#YSAttain enters a new phase – more support to help close the attainment gap
A new package of support is now available to help support young people facing barriers to attainment.
Young people living in our most deprived communities often do significantly worse at school than those from our least deprived communities. This is known as the 'attainment gap'.
That’s why we launched the Attainment Challenge: National Strategic Partnership (#YSAttain) and since 2018 we have been working alongside the Scottish Government, local authorities, Transport Scotland and the National Entitlement Card Programme Office on this ground-breaking project to help close the poverty related attainment gap and improve the health and wellbeing of young people.
We are delighted to have been funded by the Scottish Attainment Challenge for a further four years to continue to work with partners to explore how the smart-enabled Young Scot National Entitlement Card (Young Scot NEC) can be used in innovative ways to support young people experiencing barriers to attainment, food insecurity and other inequalities.
Next steps
As part of this new phase of work we are delighted to offer partners an updated package of support, including:
Starter kit of Rewards provided by Young Scot
Extensive knowledge and experience in establishing smart entitlements and opportunities within the community
Access to the #YSAttain Learning Community
Support to develop new local Young Scot Discounts
#YSAttain so far
We have been working with local authority partners to pilot ways in which the Young Scot NEC can be used to deliver smart-entitlements in a non-stigmatising way. This included:
smart travel (prior to the introduction of the Free Bus Travel for Under-22s)
free meals in community and leisure centre cafes school breakfasts
Partners have also been able to use the functionality of the Young Scot Membership platform to deliver bespoke rewards to targeted groups of young people. Delivering entitlements and opportunities through the Young Scot NEC and Young Scot Membership platform helps to ensure that young people are able to access these opportunities free from stigma.