Consultation on proposals to Update the School Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967: Analysis of Responses

7. Conclusions

A range of individuals and organisations with varied and detailed knowledge and experiences participated in this consultation, sharing their views on proposed updates to the School Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967. This report provides a high-level summary of the consultation responses. For more details, readers are encouraged to read individual responses, where permission was given for publication, via the Scottish Government’s consultation website.

Many of the proposed changes to the regulations recorded widespread agreement from respondents, though disagreement was more evident for a few proposals. In their open comments, respondents who agreed with the changes often caveated their support with recommendations and suggestions for further consideration.

Respondents supported the proposal to retain the existing regulations that consider acoustic conditions, water supply, grant-aided schools, and kitchen premises. However, where respondents disagreed or qualified their agreement in the open question, they often asked for further detail or clarification on the regulations, particularly how they relate to the varying requirements of children and young people with additional support needs.

For the regulations identified by the Scottish Government as requiring updates, respondents were generally in favour of the changes being proposed. Local authorities supported increased flexibility and less prescriptive regulations to allow schools to meet the distinct requirements of their students, buildings, environments and communities. However, they repeatedly raised concerns about whether any new regulations would be applied to existing school buildings, and about the potential costs of implementing new regulations.

There was, however, clear disagreement with the proposed changes to regulations for toilet and washing facilities. While a range of perspectives were presented by respondents, these typically expressed the view that the proposed changes would not be sufficient to ensure the rights, dignity, privacy and respect for different students and staff members.

Support for the removal of certain regulations was more mixed. Support was high for the removal of the general requirements regulation (Regulation 4) and the regulation regarding educational accommodation in schools providing both primary and secondary education. Approval for removing regulations about storage and around educational accommodation in special schools was at or just under half. Respondents who disagreed with the removal of existing regulations often cited concerns around the consistency of standards across Scotland, preferring a national regulation and Scottish Government oversight over more flexibility for local authorities, which they felt could risk inequity of provision.

The responses to this consultation highlight broad agreement with the proposed adjustments to School Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967. While further consideration may need to be given to a small number of areas of disagreement, most of the proposed changes were recognised by respondents as being necessary to modernise school estates across Scotland.