Publication - FOI/EIR release

Education Maintenance Allowance campaign: FOI release

Published: 8 December 2017
Directorate: Communications and Ministerial Support Directorate
Part of: Education, Public sector

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

FOI reference: FOI/17/02712
Date received: 7 November 2017
Date responded: 27 November 2017

Information requested

You asked for details of the scope of an awareness campaign aimed at promoting education maintenance allowance (EMA) which took place in the autumn of 2016.

Including:

1. The budget allocated this campaign was allocated, how much of the budget was spent, and the dates it ran. 2. A list of activities carried out as part of the campaign (i.e. ministerial visits, radio/TV/press advertisements, etc.). 3. A copy of any publicity materials distributed to schools or colleges as part of the campaign. Please include details of how many of these materials were produced and where they were sent.

Response

1. The Scottish Government budgeted £20,000 for the campaign.Final spend on the campaign totalled £15,707.49.The campaign materials were distributed to institutions late September.The leaflets were distributed amongst pupils at the beginning of the campaign. Posters are to be displayed indefinitely. Institutions were provided with lines/graphics to use in newsletters/social media etc. to be utilised throughout the year.

2. We provided promotional materials (posters and leaflets) to all schools and colleges in Scotland, and to councils that requested them. The posters were displayed in student and staff areas, and leaflets given to all students. Details of numbers are below in answer to Q3.

We built a new website, www.emascotland.com, containing information and signposting to the online application form (please note that the material on this been migrated to mygov.scot and the URL redirected to Apply for or renew an EMA

Files for posters and leaflets were uploaded to the site, including monochrome versions for students with colour-blindness and related conditions.

We provided a partner toolkit for all councils and Citizens Advice Bureaux in Scotland. This contained information about the EMA and promotional activity, social media posts, copy for newsletters and websites and contact details. Alongside this we provided graphics for use on social media, and banners for use on websites to link to the EMA site. The toolkit also contained the link to uploaded files.

3. Promotional materials are attached. We distributed 3990 A3 and A4 posters and 143,867 information leaflets to 448 secondary schools, 26 colleges and five councils across Scotland, with a covering Deputy First Minister John Swinney.

Institutions were given direct contact details of the policy team within the SG should they require more.

About FOI

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