Gender Based Violence in School Working Group Minutes March 2023

 

 

Attendees and apologies

Attendees

• Scottish Government (Chair)
• Zero Tolerance
• Scottish Women’s Aid
• COSLA
• UNISON
• Educational Institute Scotland (EIS)
• National Associations of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT)
• National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC)
• Education Scotland
• Time for Inclusive Education (TIE)
• Scottish Government – Health and Wellbeing Unit
• Rape Crisis Scotland

Apologies:

• COSLA
• Scottish Government – Equality in Education (GETEL)
• Scottish Government – Child Protection

Items and actions

Welcome and apologies

The chair welcomed members and noted apologies.

Minutes and actions from 28 February (paper 1)

The chair advised that there was one outstanding action from the previous meeting that would be addressed later in the agenda. All other actions were complete or ongoing.

• chairs to discuss, agree and draft what quotes from children and young people could be included to illustrate particular points, and these would be included in future drafts - Ongoing - chairs will consider for next meeting
• Education Scotland to send suggested wording on building intersectionality as an additional element to a scenario by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Ongoing - ES have suggested this be done once the approach to scenarios has been agreed
• chairs to discuss, agree and draft what quotes from children and young people could be included to illustrate particular points, and these would be included in future drafts - Ongoing – chairs will consider for next meeting
• Education Scotland to send suggested wording on building intersectionality as an additional element to a scenario by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Ongoing - ES have suggested this be done once the approach to scenarios has been agreed
• members to consider what interests should be engaged with and how they could help to support this, for discussion at the next meeting on 28 March - Will be discussed under 4-Engagement 
• SG to publish minutes to the webpage by the next meeting of 28 February 2023 - Complete
• EIS to send in suggested wording to the definitions section by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Complete
• SG to review pop up boxes already in the document and suggest different design/colours to ensure this stands out by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Complete
• Education Scotland to send in wording around learning engagement by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Complete
• chairs to discuss the placing of ESAS in the document and make and suggested changes to the document by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Complete
• Zero Tolerance Scotland, Education Scotland and EIS to work on wording re accountability/GIRFEC - Complete
• EIS to send any suggested changes on section E/F by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Complete
• Rape Crisis Scotland to create a flowchart summarising the targeted approaches discussion by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Complete
• SG to better differentiate the introduction, universal approach and targeted approach sections within section E/F by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Complete
• all members to send any wording for contributions and changes on section E/F by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Complete
• EIS to send in suggested wording on the use of pastoral care notes in SEEMiS by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Complete
• Education Scotland to send in amendments to discussion of recording intersectionality by Tuesday 14 March - Complete
• SG to make amendments relating to self-evaluation, visitors and independent schools - Complete
• Education Scotland to submit references to learners within the evaluation table by Tuesday 14th March - Complete
• group members to send any other amendments by Tuesday 14th March - Complete
• members to send all wording for contributions and changes for staff section by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Complete
• group members to submit amendments to the scenarios, following the suggested structure by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Complete
• Zero Tolerance Scotland to draft overarching statement regarding universal approaches by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Complete
• chairs to review scenarios and standardise approach for circulation for the next meeting - Complete
• members to send all wording for contributions and changes for sections G and I to the SG by Tuesday 14 March 2023 - Complete
• Zero Tolerance Scotland to set up a meeting with Rape Crisis Scotland, ADES and Woman’s Aid to discuss approach to engagement with children and young people - Complete
• SG to consider changes to the section in light of the findings of the thematic inspection of approaches to recording and monitoring bullying incidents in schools - Complete
• SG to remove introduction and standardise approach to the table - Complete

The chair requested updates on the following action:

• NASUWT to speak to Gender Issues Working Group regarding creating a video and update the group at the next meeting on 28 February 2023

NAAUWT advised the group that they have volunteers for this piece of work but has been paused as headteachers indicated they may require further consent from Local Authorities. NASUWT requested that the SG emails Directors of Education about the framework to encourage their support for schools’/teachers’ engagement – Agreement to update at the meeting in May.

Action: SG to draft an email to Directors of Education to seek consent for volunteers to produce a video to assist with the Gender Based Violence framework. SG to send draft to ADES by the end of April, for agreement prior to sending out.

All members were content for the February minutes to be published.

Action: SG to publish minutes to the webpage by the next meeting of 9 May 2023.

National Framework – Scenarios and Flowchart (papers 2,3)

Scenarios (paper 2)

The chair advised the group that after the last meeting, consideration had been given to how to standardise the scenarios. Two options had been provided to the group: the original approach, and a version reframed to focus on the teacher’s perspective of what to do when faced with particular situations.

There was a discussion on a number of amendments, the following points were agreed:

• the group agreed the scenarios should be developed to be written from the teacher’s perspective of what to do if faced by particular situations
• using simplified, general scenarios would enable considerations of the different responses based on the age of the child to be drawn out within each scenario, rather than trying to create a specific scenario based around primary school aged children
• it was felt to be beneficial to continue to use subheadings to differentiate considerations in relation to the different people affected
• the scenarios should be reviewed to ensure standardised language where actions were the same across different scenarios
• some of the current scenarios had multiple elements in then and these should be separated out. It was agreed it would be helpful to have scenarios covering the following issues: misogynistic language, sexual harassment, coercive control, sexualised behaviours, intersectionality, school being involved in inter-agency response to behaviour outside school, criminal behaviour (rape or sexual assault), identifying signs of GBV (FGM), teacher experiencing GBV
• the scenarios should retain a focus on action, and a reminder to record and monitor

Action: SG to redraft all scenarios in line with the agreed approach outlined above by the next meeting on 9 May.

There was also a discussion around adding in contextual information at the start of this section regarding recognising the behaviours and actions of both children involved in incidents. NSPCC advised the group that they had sought comments from the Childline Service Manager on the scenarios after the papers had been issued, which had been provided to SG on the morning of the meeting. The group expressed an interest in viewing these comments.

Action: SG to forward on feedback that NSPCC received from Childline Service Manager on the scenarios along with the draft minutes to this meeting.

There was discussion about whether it was helpful to draw out some points within the scenarios themselves, or whether this would more appropriately be dealt with within E/F. This included points around the criminality of behaviours, particular considerations when responding to GBV, how restorative approaches reflect accountability, acknowledging difficulties in responding to GBV in the moment and concerns about labelling behaviours. It was agreed that there would be a further discussion offline in order to pull out any further wording in order to link these sections.

Actions: SG to set up a meeting with NSPCC, Zero Tolerance, Rape Crisis Scotland and Education Scotland around scenarios and section E/F.

Flowchart (paper 3)

At previous meetings it was agreed that a flowchart would be beneficial for section E/F to assist identification of suggested actions. A flowchart was created for the targeted approach section with the understanding that it would be checked against scenarios when they are complete.

The group felt the flow chart required further clarity to set out a linear process. There was suggestions around the possibility of another form of visual or the option of creating a challenging questions and answers to replace.

Action: NASUWT and EIS to send in examples of challenging questions to inform/replace the flowchart by 28 April.

Engagement

There was an action from the meeting in February for all members to consider whether further feedback on specific elements of the framework was required, what organisations might be best placed to provide this, and how the group could support this engagement. The chair also commented that the membership of this group was intended to provide good representation of interests who could help formulate the content.

Action: Members to send suggestions of whose views should be sought on the framework and in relation to which elements, by 28 April.

There was an overall agreement from the group that feedback would be sought from the end of May. It was recognised that June may be suitable for children and young people whereas May would be more suitable for teachers. In order to meet this target it was also agreed that communication would have to start now with various organisations in order to start the ground work.

Action: Members to start making links and engage with children and young people prior to the document being ready to ensure availability for engagement in May/June.

In order to meet the target of starting to gain feedback at the end of May it was also agreed that the meeting scheduled for 23 May would be moved to 9 May to allow any final changes to the document prior to it being sent out.

Action: SG to change the date of the next meeting from 23 May to 9 May.

National Framework - Sections E/F (paper 4)

The chairs highlighted that the text for this section had had significant amendment over the previous meetings. In line with the discussion under item 3, it was agreed that outstanding changes would be finalised with a sub-group and brought to the next meeting.

It was suggested that within the policies section of the universal approach it should be acknowledged that many schools adopt local authority policies rather than creating their own. It was agreed to add as a suggested action that schools could engage with the local authority to suggest any changes to policies.

Action: SG to look at wording around amendment of Local Authorities polices.

Any other business

No other business was raised.

The chair thanked members and closed meeting. The next meeting has been arranged for 9 May and the group will receive a new calendar invite for this.