Diversity in the Teaching Profession and Education Workforce Subgroup - minutes: April 2023

Attendees and apologies

Present

• Nuzhat Uthmani (Chair), Principal Teacher
• Asif Chishti (Co-Chair), Senior Education Officer (National Race Diversity Lead), General Teaching Council Scotland
• Mélina Valdelièvre, Professional Learning and Leadership (Race Equality), Education Scotland 
• Kevin Brack, Lecturer in Educational Leadership, Moray House School of Education and Sport
• Navan Govender, Anti-Racist Educator 
• Marla Baird, Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Manager, SQA
• Selma Augestad, National Officer (Equality), EIS
• Jehan Al-Azzawi, SAMEE
• Andrea Reid, ADES
• Alan Sloan, Education Analytical Services, Scottish Government
• Janice Blanc, Education Analytical Services, Scottish Government
• Pauline Hendry, Equality in Education Team, Scottish Government
• Judith Ballantine, Equality in Education Team, Scottish Government
• Emma Bunting, Equality in Education Team, Scottish Government

Apologies

• Louise Barrett, SCDE
• Simon Cameron, COSLA
• Sara Medel Jiménez, NASUWT
• Judith Mohamed, Head Teacher
• Lesley Whelan, Head of Professional Learning and Leadership, Education Scotland
• Keya Raksith, Workforce Planning, Scottish Government
• Scott Sutherland, Early Learning and Childcare, Scottish Government

Items and actions

Welcome and apologies

Nuzhat welcomed members to the eighteenth meeting of the DiTPEW subgroup. She introduced Jehan Al-Azzawi as a new member. Jehan will represent SAMEE going forward. Nuzhat also welcomed Scottish Government Education Analytical Services colleagues to the meeting.

Minutes and actions update

There were no comments to the minutes from the seventeenth meeting of the subgroup and as such those minutes were agreed as final.

• Emma to pick up with Katherine Ross and identify where there are links between her work and that of the DiTPEW. Action closed. Emma meets with colleagues in the Fair Work division regularly and will continue to engage closely with Katherine
• chairs and Secretariat to draft response to GTC Scotland, on behalf of the group, regarding the merit of equivalence between ESOL and English Higher for primary teaching. This should circulated to members for comment. Remains open
• Kevin Brack and Louise Barratt to feedback on discussions relating to available data. Action Closed. This action has been superseded by a request that we invite UCAS to come to a meeting of the subgroup. Kevin updated that he and Louise have started a short life working group to look at developing a professional learning programme for academic staff; developing a tool for student teachers for recording of racist incidents and have circulated the guidance document to Directors of Education

Action: Emma to liaise with Education Analysts to ask UCAS along to a future meeting. 

Members raised that there have been questions around whether data can be obtained which relates to applications from UCAS. The purpose being to better understand at what stage minority ethnic applicants are rejected, the reason being that there is evidence that they are overrepresented at application stage but not at subsequent stages. Asif shared a recent English report - Racial Equality in the Teacher Workforce- An Analysis of Representation and Progression Opportunities from Initial Teacher Training to Headship which contains interesting data showing ME applicants over represented, but then a big drop off, with no explanation why. He asked if there was the ability to get similar data for Scotland. 

• Judith to share report from which the data relating to the destinations for students with EAL comes from. Judith also to confirm whether the data can be broken down by other protected characteristics. Also to confirm whether the data is broken down by individual local authority. Action Closed. Judith confirmed that the information can be broken down by Local Authority and agreed to circulate a relevant document. She also confirmed that the data can be further disaggregated by other protected characteristics but that the numbers would be incredibly small and significant data suppression would be needed 

Action: Andrea confirmed that stats relating to English as an additional language were taken to committee last week and she agreed to circulate the paper following this meeting.

• once ready Asif to circulate draft data gathering guidance document for comment. Action closed – this was circulated following publication of the report and sent to Directors of Education
• Emma to share embargoed version of the data report with the DITPEW chairs once it is available. Action closed. Report was successfully published on 18 April

Hayward Review update

Nuzhat introduced this item. The DiTPEW group contributed a response to the initial consultation process run as part of the Hayward review of qualifications and assessments. For reference this contribution was attached to the agenda for this meeting. Following the consultation closing, Professor Louise Hayward met with the Anti-Racism in Education Programme Board (AREP) where she spoke through her emerging thinking. AREP members and subgroups were asked to consider the proposed model in terms of opportunities that it presents as well as risks and what would be needed for a model like this to work. The deadline for any further submission from this group is the 30th April 2023. 

Nuzhat asked Asif for his initial reflections as co-chair. He shared Supporting documents - Qualifications and Assessment Review: consultation analysis. He suggested that themes are coming through that in his view have stemmed from consultation submissions from both the AREP and the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights. He acknowledged that the scope of the review only overlaps minimally with the work of the DiTPEW. In the group’s previous response the case for a diverse workforce was made. Members were asked whether they wanted a follow up submission to make new points or to reiterate the points made previously. 

Members reflected:

• is there scope for something to be said related to the anti-racist pledge planned for the summit in June? 
• should the ITE anti-racism framework, Building Racial Literacy Programme etc. be mentioned?
• there is a need to ensure that those who design qualifications and the curriculum are racially literate
• it may be helpful to include more concrete suggestions than previously. For example members could suggest that quality assurance procedures and moderation are needed to identify where there has been racial bias

Action: Asif and Nuzhat to draft a second submission to the Hayward Review and circulate for comment ahead of 30 April deadline 

Anti-racism in education summit update

Judith advised that a new date has been identified for an anti-racism in education summit and that it would form the second half of a full day event held jointly with Scottish Government strategic race equality colleagues. The event is scheduled for 07 June 2023 and it is hoped that the First Minister will give a key-note speech. Judith suggested that the pledge, as previously developed, will be continue to be the key focus of the even as well as it being used to publicly recommit to the 2030 4% target. 

Update on Asif's role

Nuzhat invited Asif to update the group regarding the work that he has been doing. He updated on a number of work strands that he has been taking forward:

• developing the data support document, that sat alongside the letter to Directors of Education has been a big focus recently
• supporting ITE and increasing BME intake – He has been briefing internal GTC Scotland colleagues about SCDE framework. In particular how it interplays with accreditation and re-accreditation. He suggested that it will be interesting at reaccreditation time to see what impact of the framework has been
• he was part of the first Anti-Racism in ITE (ARITE) workshop, the purpose of which is to drive and support engagement with the framework. At this workshop every ITE institution was represented and the discussion was very positive. They spoke about the new framework including opportunities, challenges and solutions. It was agreed that there is a need for open and honest dialogue that allows for free and frank discussion. Asif reflected that Louise Barrett chaired the meeting really well. Louise and Asif co-designed a survey for those who attended the meeting to identify priority areas for action as a group. Racial literacy of teacher educators was identified as a priority area. The framework will have a formal launch on 8th June as part of the SCDE’s self-evaluation day. It is expected that ITE institutions will develop draft action plans ahead of that meeting that they can share for collaboration
• sponsorship – Asif has started work on models and approaches for sponsorship. He had previously been keen to use the summit to say that change is on its way. He has met with the ADES personnel network, in part to discuss sponsorship. He and ADES are working with individual local authorities on an ongoing basis trying to identify ways to do collaborative work. They have had some good discussions on this so far
• when asked what help he currently needed from the DiTPEW group Asif advised that he is putting together a positive action “scrap book” which will contain different examples of positive action measures being taken forward by employers across different sectors and in professional learning etc. He asked that members share any examples that they have with him
• Asif shared - Teaching Scotland Issue 96 - Race and anti-racism in Scottish education
• he advised that there is work underway within the GTC Scotland around how to gather protected characteristic data of registrants, initially the focus for this bit of work will be on probationers
• he shared that the Soraj Lal Award nominations are coming up. Compared with last year the only difference is related to the nomination process, it will now be a self-nomination process, and there will be no facility to nominate others 

Data report follow-up

Nuzhat invited Scottish Government analytical colleagues to introduce the item. 

Members asked whether it would be possible to arrange for UCAS to come and speak with the group about applications data. Alan advised that he has touched base already with UCAS and will take forward. He suggested that there is a need to be mindful that applications data doesn’t necessarily give the full picture. For example just because someone was rejected from one ITE provider does not mean that they didn’t enter the system via another. It is likely that we will be able to access that data, at a cost, but that we need to think carefully what insight we want to gain from it. 

Members reflected that application data is high up the ‘want’ list of data. Once again members pointed to the NFER Data (see link above) which outlines applications and acceptances into Initial Teacher Training in England. It would be good to get similar data for Scotland, even with the above caveats. 

Members reflected that it might be helpful if we could get the 'acceptance/hold/rejection' data for applicants. They asked if this information is held by the individual universities? There are questions around how consistent is this data gathering, how long do they hold it for etc. 

As regards Teacher Census data, members asked if it is possible to break down promoted posts more granularly. Analysts advised that this is possible but that numbers may be too small to be meaningful. 

Action: Janice to check if granular information related to promoted posts can be shared with the group.

Any other business

Nuzhat told members about a new course being delivered in partnership between Glasgow University and Glasgow City Council 
The course will run in session 2023-2024 called the Enhanced Political Awareness course aimed at school leaders and has been extended to BAME PTs also, in a form of positive action to allow aspiring BAME leaders to gain more professional development and experience in this area.

Theory of Change work is progressing apace. Timeline for next steps is as below:

• Scottish Government Analytical Services Analysts developing draft ToC Narrative - Concludes by 28 April
• Circulate draft ToC to Workstream members - WC 8 May
• Workstream members review and input on draft - Concludes by 19 May 
• Final meeting to discuss and agree ToC - Wc 22 May (meeting date tbc)