Education, Children and Young People Committee - Session 6 Legacy Report

The Committee recommends that its successor committee in Session 7 continues to build time into its work schedule to allow for urgent and emerging issues to be addressed.

The Committee recommends that its successor committee should continue to work with the Participation and Communities Team to ensure that the evidence it hears is diverse in nature and provides a rounded exploration of legislation and policy affecting education, children and young people.

The Committee recognises that there is a delicate balance to be struck between gathering evidence in formal settings "on the record", versus creating more informal spaces where people can speak openly about the challenges facing them, without fear of being identified or targeted as a result of expressing those views. However, our experience this session is that informal evidence has greatly enhanced our scrutiny, and has also allowed those who might otherwise have struggled to speak out, to have an input. These informal sessions have also had a lasting impact on the Committee and greatly enhanced our understanding of key issues.

The Committee also suggests that our successor committee should continue to be thoughtful about the accessibility of the reports it produces, and the feedback it provides to those engaging with the Committee, to ensure that stakeholders are fully able to recognise how their input has made a difference.

The Committee recommends that its successor committee continue to undertake Committee visits, where appropriate, to help inform its scrutiny of key issues.

The successor committee may wish to consider post-legislative scrutiny of the operation of the Schools (Residential Outdoor Education) (Scotland) Act 2026.

This could pick up on some of the concerns raised in the Committee's Stage 1 report , including in relation to the accessibility of outdoor education to children and young people with additional support needs, any other potential barriers to accessing outdoor education and any impacts the Act has had from a staffing perspective. The successor committee may also wish to examine how outdoor learning is being developed more broadly by the Scottish Government.

The successor committee should consider at an early point in the Parliamentary session how it will ensure that progress in relation to the Promise can continue to be made, ahead of the 2030 deadline (further detail of the Committee's work relating to the Promise is outlined later in this report). Successor committee Members may also find it helpful to familiarise themselves with Audit Scotland's report Improving Care Experience: Delivering the Promise , which was published in October 2025.

Should the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill pass, our successor committee may also wish to ensure that any secondary legislation arising from this takes into account the issues raised by stakeholders in our Stage 1 report .

In relation to the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024, it would potentially be interesting for our successor committee to carry out a short inquiry, looking at which elements of the Act have come into force and which remain outstanding. It is worth noting that several aspects of this Bill, also feed into work to fulfil the Promise.

The successor committee may also wish to look at how Qualifications Scotland is operating in practice, following the passage of the Education (Scotland) Act 2025, specifically:
The extent to which there has been a culture change within Qualifications Scotland, since it replaced the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
The extent to which the Act has contributed towards HMIE being better able to report on the Scottish education system's performance.
Whether, as a result of changes brought in by the Act, Education Scotland is able to provide support on a regional and national basis, and how this can best be assessed?

In relation to the Scottish Languages Act 2025, our successor committee may wish to keep a watching brief on the reporting duties under this legislation, including progress relating to the National Gaelic Language Strategy and the Scots Language strategy. Given the reporting cycles for these, this is likely to be a topic for later in Session 7.

The successor committee may wish to return to the issue of pupil attainment in Session 7. This could explore how effective efforts to close the attainment gap have been since the Committee last reported on this topic.

There may also be scope to explore challenges arising from the lack of reliable and up to date Free School Meal registration data, particularly in relation to Pupil Equity Funding.

As part of its Widening Access inquiry, the Committee highlighted the importance of introducing a Unique Learner Number (ULN) to track students' educational journeys and allow a better understanding of what works regarding transitions in the longer term. In its response to the Committee’s report, the Scottish Government committed to undertake further work in respect of the ULN. This could usefully be followed up by our successor committee in Session 7.

The successor committee may wish to assess progress since the ECYP Committee published its ASL inquiry report . This might include exploring whether there has been progress in taking into account the needs of pupils with ASN in designing the school estate.

The successor committee may wish to explore the role of special schools in Scotland, including how sustainable they might be, in light of many pupils with Additional Support Needs now being supported in mainstream schools.

The successor committee may also wish to hear evidence from Audit Scotland and the Scottish Government, in relation to Audit Scotland's most recent report into Additional Support for Learning.

With this in mind, in Session 7, the successor committee may wish to continue to take a more strategic approach towards examining issues relating to the Promise, and ensure that work undertaken by the Committee continues to examine issues from the perspective of care experienced children, young people and adults.

The Committee has found the input of care experienced children, young people and adults to be invaluable to steering its work on the Promise. Our successor committee may wish to continue this approach in Session 7.

The successor committee may also wish to consider holding an informal event with social work staff to gain an understanding of the issues they are facing.

In Session 7, our successor committee may wish to consider how best to scrutinise the work of CYPCS, including via regular evidence sessions throughout the Parliamentary session.

The successor committee may also wish to explore other opportunities to form closer links with the Commissioner's office, without compromising the Commissioner's independence in relation to operational matters. For example, the Committee may wish to seek regular written updates relating to the Commissioner's work, in order to gain an understanding of emerging issues impacting on children and young people.

Our successor committee may wish to explore what progress has been made in relation to education and skills reform since the publication of these reports.

Our successor committee may also wish to hear from the Centre for Teaching Excellence, which was launched by the Scottish Government in September 2025.

In the early days of Session 7, our successor committee may wish to engage with the work of the steering group to gauge progress in establishing the Framework for the Sustainability and Success of Scotland's Universities. It may also wish to hear directly from the Scottish Government to hold it to account, in relation to progress.

Our successor committee may also wish to check on progress being made to create a College Infrastructure Investment Plan, and potentially organise an evidence session in the event that this is published. The Committee may also wish to undertake further work in relation to college funding more generally.

The successor committee may also wish to keep a watching brief on the implementation of the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill/Act.

The successor committee may also wish to look at Scottish specialist institutions, e.g. Glasgow School of Art or the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, which have not been looked at recently.

The Scottish Government published its National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy for Young Disabled People in June 2025. Our successor committee may wish to look at how this strategy is impacting on disabled young people's lived experiences, and what progress, if any, is being made towards addressing the concerns raised by disabled young people, parents and professionals in the context of the Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill.

Our successor committee may wish to carry out an evaluation of how 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare (ELC) is working in practice.

It may also be helpful for the new committee to examine any future expansions to pre-school and wrap-around childcare.

In Session 7 of the Scottish Parliament, it would be helpful to ensure that a higher proportion of committee members is retained for the full session, or at least for a significant proportion of it.

Consideration should be given as to whether the successor committee should be smaller in Session 7.

Where at all possible, political parties should also consider gender balance, when appointing or removing members from the Committee, in line with the findings of the Scottish Parliament's Gender Sensitive Audit. i A Parliament for All: Report of the Parliament's Gender Sensitive Audit, Scottish Parliament, March 2023. Wider diversity factors should also be taken into account.