Children (Withdrawal from Religious Education and Amendment of UNCRC Compatibility Duty) (Scotland) Bill: island communities impact assessment

Step Three – Consultation

Given the narrow and technical nature of the proposed changes, engagement has been proportionate to the potential impact of these changes. Therefore, wider policy and legislation relating to these issues are considered to be outwith the scope of this assessment.

Religious Observance and Religious and Moral Education in Schools: A full public consultation on the proposed changes to RO/RME was published on 14 November 2024 and closed on 26 January 2025, receiving over 500 responses. No specific concerns were raised about how the proposed changes would impact island and rural communities, though it is not clear how many respondents were resident in these communities.

Given the relatively modest amendments being proposed, the consultation on the Bill proposals did not include consultation events. However, alongside the public consultation, the Scottish Government met with key national stakeholders, including ADES, SCES, STARME, HSS, the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP), Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights), and the office of the CYPCS, as well as representatives from a broad range of faith and belief groups.

While no specific concerns were raised by stakeholders in relation to island communities, one concern was raised in relation to small schools in small communities. This concern related to feedback from some parents in these communities that they felt uncomfortable submitting a withdrawal request or questioning the content of RO/RME due to the potential stigma and some experiences of unsupportive comments from previous engagement on these issues. While the proposed changes are not intended to address this issue, officials will consider how updated guidance might support schools to take an inclusive and collaborative approach to engagement with parents and pupils on RO/RME.

As part of the engagement on development of updated guidance to accompany the Bill, the Scottish Government will specifically seek to engage with schools in rural and island communities to ensure that any specific needs of these schools are reflected in the updated guidance. As part of this we will seek to cover the following broad questions:

• Have you seen any cases of withdrawal from RO/RME in your school?
• In your experience, do you feel there is a greater instance of parents requesting to have their child withdrawn from RO/ RME in the Scottish islands than mainland Scotland?
• Based on class sizes and capacity in your school, do you feel island school teachers overall, or specifically schools on this island, are more impacted in terms of capacity when processing a withdrawal request than those larger schools with more staff?
• How would you suggest the Scottish Government could assist in bringing in this change and is there anything which should be highlighted?
• Do you have any further points to add?

Amendment to the UNCRC Act: The proposed UNCRC Act amendment is not anticipated to have an effect on an island community which is different from the effect on other communities.