The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme (DofE) could soon become available to every pupil who goes through Scotland’s education system. However, a poverty expert has warned that the award may still seem irrelevant to many pupils from poorer backgrounds.

DofE’s director in Scotland, Barry Fisher said that participation in the scheme had doubled in a decade, with 80 per cent of secondary schools and 90 per cent of learning communities now having active groups.

The long-running programme for people aged 14-25 - best known for the five-day outdoor expedition required to achieve the highest Gold award - soon hopes to reach 100 per cent of secondary learning communities.

The picture varies around the country, however: nationally, one in six 15-year-olds is doing DofE (see box), but in South Ayrshire, it is one in two.

In Glasgow, the number of awards completed in a year has increased by more than 20 times in a decade, with half of participants coming from areas in the three most severe categories of social deprivation.

Much has been done to scotch the stereotype that DofE is a middle-class jolly, with 17 per cent - and rising - of young people drawn from those who have “barriers to participation”, including poverty or disability. Mr Fisher cites one emblematic example of a girl from Dundee who had been excluded from school 35 times but, having been through DofE in an education unit, went onto college to study dance coaching and leadership.

Who is DofE for?

However, Professor John McKendrick, a poverty expert at Glasgow Caledonian University, said concerns over the scheme’s efficacy remained, particularly given the high number of school leavers applying for university.

“Universities are looking for more than exam results now, and it’s often DofE that gives them that added something,” he said. “If that’s the case, there might be a danger that school DofE programmes are built primarily around the needs of university applicants, more of whom happen to be from middle-class backgrounds.”

He added that if this led to “a perception among other kids from more deprived backgrounds that DofE isn’t there to help [them], that might make it less attractive”.

Professor McKendrick had “heard only anecdotal evidence” of schools providing DofE primarily for university applicants “but it’s an issue that seems worth exploring”.

Mr Fisher said that companies such as ScotRail and Scottish Gas ran DofE for their apprentices because it developed “key attributes that actually make a difference to a business”. He said the several months work required for an award could be seen as an antidote to the instant success promoted by TV programmes such as The X Factor and Love Island.

Concerns over budget cuts

However, Mr Fisher shared concerns expressed by the International Council of Education Advisers, which warned in a recent report - released just weeks before the rollout of standardised national assessments - that Scotland was in danger of “moving away from the ‘whole-child’ approach of [Curriculum for Excellence] towards a more specific, measurable approach”.

Mr Fisher said: “I do have some initial concern - I wouldn’t say I was overly concerned yet - that we are downplaying the health and wellbeing aspect of closing the attainment gap, that we’ll focus on numeracy and literacy because that’s the default position.”

He added that he hoped that there would not be “a swing back to testing” and, “as an unintended consequence”, less emphasis on creativity in schools.

Mr Fisher also highlighted concerns about the implications of budget cuts on DofE, and said that he would keep a close watch on emerging detail about the plan, announced in June’s Education Governance Review, for “regional improvement collaboratives”.

DofE Scotland currently delivers its awards with the 32 councils. If the changes resulted in less support from local authorities and a need for more direct relationships with hundreds of schools, Mr Fisher said the scheme’s model would “have to completely change”.

One consequence could be that DofE might not have the capacity to run its awards as widely as it does just now. But Mr Fisher added that the regional model could bring benefits, too, such as an ability to spot and share good practice more easily.

EIS union general secretary Larry Flanagan, a DofE leader at Glasgow’s Hillhead High School, said the programme was “a perfect antidote to dealing with the general cynicism of too many commentators about our youth” and “does what it says on the tin in terms of creating space for character development”.

In addition to Mr Fisher’s concerns, Mr Flanagan also worried that high costs of expeditions could be passed on to pupils’ families.

A government spokeswoman said: “We are very clear that there is a significant role for organisations like Duke of Edinburgh to play in how we broaden the curriculum offer for young people and work to close the attainment gap. And we are mindful of the capacity issues this might raise for organisations.”

The “detailed role and remit” of the regional improvement collaboratives would be worked out with the help of local authorities and other organisations, she added.