Racism and Racist Incidents subgroup minutes: May 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Education Scotland
• YCSA
• IYS
• University of the West of Scotland
• Respectme
• ADES
• Connect
• Al Masaar
• GTCS
• Scottish Government Support and Wellbeing Unit (Chair)
• CEMVO
• EIS
• COSLA
• Independent racism consultant
• SCIS

Apologies

• CRER
• Youthlink Scotland
• NASUWT
• IYS
• CSREC
• GTCS

Items and actions

Welcome

The Chair opened the meeting and noted apologies. 

The Chair noted that the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) are stepping back from the group. However, they have indicated that they are keen to be kept updated on the group’s work.

The Chair welcomed the new member from CEMVO to the group, noting that CEMVO will continue in their role as a co-Chair of the group. 

The Chair noted that the representative from Intercultural Youth Scotland (IYS) was no longer in post. The Chair thanked the IYS representative for her contribution to the group. The Chair indicated that the Scottish Government (SG) will work with IYS to identify a replacement representative who will also act as co-Chair of the group. 

The Chair welcomed the new SG member who is providing Secretariat support due to the previous Secretariat’s Maternity Leave. 

The Chair noted the workstream responsibilities in relation to co-working. 

Action:  SG to engage with IYS to identify a replacement representative. 

Minutes from previous meeting

The draft minutes from the January meeting had been circulated to members. No comments were received. Members confirmed that they were content for the minute to be published. 

Action: Secretariat to publish January minutes on Scottish Government website

Recommendations from children and young people engagement 

The Chair noted that IYS supported engagement with children and young people in February 2024 where they discussed the RRI workplan. A number of members of this group attending some of this session. Following this engagement, IYS have shared a letter from the youth ambassadors which sets out their recommendations for the group. These recommendations were circulated to the group in advance of the meeting, and they have been asked by correspondence to consider the draft recommendations and provide comments on whether the group should accept, partially accept or reject each recommendation. 

The Chair asked for comments on the recommendations. The following points were raised in relation to specific recommendations:

Recommendation 1

• agreement with the principle of this recommendation, noting the importance of supporting the mental health of children and young people
• however, barriers to implementation were noted. This included that educational psychologists do not generally receive training on racism or racial trauma. However, it was noted that racial trauma is an area that the Scottish anti-racist network is starting to explore
• there is also an issue with capacity due to a reduction in the number of educational psychologists within local authorities and therefore, the group need to be mindful of accepting a recommendation if there is not sufficient resource for its implementation 
• the role of school counsellors was discussed. It was noted that funding for this remains in place and has been baselined to local authority budgets. It was noted that there may be opportunities to link with the work being undertaken by SG in this area through the network of school counselling providers to support understanding of racial trauma and enhance their offer of support to children and young people. ES indicated that they would be happy to support this work 

Action:  SG to consider opportunities to link with the network of school counselling providers to support understanding of racial trauma. 

Recommendation 2

• it is important that there are learning opportunities for young people and their families
• research, due to be published in the coming weeks, has highlighted that there is anxiety amongst practitioners about addressing incidents of racism with responses indicating that practitioners are worried about potential backlash from perpetrators or their families
• response to instances of racism should be informed by culture and values of the school. These should be underpinned by an anti-racism approach to achieve buy in from pupils and families. Positive communication is key to responding effectively to racist incidents as dialogue and clear communication about school values already exists
• practitioner anxiety is recognised but need to understand this in the context that the impact and trauma of experiencing racism is worse than feeling uncomfortable
• there may be a misunderstanding about recording of incidents and a belief that when an incident is recorded, this may mean a child or young person is labelled forever
• it is important that racism is understood as a structure and reassurance is provided to parents and families
• important to align this to racial literacy work, recognising the benefits it provides in terms of a cultural shift
• it was suggested that an approach similar to that undertaken by social work might be helpful if families are reluctant to engage. This could encourage people to get round the table and agree actions, helping to reassure parents that their children won’t be labelled
• it was noted that the Whole School Approach (WSA) is important in supporting schools to understand values and create expectations of an anti-racist approach. Within the WSA approach, there is a need to acknowledge discomfort around responding to racism, but within the wider context of learning and changing behaviours
• Respectme indicated that they have developed practical guidance on how to have conversations about bullying. This might be a useful appendix to the WSA and will be shared with the group and discussed at the next meeting

• it was noted that this also links with the action plan on relationships and behaviour which is being developed and is considering practical tips for practitioners 
• it was noted that the WSA needs to consider the age, stage and development of children and young people and reflect that a school’s approach should be tailored based on these factors

Action:  RespectMe guidance on bullying to be shared with the group.

Recommendation 3

• it was noted that SEEMIS already exists as a system to record and monitor instances of racism and bullying. However, research shows that there are inconsistences with how it is used 
• linked to earlier points, it is recognised that there may be concerns about children and young people being labelled which could discourage staff from recording incidents. There may also be concerns from schools about reputational risk or practical difficulties in recording incidents
• however, it is important that all incidents are accurately recorded. This can help to establish an accurate baseline and identity areas for improvement or intervention. 
• the WSA should reinforce the importance of accurate recording and monitoring
• there must be a consistent approach to recording and monitoring to support joined up working with other agencies 
• there is alignment with the Respectme’s anti-bullying guidance, and as noted above, this will be shared with the group

Recommendation 4

• the group noted that this recommendation links to other workstreams within AREP and there may be opportunities to work with other workstreams to progress this recommendation
• it was noted that schools should already have support from the LA to link with other agencies. However, it was noted that the youth ambassadors may be referencing a disparity with how racism is dealt with in schools compared to elsewhere and that the response to racism should be aligned with the Hate Crime Strategy and Equality Act 
• it was noted that schools should have processes in place to support teachers who experience or witness racism. The WSA needs to address whether all schools have these processes in place. It also needs to address how racism is dealt with, what those processes are and what support is available. This should be separate to engaging with other agencies 
• the group were unclear on the context of this recommendation and what informed the discussion. It was noted that clarification from IYS would be helpful

Action:  SG to seek clarification from IYS about the context of recommendation 4. 

Discussion of this recommendation led to a broader discussion about progress to develop the WSA. The following points were raised:

• there is a concern that the work is not progressing quickly enough and that the document that is currently being developed may be too complex and overwhelming 
• it was noted that the recommendations from the youth ambassadors may have arisen as there is currently a lack of clarity about what the WSA will do
• it was noted that schools are seeking guidance as soon as possible to support them to respond appropriately to racist incidents. Some LAs have developed interim guidance and made their schools aware of the work being undertaken to develop the WSA
• it was suggested that the group need to refocus to help them to make solid progress with this work. They should consider how the WSA could be broken down into more manageable outputs with practical support for schools to respond to racist incidents
• the group should consider whether the WSA could be staggered or broken down to achieve outputs more quickly
• it could also be helpful to engage with the wider school community to raise awareness of what is currently available, with links made to Education Scotland’s offer on professional learning
• there are links to the RespectMe’s anti-bullying guidance which offers practical support to practitioners
• it was noted that it would be helpful to revisit the action plan and consider which areas of the WSA should be prioritised. This will be the focus of the June meeting
• it was noted that it would be challenging to publish outputs in time for the new academic year in August. However, it may be possible to engage with schools in August around the WSA more broadly
• the group need to ensure that they have the right membership and that it includes practitioners and children and young people with lived experience of racism
• RespectMe shared a link to the existing guidance booklet on addressing racism: Addressing Inclusion:  Effectively challenging racism in schools. It was suggested that an updated version of this could sit alongside the WSA. It was noted that this resource needed to be updated and asked for support from the group with this. The resource contains information about using appropriate language and recording and monitoring and may be helpful as a starting point to identify priorities in the WSA. This will be considered alongside other available resources at the meeting in June

The Chair noted that the focus of the group’s meeting in June will be to review the action plan and consider which parts of the WSA should be prioritised to progress this work. 

Action:  Focus of June meeting to review action plan and prioritise areas of work. 

The Chair asked for comment on any of the other recommendations.

In respect of recommendation 5, it was noted that there is an existing service provided by the IYS mental health service. There may be an opportunity to involve that service at a later stage when considering how racist incidents and responded to and how to link with or signpost to other mental health or educational psychology services. 

The Chair asked members to send any further comments on the recommendations to the Secretariat by 31 May. It was noted that once feedback has been received, the SG will draft a response to be shared with the group for comment and agreement. The Chair noted that this IYS project was coming to an end, so there may be a need to progress the response quickly to ensure that the youth ambassadors receive a response. 

Action:  SG will draft a response informed by feedback and share with the group for consideration, checking with IYS to inform timing of response to Youth Ambassadors. 

Education Scotland shared information about professional learning on racial literacy noting that applications were now open for the next set of courses. Connect and EIS agreed to liaise on the possibility of developing a resource for parents. It was suggested that it might be worthwhile exploring an AREP funding proposal around this.

Draft WSA section: 'Creating a Whole School Anti Racist Environment’

The Chair invited comments from the group on the first two sections of the guidance. It was noted that these have been discussed by the group at an earlier meeting and updated following feedback. The following comments were made:

• good progress has been made. However, it is important to ensure that we reach out to the wider community and include youth and religious groups
• would be helpful to provide more clarity on what is meant by curriculum, thinking more about the totality of learning experiences, rather than focusing on particular subject areas
• it was noted that there was overlap between the content of this section and the other workstreams. It was suggested that it would be helpful to share these sections with the other workstreams to ensure that a consistent message is being shared

• the WSA needs to be underpinned by the legal framework and align to other responses to anti-racism from around the UK. The WSA needs to be clear about the Public Sector Equality Duty and where the responsibility and accountability for anti-racism approaches sits. It needs to be clear about expectations of different groups to respond to racism and support those who are victims of racism
• linked to the point on prioritisation, there is a need to think about the important practical content first and revisit some of the other content at a later stage. It is important that the WSA doesn’t just respond to racism when it happens but provides guidance to prevent it from happening 
• it was suggested that a flowchart could be developed setting out information on how to respond to instances of racism
• it was noted that the WSA needs to consider the impact of repeat behaviour and the cumulative effect that racism will have on pupils and their families
• it was suggested that information could be gathered from LAs about the policies and guidance they currently have in place on responding to racist incidents 

Action:

• Members to share sections with appropriate workstreams to ensure consistent messaging. 
• SG to contact Directors of Education to ask for information on the policies and guidance they have in place to respond to racist incidents. 

The Chair noted that responses from LAs, together with some of the work from RespectMe will give a useful starting point for discussions around prioritisation.

Draft WSA - The role of children and young people and the role of and Parents, carers and families

The Chair noted that there had not been time to discuss the proposed content of this section. She asked the group to provide comments on the content by correspondence. This section can be discussed further at the next meeting or at a future meeting. 

Action:  Group to provide comments on the proposed content of this section by correspondence. 

AOB

No other business was raised. 

The next meeting will be held in June. The Secretariat will circulate a doodle poll.