National Improvement Framework 2026: improvement plan

Outcome 6

Improving relationships and behaviour, and attendance, with increased engagement in learning and a culture of dignity and respect for all.

What the evidence is telling us

Findings from HM Inspectors through school inspections tell us that there is a strong national commitment to creating positive, inclusive and engaging learning environments across almost all schools. Positive and nurturing relationships between staff and learners are a strong feature of practice nationally. In almost all schools, staff know children and young people well as individuals and demonstrate care and respect in their interactions. These relationships are underpinned by shared school values and by a commitment to children’s rights.

Respectful and supportive relationships across the school community are a strong feature across almost all schools. In most schools, there are effective strategies ensuring all learners are included and engaged, and children and young people are supported to overcome barriers. In most schools, children and young people demonstrate positive behaviours, interacting well during learning activities across the school day. In the most effective practice, senior leaders and staff manage situations sensitively to help children engage with their learning or regulate their behaviour. Restorative and trauma-informed approaches are increasingly becoming embedded across schools, resulting in improvements in behaviour and reducing exclusions. In the majority of schools, children and young people feel safe, respected and valued, supported through effective anti-bullying procedures and policies. For a minority of schools, a next step is for senior leaders to work with the whole school community to refresh anti-bullying policies.

The Behaviour in Scottish Schools: Research report 2023 (BISSR) is the latest^[2] in time series research established in 2006 and reporting the views of support staff, teachers, headteachers, and local authority staff on pupils’ relationships and behaviour in schools. The research published in 2023 also contained a range of specific questions about the impact of COVID-19. The research found that whilst the majority of staff in 2023 still perceive that all or most pupils are generally well-behaved around the school and in the classroom, there has been a general worsening of pupil behaviour since 2016 with primary and secondary staff having experienced decreases in most positive behaviours and increases in most of the low level disruptive, disengagement and serious disruptive behaviours around the school.

In line with the broader picture, most staff reported that behaviour is worse than before the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions began, both in the classroom (77%) and around the school (80%). School staff considered COVID-19 to have had a negative impact on behaviour, particularly for those pupils whose transition - either between early years and primary or primary and secondary - was disrupted.

What we will do to deliver

In June, we published new guidance for schools on use of consequences, setting out guidance on how schools can work with their whole school community to develop expectations for behaviour, and to implement responses where these expectations aren’t met.

Over the next year the Scottish Government will deliver a number of actions to support schools, young people and their families:

• We will publish a whole school approach on addressing racism and racist incidents in schools in early 2026.
• We are also updating our national attendance guidance to support improvements in attendance, which we will publish in Spring 2026.
• We have begun work to improve recording and monitoring of behaviour, and will publish principles for recording and monitoring incidents in summer 2026.
• We are updating our national guidance on preventing and managing exclusions, which we will publish in summer 2026.
• We are developing new guidance for schools on vaping and substance use, which we will publish in spring 2026.
• We will support key messaging to parents around relationships and behaviour to support their interactions with school.

How we will measure progress

The progress in implementing the joint Action Plan on Relationships and Behaviour in schools will be published annually, with the second report due in Spring 2026. This will include contributions to delivery across all partners, including member of the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools, such as Education Scotland.

It is expected that local authorities will record and monitor all incidents in schools, including those which are related to bullying and behaviour and violence.

In addition to local monitoring and review of data, national level data will be available via the next iteration of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research. The sixth wave of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research will be carried out in 2026 with publication early 2027.

Data will also be available on the experiences of bullying via the findings of the Health Behaviour in School Age Children Study, which also reports children and young people’s experiences of school, including feelings of acceptance, trust and caring from teachers and their experiences of enjoying being with their classmates, felt accepted by them, and if they were kind and helpful.

We are in the process of commissioning an independent review of the gender based violence in schools framework to establish further areas for improvement.

We will use the following methods to track the progression of the Scottish Government programmes of work: UNCRC, Anti-Racism in Education, LGBT Inclusive Education Implementation, Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning, Equally Safe Delivery Plan, Mentors in Violence Prevention and Hate Crime Strategy:

• Professional learning uptake and feedback.
• Website statistics
• Collaboration with stakeholders.

We will use the National Statistics on Attendance and Absence, published annually, and containing data on local authority attendance and absence rates, to measure impact. This includes data on persistent absence.

This is in addition to local authorities own management information on attendance and absence which is available on an ongoing basis and published in a fortnightly school absence management information dashboard.