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The 25,000 are the extra children whom we anticipate will be captured by the SSI. There are thousands of families who are currently missing out on free school meals for their children, which is not good.

We want all families who should be in receipt of free school meals to have that for their child or young person. The SSI will mean that the data sharing is much better and more granular at a local level, and it will allow local authorities to move at pace in implementing the extra funding that we have provided them with to deliver on that commitment.

That was confirmed in the parliamentary chamber many months ago.

Alison, do you want to come in?

Yes. I share that disappointment.

Of course we constantly consider those costs. Following that debate, I engaged directly with the Scottish Futures Trust, particularly on the figure of £256 million that was put to us by the trust and was independently analysed.

Mr Ross’s colleague Liam Kerr, who was the education spokesperson at the time, put forward—he might have included it in your party’s motion—a different figure, which we differed on because, as I understand it, it did not include capital costs. I am in constant contact with the SFT about driving down those costs, and I am more than happy to consider other suggestions. Mr Kerr came forward with a suggestion, although I do not think that it was borne out by the facts, because the Government, with its expansive provision and the funding associated with that, has had to spend millions of pounds of capital on building kitchens, which has increased costs, but those costs were not accounted for in the Conservatives’ figure.

Let us go back to the budget negotiations. If the provision of universal free school meals is such a pressing issue for Mr Ross and his party, why was it not part of their budget negotiations?

My understanding is that the committee needs to take a decision on that before we can process the assessment.

Yes, but SAC cannot do all that on its own. We need to be mindful that the attainment challenge in itself is also about responding to the societal challenges that we have spoken about, and that there are other elements of support that families need in order to help us to close that gap.

Miles Briggs has raised the subject of attendance, which has been a real challenge in our schools after the pandemic in particular, although members will welcome the fact that there was a slight improvement in the most recent dataset, particularly on persistent absence levels. I agreed with officials to introduce that measurement the year before last, I think, because, until it was introduced, we did not measure persistent absences from school over a long period—of 20 days, I think—at the national level. We need that granularity in the data.

That dataset demonstrates the point that has been made on variance across the country: there is variance by year group. The thing that struck me most when I was first appointed to my role was the existence of challenges in relation to attendance at certain transition periods. Whether in primary 7 or S3, there seemed to be a drop-off in attendance. We have been considering that. Education Scotland undertook a deep dive on attendance, about which David Gregory may want to say more; however, more broadly, PEF is being used to respond to some of the challenges of attendance across the country. In the school in which I last taught, in Edinburgh, PEF is being used creatively to support families.

Legislation requires parents and carers to send their children and young people to school, and that is for good reason, but a cohort of young people are struggling with the formality of going back to formal education. For many, that is really challenging. We therefore have to put in place the necessary supports. To take Keith Brown’s point on nuance, that will depend on the pupil, the school and the teacher. I have sat in primary schools and listened to headteachers talk about the individual work that they do to support a young person to come back into school, which can take many months. PEF is supporting some of those interventions. More broadly, there has also been support through the virtual school headteachers network, which has helped to keep young people engaged in school if they are not physically able to attend.

However, I accept that the issue is a challenge. I announced in the Parliament very recently that we would have a national marketing campaign to encourage an improvement in attendance. I hope to say more on that in the coming weeks. We cannot make progress on closing the poverty-related attainment gap if we have challenges in attendance.

All those things are interlinked. Across the country, PEF is being used to improve attendance. Every local authority has a stretch aim, which is linked to the SEF and is focused on attendance. They are all signed up to driving improvement on that.

David Gregory may want to say more on the deep dive that Education Scotland undertook.

She is relatively new to the organisation, convener.

That is correct. She has been leading on a number of changes, which the committee has been broadly supportive of, in relation to getting the organisation ready for the change to qualifications Scotland. Although there will be some continuity in the move across to qualifications Scotland, there are still some relatively fresh appointments. I spoke to the members who joined the board just before Christmas—five appointments were made at that time.

Although there is continuity, the body needs to operate, and the order is needed to give it the powers to do so and to fulfil functions in relation to the 2026 exam diet.