A fairer Scotland for all: race equality action plan and highlight report 2017-2021

Education and Lifelong Learning

Everyone has the opportunity to learn in an inclusive environment without disadvantage in relation to racial inequality or racism.

1+2 Language Policy

As part of our work with Education Scotland to make local authorities aware of the value of engaging with minority ethnic communities, Education Scotland languages team hosted a national language event and promoted minority ethnic languages to 1+2 leads in local authorities. The team engaged with 6 individual local authorities, one Scottish Association of Language Teachers ( SALT) event, and one modern languages LA development officer event where flexibility of L3 provision was discussed in terms of minority ethnic languages. Education Scotland recently published updated advice on L3 in primary schools.

In spring of 2017, local authorities submitted information to Scottish Government and Education Scotland on the language provision in terms of 1+2. This information provided data on which languages are currently delivered as L2 and L3. This exercise will be repeated for 2018. SCILT, Scotland's National Centre for Languages, organised four national events termed 'Bilingualism Does Matter' aiming to support practitioners working with bilingual learners.

Parental Engagement

The National Parent Forum of Scotland ( NPFS) published the final report from its Review of Parental Involvement in May 2017. As part of the review two focus groups, involving a total of 10 minority ethnic parents were held to collect evidence on the experience of parents from minority ethnic communities. The Deputy First Minister wrote to the National Parent Forum in September 2017 to accept the general conclusions from the review. As part of its response, the Scottish Government is strengthening, modernising and extending the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006. In addition, the government has committed to develop a national action plan on parental engagement. The action plan will consider the needs of a range of equality groups, including the key steps that will be taken to improve the involvement of minority ethnic parents. A representative from BEMIS is included in the reference group which will consider the amendments to the legislation and the national action plan.

Education Maintenance Allowance ( EMA)

A Scottish Government Nationwide EMA awareness raising campaign was launched in September 2016 in partnership with local authorities and colleges. Alongside this, colleges and local authorities receive SG funding to continually promote the programme within their areas to ensure those eligible are aware of the support to which they are entitled.

Careers Guidance

The enhanced Skills Development Scotland ( SDS) school service offer was rolled out in all secondary schools in 2016-17 and further refined in 2017-18. This now means that all young people will engage earlier with SDS Careers Advisers, starting at P7/S1 transition and then continuing at each stage until leaving school in line with the commitments in Career Education Standard. These interventions will enable young people and their families to be better informed about the variety of career pathways on offer, including those considered non-traditional career pathways, and to develop their Career Management Skills.

SDS and Education Scotland continue to develop and strengthen joint working to meet the needs of asylum seekers in response to the "New Scots" strategy.

Anti-Bullying Approach

The Scottish Government has refreshed the National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland's Children and Young People to ensure that it remains current.

"Respect for All: National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland's Children and Young People" will help everyone involved in the lives of children and young people to identify and address bullying, including racist, homophobic and abusive behaviour whether it happens online or offline. The Scottish Government recently responded to the recommendations in a report on this issue by the Equality and Human rights committee.

The Scottish Government will continue to wholly fund and support respectme, the national anti-bullying service, to provide direct support to build confidence and capacity to address bullying effectively to local authorities, schools, youth groups and all those working with children and young people. The service is jointly managed by the Scottish Association for Mental Health ( SAMH) and LGBT Youth Scotland. We have commissioned the Coalition for Racial Equality & Rights to work with respectme in the development of a stand-alone resource on race bullying.

The Scottish Government also provides over £310,000 in support to Childline to provide confidential advice and information to children, young people and families affected by all issues, including bullying.

Education Scotland has now fully implemented its revised inspection framework How Good Is Our School 4, which supports early years & childcare centres and schools to consider themes of equity and equality as part of their own self-evaluation. This includes an enhanced focus on addressing the impact of inequity on wellbeing, learning and achievement for all learners including those from minority ethnic communities. A vital aspect of the framework is the inclusion and evaluation of educational establishments' safeguarding duties, procedures and practices on all inspections. The safeguarding and child protection quality indicator requires inspectors to review establishments' approaches to dealing with bullying and how they record and analyse data related to bullying incidents.

Early Learning and Childcare Workforce

The 'Skills Investment Plan: Prospectus for Scotland's Early Learning and Childcare sector' published earlier in 2017, includes an action 'to deliver a high profile recruitment campaign to attract a diverse workforce'. That campaign launched on 23 October 2017.

Teacher workforce

The current 'Teaching Makes People' recruitment campaign is the recruitment of STEM undergraduates into Postgraduate Diploma in Education ( PGDE) teaching courses. The second phase of the Teaching Makes People campaign will is now underway and will continue to address concerns about under-representation of teachers from minority ethnic backgrounds .

College and University Outcome Agreements

In their 2018-19 to 2020-21 Outcome Agreement guidance to Colleges and Universities published in October 2017, the Scottish Funding Council ( SFC) has built in a commitment to work with institutions to consider the Race Equality Framework for Scotland 2016-2030, and to ensure that people do not face barriers to full participation and successful outcomes across Further and Higher Education. The SFC published the Triennial Review on Widening Access in August 2017 and is now building on the data and findings for minority ethnic students to inform future actions.

The SFC Gender Action Plan, published in August 2016, includes commitments for minority ethnic groups: "By summer 2018, aligned with the focus of Developing the Young Workforce ( DYW) and the Scottish Government's Race Equality Framework for Scotland, SFC will consult with relevant ethnicity and disability representatives to improve their understanding of the issues faced by such minority groups and how they differ by gender". Building on work with the Equality Challenge Unit ( ECU), SFC will seek to identify what further guidance is required.