Respect for All Review Working Group Minutes: May 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Support and Wellbeing Unit, Scottish Government (chair)
• NASUWT
• respectme
• Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS)
• School Leaders Scotland (SLS)
• National Parent Forum of Scotland (NPFS)
• Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association (SSTA)
• Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
• Education Scotland
• Police Scotland
• Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
• Association of Headteachers and Deputes Scotland (AHDS)
• Support and Wellbeing Unit, Scottish Government (secretariat)

Apologies

• Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP)
• Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP)
• National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC)

Items and actions

Welcome and apologies

The chair welcomed attendees and apologies were noted.

Minutes from previous meeting and actions

The minutes from the meeting held on 20 March 2024 were attached with the papers. The chair provided an update on the actions discussed at the previous meeting.

Members were content to agree the minutes.

Action: SG to publish minutes from previous meeting on webpage prior to the next meeting.

Implementation of Respect for All

respectme provided an overview of the paper they had prepared to support discussions around the Implementation section of Respect for All.

respectme highlighted four areas for the group to consider starting with the restructuring of the section then improvements to support implementation including the introduction of a core local authority policy, increased voice for children and young people and anti-bullying within the curriculum.

Feedback received from members included:

• Content with the proposed restructure of sections
• Youth voice is essential under UNCRC
• Further discussion/clarity required on a core local authority policy
• Welcome input from HMIE on the guidance
• Expectations of pupils and staff needs to be clear within guidance
• Ensure wording/language reflects that the guidance is not just for schools
• Case studies on pupil forums and youth voice could be included
• Interesting to see what aspects within the curriculum might most support children to deal with bullying effectively
• Recording and monitoring language is quite passive and not very clear

Action: Group to discuss core local authority policy in more detail at next meeting.

Action: SG/respectme to draft section 2 under the proposed new structure and bring back to the group for comment.

AOB

The chair confirmed the next meeting would take place on Wednesday 19 June.

No other business was raised.