Scottish Armed Forces Education Support Group minutes: June 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Scottish Government (SG) Learning Directorate (Chair)
• Scottish Government (SG) Safe Communities Directorate
• Assosciation of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)
• National Education and Transitions Officer (NETO)
• Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) Advisor (AA)
• Royal Navy (RN)
• MOD Armed Forces, Children and Young People Directorate (MOD)
• MOD Army Representative
• Naval Family Federation (NFF)
• Deputy Commander of HQ 51st Infantry Brigade
• RAF Family Federation (RAF-FF)
• Forces Children Scotland (FCS)
• Director of The Centre for Military Research, Education and Public Engagement, Napier University
• Army Family Federation (AFF)

Apologies

• RAF
• Education Scotland Inclusion, Wellbeing and Equalities (ES)

Items and actions

Review of Actions from the previous meeting - 25 March 2024

The note of the last meeting was shared for comments.  No further amendments were requested in response.  

Action 1:  

• SG and ADES will continue to have discussions to ensure the data we are collating is comparable to what is currently available.  SG will contact ADES to arrange a meeting to discuss

Update:

• The chair (SG) met with the NETO and ADES Advisor regarding this and had a really helpful discussion to take forward the request for Scottish Government to collect data on children and young people from Armed Forces Families.

Action 2:

• To consider adding to the Terms of Reference that an invitation may be extended to stakeholders for specific meetings, this will allow members to have better insight into their policy area.

  Update:

• The Terms of Reference have been updated reflect this.

Data Collection

SG officials and data analysts continue to progress the work on collecting data for children and young people from Armed Forces Families as part of the annual pupil census data collection.

Additional Support for Learning Review Action Plan

The Education, Children and Young People Committee published a 94-page report from their inquiry into Additional Support for Learning (ASL). The recommendations came under 12 key themes. Currently, Ministers and SG Officials are considering the recommendations, and a response will be issue in due course.

The ASL Action Plan update has been delayed to allow for the recommendations to be considered and links identified in the work that is already ongoing within the Action Plan. The new publication date is Autumn 2024.

Updates from group members

Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) Advisor (AA)

• AA and NETO had a meeting with SAAS to discuss the change in procedures for Higher Education for Service Children and Young People. AA and NETO have encouraged SAAS to share their change in procedure with Local Authorities and other key stakeholders.

MOD Armed Forces, Children and Young People Directorate (MOD)

• The Early Learning Children Care Fund is now live, information on this is available through the Armed Forces Covenant Trust webpage.
• The Armed Forces Covenant team are looking at assessing the impact of the statutory duties. A link to a survey was shared with members.

Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) National Education and Transitions Officer (NETO)

• NETO has had meetings with their ‘Getting it Right for Forces Families’ working group, the lead officers for each Local Authorities and the Head Teacher Forums. They have dates in place for the new academic year.
• NETO has also been doing presentations, most recently one at Leuchars where they met with parents and wider professionals, the presentation was well received.

Forces Children Scotland (FCS)

• FCS recently became associated members of the Scottish Youth Parliament and will have two young members attending who will represent Forces Children.
• FCS have received funding from the Army Benevolent Fund to develop an innovative communications tool with, and for children from military families with additional support needs (ASN).  They are working with specialist social enterprise, Talking Mats Ltd, together with children from armed forces communities, to co-produce a Talking Mat Visual Communication Tool and roll out this approach across our services in Scotland.
• FCS are working on their rights report which they are hoping to release in July, in line with UNCRC guidance.

Naval Family Federation (NFF)

• ‘HomePort’ Magazine is specifically designed for naval families and the next addition will be coming out in middle of June which will include a wide range of information about moving to Scotland.

RAF-FF

• The RAF-FF Summer addition of their magazine is due shortly.
• The special educational needs and disabilities forum is on the 18 of June 2024, with RAF-FF looking to get insights from across the UK and overseas on the lived experience whilst they work with multiple organisations to help raise awareness of what families are encountering.
• RAF-FF have a childcare survey due to be conducted in the Autum 2024.

Focus Session - Transitions

The chair introduced this item and the group had discussions around transitions for children and young people involved in large moves for armed forces communities as well as individual movements to and from Scotland.  The group discussed the following topics -

• Planned moves
• Engagement with Local Authorities
• Barriers, issues, potential solutions

It was noted that Local Authorities like to have information regarding Armed Forces families moves as early as possible to allow for decisions on the child’s placement to be made.

It was highlighted that a transition study was conducted and that some Local Authorities had useful information on transitions which will be beneficial to some families. There was a consideration to see how we can get all Local Authorities to have strong guidance on transitions, to allow for transparency across the board.

The group agreed that it would be beneficial to look at all streams of information available and see how they can further promote those.

It was agreed that a subgroup of the SAFESG would be formed to specifically look at transitions and good practice.

Action:

• The Chair will progress setting up a subgroup to look at Transitions.

Future Meeting Dates

• Wednesday 24 July 2024 – 14:00 – 15:30
• Wednesday 4 September 2024 - 10:30 - 12:00
• Wednesday 4 December 2024 – 11:00 – 12:30