised the Scottish Government’s determination to focus on achieving both excellence and equity in the education system and that the national improvement framework has the potential to be a key means of driving work to close the attainment gap and strengthen formative assessment approaches.

Worked out by this site by applying the amendment to the motion as lodged. It is not an official text.

The amendment as lodged

leave out from "the introduction of" to end and insert "the £100 million Attainment Scotland Fund, which is additional to the almost £5 billion invested in education every year through local authorities, is rightly targeted at the primary schools that serve the most deprived communities in Scotland, with over 300 primary schools, which together support 54,399 pupils from deprived backgrounds, 64% of the total number of such pupils, benefitting from the funding; notes that this funding is providing a wide range of support to close the attainment gap including additional teaching and other specialist staff, support for parents to engage in their children’s learning, literacy and numeracy tools and extra training for teachers; further believes that the package of universal support that has been drawn together through the Scottish Attainment Challenge, including the appointment of attainment advisors for every local authority, the introduction of the Attainment Challenge Innovation Fund and the continued progress of the Raising Attainment for All programme will help ensure that there is support for every local authority to close the poverty-related attainment gap; recognises that the Scottish Government will continue to work with key stakeholders to explore and consider further approaches that will support schools to close the attainment gap, and acknowledges that the OECD’s review of Scottish education recognised the Scottish Government’s determination to focus on achieving both excellence and equity in the education system and that the national improvement framework has the potential to be a key means of driving work to close the attainment gap and strengthen formative assessment approaches."

All amendments to S4M-15430

S4M-15430.3 SNP Angela Constance Agreed vote, 60–39
S4M-15430.1 Conservative Liz Smith Fell per the Official Report
S4M-15430.2 Labour Iain Gray Fell per the Official Report

How the parties split

Every party voted as a bloc

Party	For	Against	Abst.	Absent	Majority
SNP	59	0	0	5	✓ For united
Lab	0	31	0	7	✗ Against united
Con	0	0	14	1	– Abstained united
LD	0	4	0	1	✗ Against united
Green	0	2	0	0	✗ Against united
Ind	1	2	0	0	n/a

Party is the MSP's party on the day of the vote. Majority is how most of the party's voting MSPs voted.

Every MSP

127 MSPs

For (60)

SNP 59

Ind 1

Jean Urquhart

Against (39)

Lab 31

LD 4

Green 2

Ind 2

Abstained (14)

Con 14

Did not vote (14)

SNP 5

Lab 7

Con 1

Annabel Goldie

LD 1

Tavish Scott

Against their party

Nobody. Every MSP who voted sided with their party's majority.

Context

Amends the main motion, S4M-15430 (carried)
The motion, its supporters and amendments
Watch on Scottish Parliament TV (that day's meetings)
All votes on 27 Jan 2016 (5)

Other votes that day (4)

Education S4M-15430 as amended by SNP
Carried 60–39
Fuel Poverty S4M-15432 as amended by SNP
Carried 60–53
Fuel Poverty S4M-15432.2
Defeated 40–73
Fuel Poverty S4M-15432.3
Carried 60–53

How this is worked out

Vote type, bill stage, free votes and key votes are worked out by this site from titles, dates and how each party split. They are not the Parliament’s own classification.

Kind and stage come from the motion title and reference (".1" references are amendments) and, for bills, the bill’s stage dates.
Bill links are shown only when the title matches a bill’s name and the vote falls within that bill’s passage.
Free vote means two or more parties each split by 15% or more, with ten or more MSPs off their party line. Parties rarely announce free votes in the data, so this is a likely sign, not a record.
Key vote means a bill’s Stage 1 or final vote, a budget vote, a likely free vote, or a result decided by three votes or fewer.
Against party line counts MSPs whose vote differed from the majority of their own party (independents excluded).