Racism and Racist Incidents subgroup minutes: December 2024

Attendees and apologies

Attendees

• University of the West of Scotland (UWS)
• Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER)
• Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS)
• Independent anti-racism consultant
• Education Scotland
• Connect
• Intercultural Youth Scotland (IYS)
• Respectme
• Al Masaar
• Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations (CEMVO)
• Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS)
• Scottish Government Support and Wellbeing Unit

Apologies

• Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)
• Youth Community Support Agency (YCSA)
• National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT)
• Central Scotland Regional Equality Council (CSREC)

Items and actions

Welcome and announcements

The Chair welcomed the new member from CEMVO to her first meeting of the group. The Chair noted there has been a change in the representative from IYS. The Chair thanked the previous representative from IYS for her contribution to the group and welcomed the new representative to her first meeting. The Chair noted that the NASUWT member is stepping back from the group. The Chair thanked her for her contribution. It was noted that the Education Scotland representative has gone on Maternity Leave. The Chair welcomed the new representative from Education Scotland.

Concerns about consistency in Chairing arrangements were highlighted to the Scottish Government Co-Chair by the AREP Programme Board. The Scottish Government Chair has been asked to ensure a consistent approach.  This has coincided with changes to the Chairing arrangements. The Chair provided an update on co-chairing arrangements. It was noted that the representative from the UWS has agreed to become a co-Chair of the group, alongside the current Scottish Government co-Chair. The co-Chairs will consider the arrangements for an additional co-Chair. In the meantime, the Scottish Government co-Chair will represent the group at AREP meetings, initially in order to ensure a consistent approach in the interim.

The Chair was asked to clarify the approach taken to decide the co-chairing arrangements. It was noted that until recently, there had been consistent arrangements for co-chairing between the Scottish Government, CEMVO and IYS. However, due to changes in membership, a decision was taken to seek new co-Chairs to bring consistency to the group. The Chair advised that consideration of who will be a co-Chair focusses on organisations, rather than individuals and their capacity and size to support the work of the group, ensuring reach and a balance in representation from People of Colour. It was noted that in future, consideration will be given to the process of selecting co-Chairs, to ensure that those on the group who may be interested in this role are given an opportunity to be considered.

CRER sought agreement for another representative from their organisation to join the workstream. The Chair asked for this to be put in writing.

Action: CRER to request in writing an addition to membership of the group.

The group discussed whether it was possible to include the names of representatives alongside their organisations in the minute of meetings. The Chair noted that the current approach of only naming organisations had previously been agreed by the group. It was suggested that a discussion about changing this approach is undertaken at a future meeting of the group.

Action: The co-Chairs will consider the arrangements for considering a third co-Chair.

Action: Secretariat to add a discussion about whether to change how representatives are captured in meeting minutes, to agenda of a future meeting.

The Chair noted the workstream responsibilities in relation to co-working.

Minutes from previous meeting

The Chair noted that the draft minute of the October meeting had been circulated to members for comment. No comments were received. The group noted that they were content to agree that the minute of October’s meeting is published on the Scottish Government webpage.

Action: Secretariat to publish the minute of October meeting on Scottish Government webpage.

Draft resource - responding to racism and racist incidents

The chair noted that at the meeting on 29 October, the group discussed a draft of the interim resource on responding to racism and racist incidents. Feedback provided at that meeting and by correspondence has been used to inform updates to the guidance. An updated draft of the guidance has been circulated to the group in advance of this meeting.

The Chair invited comments from the group on updated sections of the draft resource.

Parents and carers

The group discussed the position set out in the guidance about parents and carers being informed following a racist incident, particularly in situations where the child is over 12 and has capacity to give consent to this information not being shared with their parents or carers. It was noted that the guidance sets out the legal position in terms of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and children’s rights and wellbeing. However, it is recognised that the information in the guidance should be presented in a way that reflects parents’ rights and encourages engagement and collaborative working with parents and carers to ensure that the child or young person is fully supported following a racist incident. It was agreed that the Scottish Government and Connect will meet to discuss this issue further and consider amended wording in the guidance to better reflect this. A summary of this discussion and the policy position will be shared with the group following the meeting.

Action: Scottish Government and Connect to have further discussion about how to present information related to parents and carers in the guidance. A summary of this discussion and the policy position will be shared with the group.

Identifying racism

The group discussed the updates to the section on identifying racism. The following points were raised:

• Independent anti-racist consultant and CRER will suggest additional wording that sets out the responsibilities placed on schools and local authorities by the Equality Act including under the Public Sector Equality Duty. It was noted that further information on this is included in the annex, however, consideration will be given to whether this should also be included in this section
• the definition provided of race under the Equality Act should be updated to include reference to race
• CRER will suggest additional wording to reference other groups, for example, the Jewish community
• a description of societal racism should be included
• the presentation of the diagram should be reconsidered to ensure that it does not imply a hierarchy of racism
• reference to 'Minority Ethnic' should be removed

Action: Independent anti-racism consultant and CRER to suggest additional wording on the responsibilities of schools and local authorities under the Equality Act including under the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Action: CRER will suggest additional wording to reference other groups, for example, the Jewish community.

Examples of racist behaviour

The group discussed the section which includes examples of racist behaviour. The following points were raised:

• it was suggested that mimicking accents should be included in the list of example behaviours
• IYS will provide additional wording to be included in the section on language used within friendship groups to support an informed and proportionate response to these instances
• it was suggested that "stealing" is replaced with "taking" in the list of example behaviours

Action: IYS to provide additional wording to be included on language used within friendship groups

Distinguishing between racism and bullying

The group discussed the section which sets out information on distinguishing racism from bullying. The following points were raised:

• it was suggested that information should be included about discrimination between certain groups of colour. It was suggested this could be added to the examples of racist behaviour
• it was suggested that the scenarios could reflect that racism could be a stand-alone incident or influenced by outside factors, such as things that are happening in society
• it was suggested that the guidance could be clearer about how to ensure that racism and bullying are not conflated in practice, and that the guidance does not suggest that schools should have to pick one of these issues over the other, that all circumstances should be considered and addressed. It was suggested that wording could be added around bias-based bullying to address this. Respectme will suggest some wording to this effect
• it was noted that the way the questions in this section are currently drafted could give the impression that these should be asked of the child or young person themselves, rather than reflective questions to be considered by practitioners. The group will consider alternative wording to make this clearer
• it was suggested that wording should be added to make clear that in circumstances where the child involved does not feel that an incident is racist, the school would still be required to act
• it was noted that the impact of racism could cause an increase or a decrease in social media use. Therefore, it was suggested that the wording referring to changes in social media use is updated to “significantly different than usual"

Action: Respectme to suggest additional wording on biased-based bullying.

Action: Members to consider alternative or additional wording for key questions.

Responding to a child who has displayed racist behaviour

The group discussed signposting to hate crime guidance. It was noted that colleagues in Education Scotland are developing an e-learning resource on hate crime. The Scottish Government and Education Scotland will provide the group with further information on this resource and timings for publication.

Action: Scottish Government and Education Scotland to provide further information on hate crime resource.

The group discussed third party reporting. It was noted that information on this would be included in the WSA and would need to consider how it related to the Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) framework.

Supporting staff wellbeing

The group noted that a new section had been added on supporting staff wellbeing. It was noted that all local authorities have arrangements in place to support staff wellbeing and it was for them as employers to consider the most appropriate support. It was suggested that it may be helpful to include examples of different types of support.

Action: Diversity in the Teaching Profession and Education Workforce (DiTPEW) colleagues who are members of the Racism and Racist Incidents (RRI) subgroup will consider the wording of the draft Interim Guidance to ensure that it is proportionate and appropriate for interim guidance.

Support and resources

The group were asked to share any further examples of support and resources with the Secretariat.

Action: Members to provide any additional examples of support and resources to the Secretariat.

Scenarios for practitioners and schools

It was noted that this section is currently being developed. Input has been sought from other stakeholders, including the anti-racism mentors and the complex additional support needs (ASN) network. It was agreed that members should share suggestions for additional scenarios with the Secretariat.

Action: Members to share suggestions for additional scenarios with the Secretariat.

Next steps

The group agreed that further comments or feedback on the draft interim resource should be shared with the Secretariat by 16 December. Following that, the guidance will be updated, and a further iteration will be shared with the group by correspondence for consideration and agreement.

It was noted that once the group have agreed the guidance, it will be considered as part of the Scottish Government internal clearance process which includes due diligence. Following that, it will be shared with the Cabinet Secretary for consideration and agreement. Publication is planned for spring 2025.

Action: Members to send any additional feedback on the current draft of the resource to the Secretariat by 16 December.

Whole School Approach (WSA)

The Chair noted that at the next meeting of the group in February, the group will return to considering the WSA. It was noted that the progress the group has made to develop the interim resource will inform the WSA. In addition, the DiTPEW subgroup are currently considering content related to staff for inclusion in the WSA.

Any other business

It was noted that Al Masaar is changing the name of their organisation to RISE Forth Valley (Racial Inclusion and Supporting Empowerment). Their AGM is taking place on 18th December.

Connect and SAMEE are hosting an anti-racism session in January. Further information is available online at https://connect.scot/events/building-anti-racist-school-community-role-parents-and-parent-groups-online-28-january-2025-open-all.

The next meeting of the group is schedules for 4 February. Meetings until the end of the academic year have now been scheduled. These are:

• 4 February 2025
• 18 March 2025
• 30 April 2025
• 11 June 2025