Anti-Racism in Education Programme Board minutes: May 2023

Attendees and apologies

Present

• Khadija Mohammed, Chair 
• Jovan Rao Rydder, Curriculum Reform Subgroup 
• Crisantos Ike, Member of Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYP)
• Rosy Burgess, Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP)
• Ndaye Lisa Badji, Intercultural Youth Scotland (IYS)
• Monica Medina, Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) 
• Asif Chishti, General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS)
• Peter McNaughton, Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)
• Carol Young, Coalition for Race Equality and Rights (CRER)
• Nikhat Yusaf, Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Network 
• Sam Anson, Learning Directorate, SG
• Emma Bunting, Learning Directorate, SG 
• Pauline Hendry, Secretariat, SG 

In attendance

• Hakim Din, Calabar Education Consultants Limited

Apologies

• Laura-Ann Currie, Education Scotland 
• Judith Ballantine, Learning Directorate, SG 
• Farah Farzana, Racism and Racist Incidents Subgroup (RRI)
• Samir Sharma, Education Leadership and Professional Learning Subgroup (ELPL)
• Louise Barrett, Scottish Council of Deans of Education (SCDE)
• Nuzhat Uthmani, Diversity in the Teaching Profession and Education Workforce Subgroup (DITPEW)
• Victoria Smith, General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS)

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

The chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies were noted as above. 
Asif Chishti attended on behalf of both Victoria Smith, GTCS, and Nuzhat Uthmani, DITPEW.

Minutes of previous meeting

The minutes from the last meeting were distributed with the papers for this meeting. An update was provided on the actions:

• Secretariat to contact SG colleagues in the Trauma, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) & Resilience Team to explore how best to access training – ONGOING –Members queried whether it would be preferable for AREP members to participate in training already available, or to look at the available training with critique, noting that trauma informed training is not specifically cognisant of race or racialised trauma. It was requested that this topic be discussed further during a dedicated agenda item ACTION: Secretariat to add trauma informed training to the agenda for June Programme Board
• Secretariat to ask Curriculum Unit colleagues to share Education Scotland's publication date for the Anti-Racist Curriculum Principles, and any associated promotion plans. CLOSED. At a meeting with the new Cabinet Secretary on 22 May, she agreed that she was content with a soft launch of the principles in June (exact date TBC) and for them to be more formally promoted at the Anti-Racism summit in the autumn
• Secretariat to invite Hakim Din to attend a future meeting in order to further consider members’ reflections on the evaluation framework – CLOSED. Hakim attending today’s meeting to discuss the evaluation framework further
• Members expressed that they would welcome a meeting with the Anti-Racist Infrastructure Governance Group (AIGG) chairs and that it would be useful to potentially invite them to a Programme Board meeting – ONGOING – the Secretariat has approached the AIGG Secretariat to ask them to invite Talat and Ima to attend the June meeting of the AREP Board

The Secretariat reiterated the commitment to reducing the use of acronyms in minutes and papers going forward. 
There were no further comments and the minutes were agreed.

Update and overview of today's meeting

The Chair re-stated the requirements around respectful dialogue which are set out in the Terms of Reference.

Members were reminded that during the previous meeting they discussed:

• the emerging thinking from Professor Hayward on her review of qualifications and assessment and the subgroups’ potential responses
• the work of the AIGG, chaired by Ima Jackson and Talat Yaqoob, and links to the anti-racism in education summit
• revisions to wording of the text of the pledge, which will form the cornerstone of the education session at the anti-racism summit

Finance

Secretariat informed members that priority is currently being given to agreeing detailed budgets across the Scottish Government for 2023-24 as well as looking to the longer term, particularly given the currently challenging financial context. Members were assured that the AREP remains a priority for government. 

Recent publications which may be useful to members:

• The Scottish Government's Medium-Term Financial Strategy – provides the context for the Scottish Budget and the Scottish Parliament
• Equality, opportunity, community: New leadership - A fresh start – which sets out the evolution of governments position

It was not possible to specify a precise timescale for budget announcements. Members highlighted that this could represent a risk for the workstreams, who have several work strands paused awaiting financial support.

Members were assured that spending requests can still be submitted for approval, and that work strands should not be indefinitely paused pending budget announcements.

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

Both the National Discussion and Professor Hayward’s review of Qualifications and Assessment are now at the point of producing their reports which capture the responses to the consultations they have carried out during the last 6 months and these will be published shortly.

Progress updates from each of the AREP subgroups

Each subgroup chair was asked to provide a verbal update on progress in their subgroups, based upon the written updates provided as annexes to these minutes.

Curriculum Reform (See Annex A)

Racism and Racist Incidents (See Annex B)

Education Leadership and Professional Learning 

Diversity in the Teaching Profession and Education Workforce (See Annex C)

Members discussed the recent response on social media to Glasgow City Council’s positive action measures. Discussion centred around the need for clarity when employers use the Equality Act positive action provisions.

UK Government have recently published refreshed guidance related to the use of positive action measures. It can be found here - Positive action in the workplace - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). 

There is a commitment within the Scottish Government’s Anti-Racist Employment Strategy that there will be guidance on the use of positive action measures developed by the end of 2024. This will be broader than just race and will cover all of the protected characteristics. The commitment can be found on page 60 of the annexes, here - annexes.pdf (www.gov.scot). The DiTPEW group, in particular Asif Chishti, are working closely with the Scottish Government team leading on this work and will bring their influence to bear as the guidance is developed. They can report back to the programme board around progress as part of the workstream updates.

Updates will be made to the AREP website to include the rationale for the programme and highlighting other frequently asked for information. A small working group is being created to complete this work. 

Some members suggested that the recently-postponed summit may have been an opportunity to address these issues.

Action: Secretariat to add strategic communication of programme to June meeting agenda.

Action: DYW Live Working Group to investigate how City of Edinburgh Council educators can participate in DYW Live sessions, as they do not use Glow.

Anti-racism in education summit

Members were advised that the summit will now likely take place during the autumn. Potential dates will be checked to ensure they don’t clash with school holidays or inset days, which might impact on engagement.

Concerns were expressed around whether the AIGG are bound to the prospect of a joint summit. Action: Secretariat to clarify summit commitment with the AIGG.

Members requested a dedicated workshop to be held around the wording of the pledge. Some members raised concerns that the pledge risked losing its impact due to the process of incremental changes. Action: Secretariat to arrange pledge workshop.

AREP evaluation framework

The Chair welcomed Hakim Din, Calabar Consultants Limited to the meeting. 

• Some specific questions had been posed in advance of the session, as indicated below:
• what is the evaluation framework?
• how does it work?
• what will it enable us to do or to know or to find out?
• what evidence, and what quality of evidence, will it offer?
• how will it help us evidence success, partial success or limited or no success?
• is it within the scope of this framework to identify and illustrate any crossovers between workstreams? 

Members requested a more accessible version of the report, perhaps including more diagrams/tables/graphics which would break up the text. 

Hakim set out the evaluation framework. The framework is designed to challenge members to think strategically to ensure their outcomes will have impact, enabling them to monitor and evaluate their work. It is intended to assist with articulation of the change to be affected, and how that change can be measured.

Members were advised that any significant changes to the framework would require involvement from Scottish Government analytical colleagues, as the contract with Calabar Consultants has now ended. 

Next steps and any other business

The Chair expressed her appreciation to all participants for their time and input and outlined the immediate next steps: 

• Secretariat will circulate the minutes of the meeting by 2 June 2023

The next meeting will take place on Wednesday 21 June at 15:30.

Annex A

Workstream report - Curriculum reform

Key achievements

• work continues to create a webpage on Education Scotland’s website with the Anti-Racist Curriculum Principles and a range of supporting material and case studies. Sub Group members are helping to refine and develop the page. The publication plans for April have been revised to June to allow time for the new Cabinet Secretary to be advised of the plans
• session with ADES Curriculum, Assessment and Qualifications leads to share the Principles, emerging findings from the review of practice led by Hakim and what this means for local authority leadership. Input was well received and plan to follow up individually with LAs to consider support required

Forward look

• plans are ongoing to develop an outline for Early Years and PSE resources led by WOSDEC and ScotDEC and with collaboration and engagement being fundamental to the approach
• four working group approach will continue in progress key priorities
• hope that the output of the National Discission – its vision and call to action – provide a new platform for articulating and amplifying anti-racism and the curriculum

Risks or issues

• ongoing lack of clarity on funding for 2023/24 would present risks to the delivery of subgroup ambitions and expectations - clarity expected shortly

Annex B

Workstream report - Racism and racist incidents

Upcoming meetings

01 June 2023 – Chair’s meeting
20 June 2023 – Chair’s meeting

Annex C

Workstream report - Diversity in the teaching profession and education workforce

Key achievements

• The nineteenth meeting of the DITPEW subgroup took place on 23 May 2023. The agenda covered:
  • the annual review of the chairing arrangement and Terms of Reference
  • the theory of change model in development
  • the anti-racism in education framework for ITE
  • the need for visibility of the AREP and DITPEW work

Forward look

• work is underway to develop a session to be delivered as part of the Developing the Young Workforce programme. This will be focused on a range of issues such as pathways/how to be a teacher, what it means to be a teacher and support for teachers - all with a focus on encouraging minority ethnic children and young people into the profession. A small working group has been established to take this forward.
• the DITPEW subgroup will take a slight pause over the summer period, following the June meeting, and will reconvene in August.
• The DITPEW will engage with Scottish Government and Local Authority/ADES colleagues on work around clarifying guidance related to the use of positive action measures. Asif Chishti, as co-chair, has requested that members send any examples they know of that relate to positive action, which can be collated into a 'scrapbook'
• the group plan to submit a response to the GTCS review of the Memorandum of Understanding, particularly related to the equivalence of ESOL Highers for access to ITE
• the group will continue to support Khadija and SCDE to drive engagement with and support the ITE framework

Risks/issues

• recent negative comments on social media regarding positive action measures to promote race equality risk discouraging employers from taking these necessary steps and individual teachers will be deterred from applying for positive action measures if communications are not sufficiently robust
• members of the DITPEW, and wider AREP, who are lead on this work in both a professional and personal capacity are at risk of abuse, including of a racist nature