Anti-Racism in Education Programme Board minutes: June 2024

Attendees and apologies

Present

• Monica Medina, Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA
• Carrie Lindsay, Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)
• Nikhat Yusaf, Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Network
• Pauline Stephen, General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS)
• Chereen Rain, Education Leadership and Professional Learning (ELPL) subgroup
• Judith Ballantine, Learning Directorate, Scottish Government (Chair)
• Emma Bunting, Learning Directorate, Scottish Government (Secretariat)
• Catherine Law, Learning Directorate, Scottish ​​​​​​​Government (Secretariat)

Apologies

• Professor Khadija Mohammed, Chair
• Dr. Louise Barrett, Scottish Council of Deans of Education (SCDE)
• Carol Young, Coalition for Race Equality and Rights (CRER)
• Mélina Valdelièvre, Curriculum Reform subgroup
• Nuzhat Uthmani, Diversity in the Teaching Profession and Education Workforce  (DiTPEW) subgroup
• Hakim Din, DiTPEW subgroup

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologies were noted as above. Due to the AREP Board Chair being unable to attend, the Secretariat chaired the meeting.

Guided mindfulness

The Chair outlined the rules regarding respectful dialogue.

Recognising the benefits of instilling mindful practice in all approaches to the AREP work, the group took 5 minutes to reflect.

The Chair noted that after 6 months of the guided mindfulness practice, it would be beneficial for the group to reflect on how useful they have found it and to provide any feedback. 

Action: Members to reflect on the guided mindfulness portion of the Board meetings and provide feedback over the summer break.

Minutes of previous meeting

The Chair reminded Members of the discussed that took place at the previous meeting on 28 May. An update was provided on outstanding actions

• group Members were encouraged to send further thoughts on finance proposals and work plans, as well as where actions could be progressed with additional funding, via email to Secretariat – ongoing, Members agreed to discuss further under agenda item 6 of this meeting
• the Secretariat agreed to consider how to engage young people in the work of the Programme following the withdrawal of the Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament – ongoing, during the summer break, the Chair and the Secretariat will pursue this action, looking to IYS’ Youth Ambassadors as well as other organisation to establish whether there are young people who wish to engage with the AREP. Members also discussed additional options to engage with young people, noting the need for diversity and fairness for all during any recruitment process
• the Secretariat to investigate with Scottish Government analytical services colleagues whether the development of a Theory of Change (ToC) model for each of the workstreams would be possible – ongoing, the Secretariat confirmed that they met analytical colleagues to discuss and as they do not have capacity to take this work forward, they have offered to train the Secretariat to do so instead.  This training will take place during the summer break.
• the Secretariat to replace the term ‘secondees’ to ‘representatives’ in the March 2024 minutes – closed, the Secretariat confirmed the previous meeting’s minutes had been amended based on feedback
• the Secretariat to pick up with Laura Meikle, as temporary chair of the RRI, with regards to the ask by Connect to undertake parental engagement in relation to racist incidents – ongoing, the Secretariat 
• advised that they have contacted Gavin Yates from Connect and asked how they might engage with the AREP as a whole. Gavin will consult with other members of Connect and respond in due course
• the Secretariat to provide advice on how to apply for Scottish Government on behalf of AREP workstreams – ongoing, Members agreed to discuss this further in item 6 of this meeting
• the Secretariat circulated updated version of the Board’s Terms of Reference for comment – closed, the Secretariat have done so, with the most up to date version included in the papers for this meeting. Members agreed to discuss next steps in item 4 of this meeting

Recap of previous meeting and overview of this one

The Chair noted that at the previous meeting Members discussed the rolling agenda items on education reform and finance (with an update on how funding could be better utilised), the Building Racial Literacy (BRL) Peer Mentors project, the draft terms of reference, and subgroup progress updates.

Regarding the discussion of the draft terms of reference at the previous meeting, the Chair noted that no comments had been received on the most recent draft, and therefore the Board will work on the assumption that everyone is content, and next steps will be taken to publish on the Scottish Government website. Members were advised to send any final feedback to the Secretariat by 28 June.

The Chair noted that the remainder of this meeting would be spent considering the standing agenda items, to continue reflecting on next steps following on from the summit cancellation, and the Intercultural Youth Scotland (IYS) Youth Ambassador recommendations.

Action: Members to look at the final draft of the terms of reference and to provide any final comments to the Secretariat by 28 June.

Education Reform (including National Discussion and Reform of Assessment and Qualifications)

The Chair noted that this rolling agenda item enables the group to keep Education Reform at the forefront of discussion, and that the current position on education reform is as follows.

Since the Board last met, the Education (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 4 June, and the Secretariat shared links to the accompanying documents in Teams. The Bill and all of the accompanying documents have been published on the Scottish Parliament website.

The Chair stated that work continues to set up a public body for qualifications, a national education agency, an independent inspectorate, ensuring clearer accountability, roles and responsibilities. The establishment of a Centre for Teaching Excellence continues and its next key step is to identify an institution which will host it.

Finance

The Chair asked subgroup Chairs for any verbal updates regarding actions to be progressed which have not made much progress to date, and which may benefit from small amounts of financial support to do so.

Members noted that the funding for the BRL Peer Mentors project has been agreed by the Cabinet Secretary in principle, it will now proceed for financial sign off  by Senior Civil Service colleagues.

Members agreed that a session in summer to discuss Scottish Government funding, and best practices for applying for grants, would be beneficial.

Action: Secretariat will organise a session during the summer holidays to discuss best practice for applying for Scottish Government funding.

Progress updates from each of the chairs of the AREP subgroups

The Chair asked subgroup Chairs for verbal updates regarding progress in their subgroups, which were as follows.

DiTPEW subgroup updates

In June the DiTPEW underwent its annual review of membership and chairing arrangements. It was noted that Asif will be stepping down from his role as Co-Chair, though will remain a member of the group, and Hakim Din will take on the of Co-Chair alongside Nuzhat.

The subgroup met the previous day and discussed

• ongoing work and next steps for the Anti-Racism in Initial Teacher Education network (ARITE), tasked with implementation of the SCDE’s National Framework for Anti-Racism in ITE
• Chereen gave a presentation on progress within the Building Racial Literacy (BRL) Programme, including recruitment for cohorts 5 and 6 as well as the recent external evaluation
• the launch of the Action Guide for Local Authorities, developed by Hakim on behalf of the DiTPEW and in partnership with ADES
• an update on the GTCS's upcoming Sponsoring Guide
• next steps for reviewing the DiTPEW’s overarching ambition that by 2030, 4% of Scotland’s teachers will be from a minority ethnic background. This follows publication of the 2022 National Census data on ethnicity. It was acknowledged that the DiTPEW will have a role in informing the discussion around this review and that it will be for the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills to take a final decision

ELPL subgroup updates

Members noted that the subgroup has updated its terms of reference (TOR) and membership list to include new members. The group is about to finalise its response to IYS’s Youth Ambassadors’ recommendations. Moving forward, it will focus on including voices of young people via the BRL programme, and look at how to use social media effectively. Members also discussed that work is being conducted to strengthen and support the BRL alumni network. 

Members also noted here that they found the new template used for workstream updates to be beneficial.

Curriculum Reform subgroup updates

There were no Members available to provide an update on the Curriculum Reform subgroup's work.

RRI subgroup updates

There were no Members available to provide an update on the RRI subgroup. However, the Chair noted that the first meeting since the subgroup’s new Co-Chair took on their role will take place next week.

Anti-racism in education summit

The Chair noted that Members had a useful discussion during  the previous Board meeting, which enabled everyone to reflect on the best way forward in terms of the summit.  There had been an approximate split between those who favoured continuing with a similar style summit, and those who favoured an alternative approach which might be  less dependent on Ministerial involvement, given the inherent risks which have played out.

The Chair discussed that since first planning the summit, and even since the recent summit was due to take place, more outputs have emerged across the AREP, including the Action Guide for local authorities, the data report, the sponsoring guide, the Anti-Racist Curriculum Principles and the commitment itself along with its accompanying guidance. The Chair noted that this should help inform next steps.

The Chair asked for any immediate comments and asked Members if it would be helpful to have a brainstorming session in the holidays to discuss further.

Members discussed the benefits of a similar summit, notably that the event organisation has already been done, and the awareness that high-profile politicians bring. Members also noted that due to the summit being cancelled twice now, the unpredictable nature of Ministers  being involved brings risk and that it may be helpful to look at alternative speakers. 

Members agreed that a session over summer to discuss further would be beneficial.

Action: The Secretariat will organise a meeting during the summer holidays to discuss next steps following the cancellation of the Anti-Racism in Education summit, a doodle poll will issue to identify a date.

IYS youth ambassadors' recommendations

The Chair noted that the IYS Youth Ambassadors project, which was funded from the AREP budget, has concluded its active phase, and that prior to signing off the project, the Board as a whole should consider the recommendations to ensure coherence across the four workstreams. This is in addition to each subgroup responding to their individual workstream’s recommendations, which the Chair noted has been completed by two subgroups thus far.

Members discussed how impressed they were with the four reports and that they were pleased the young people involved felt “seen, heard and valued”.

Members discussed particular interest in the suggestion of including more youth voices in the BRL programme. Members also discussed the young people’s recommendations for the Board to increase social media use to showcase the working being done. While Members agreed that social media can be a positive way to share progress, they noted the importance of ensuring safeguarding is the number one priority for young people. Members noted that improved comms to raise awareness of work being done and resources that are available would be beneficial, especially because some of the recommendations included actions that have already been implemented.

Members also noted that while they support many of the recommendations in principle, it is important to be realistic regarding time constraints, and that Board and subgroup members do not overcommit or spread themselves too thinly, resulting in a lack of meaningful progress.

There were 2 recommendations which emerged from the Curriculum Reform subgroup’s engagement with the Youth Ambassadors which that sub group felt should sit with the Board instead.  The Secretariat will circulate them. 

Members  thought that overall the recommendations  were cohesive, though there appears to be some contradiction regarding the young people’s perspectives on culture days. In one subgroup’s recommendations (RRI), they were encouraged, while in another they were warned that they could be viewed as a tick box or tokenistic exercise if not followed up with further action.

Members discussed the importance of giving the Board ample opportunity to provide comment on the recommendations, and agreed that the Secretariat will remind Members to provide any additional comments in writing during summer.

Action: The Secretariat will share with the Board the two recommendations that have been identified as better suited for the Board as a whole, as well as each subgroup’s response to the recommendations. The Secretariat will ask Members to provide any additional comments in writing over the summer break.

Action: Members are to provide comments on the Youth Ambassadors’ recommendations by close of business on Monday 8 July.

Any other business

The Chair advised that the Secretariat will circulate the minutes of today’s meeting on the week of 15 July and the next formal meeting of this group will be held on 28 August 2024.

The Secretariat asked Members to consider if they would be content for IYS’s interim Chief Executive, Garvin Sealy, to join the Board, in order to ensure that there is continued input from IYS, following the changes to the organisation’s governance.

Action: Members to consider Garvin Sealy's membership of the Board.