Racism and Racist Incidents subgroup minutes: March 2025

Attendees and apologies

Attendees

• Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER)
• University of the West of Scotland (UWS)
• Connect
• Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations (CEMVO) Scotland
• Advocacy for Race Equality in Schools Scotland (AdRESS)
• Association of Directors of Education (ADES)
• Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS)
• Respectme
• Independent anti-racism consultant
• Intercultural Youth Scotland (IYS)
• Racial Inclusion and Supporting Empowerment (RISE) Forth Valley
• Scottish Government Health and Wellbeing Unit (Chair)
• Scottish Government Equalities in Education

Items and actions

Welcome and announcements

The Chair welcomed all members and introduced a new member from Advocacy for Race Equality in Schools Scotland (AdRESS). The Chair also welcomed the Anti-Racism in Education Board (AREP) Secretariat, who is leading the upcoming workstream meeting on Theory of Change.

The Chair reminded members of the responsibilities of respectful co-working, as per the workstream’s terms of reference.

Minutes of previous meeting

The minute of the December meeting was circulated by email. No comments received. CRER noted that they have been included in error in one action point. Scottish Government confirmed that this will be rectified. Members confirmed that they are content for the minutes to be published.

Action: Secretariat to correct action point in December minutes. Secretariat to publish December minute on Scottish Government website.

Discussion on how representatives are referred to in published meeting notes

At a previous meeting, it had been noted that members are only referred to by organisation name in published notes. The Chair explained that the current style was agreed in the early stages of the group’s work. The group agreed that safeguarding of members is of the utmost importance. Members agreed to continue with current style of meeting note.

Action: Scottish Government to speak to AREP colleagues about when/if Members are named in other workstreams and to check if consistency is needed across workstreams.

Discussion on draft Interim Guidance

The Chair asked the workstream to consider the draft Interim Guidance document. The Chair noted that some areas, such as scenarios, require substantive work.

The guidance is currently very lengthy for an interim document. Previous feedback has indicated that accessibility and concise information should be prioritised.

The workstream were asked to consider what aspects of Interim Guidance could be moved to the Whole School Approach (WSA), to allow the Interim Guidance to be focused on response to racist incidents.

ADES agreed with this approach and asked if there were aspects that could be made into diagrams. EIS added that information could be linked out to or signposted. The Chair noted that Scottish Government have a website to which materials can be added.

Connect suggested a flowchart, and a review of document to reduce duplication of information. Connect had previously asked for more nuance around engagement with parents which has now been added, and noted preference that this remains.

Chair confirmed that the aim of revising will be to provide the information that is required without trimming out nuance. Scottish Government have publishing contract who will format the guidance and carry out accessibility checks.

Members agreed that the Interim Guidance should be edited to be more succinct.

Action: Secretariat to edit document to reduce length, based on feedback from Members. Revised draft will be brought back to group for further reconsideration.

AdRESS noted noted that restorative practices could be helpful if done effectively, but they receive feedback from children and young people that often these are not used effectively. The Chair noted the Scottish Government Health and Wellbeing Team hold responsibility for relationships and behaviour in schools and can ensure that appropriate links are made with other relevant work in this area.  

UWS agreed that accessibility should be the focus of this guidance. Additional contextual information can be added to the WSA. This Interim Guidance represents a milestone and is significant piece of work for the group.

Action: Members to consider if there are areas for further clarification, or areas which can be removed from Interim Guidance, to share with Secretariat.

ADES suggested that the section on racial literacy of staff could be replaced with a sentence that racial literacy of staff is important area for development, with reference to current resources and a note about upcoming WSA.

CRER suggested that the full WSA may need to be a web-based tool or resource, in order to avoid creating a large document which is difficult to use. This may have budget implications.

Independent anti-racism consultant asked about engagement with children and young people. The Chair noted that while the document is about children and young people, it is for school staff and therefore the engagement with workstream members and AREP Board will provide the feedback needed in this piece of work. There was also extensive engagement with the IYS Youth Ambassadors in Spring 2024.

EIS added that there has been input from young people across the work of AREP throughout the years on what they want to see. Scottish Government noted that there will not be time for further engagement with children and young people on the interim guidance, but there will be opportunity for the WSA.

Action: Secretariat to add engagement with children and young people to the workplace for the WSA.

Members reviewed the difference between WSA and interim guidance. The WSA will look at prevention, and will link with other workstreams such as curriculum. It will also look at roles of different members of the school community, including children and young people, staff, and families. 

Respectme pointed to their Anti-Bullying: A Guide to Practice which is designed to help children and young people understand Respect for All. Something similar could be possible for the WSA.

Scenarios

The Chair asked Members to consider the scenarios section, where there has been significant work since previous meeting.

Scenario 5: The group considered if there were other examples of microaggressions which would be useful in this instance. CRER suggested example of children and young people having natural hairstyles and referenced the Equality and Human Rights Commission information on preventing hair discrimination in schools.

There could also be a scenario around pronunciation of names, or making fun of accents. AdRESS noted that there are a huge number of ways in which microaggressions may manifest and it might be helpful for there to be supporting information on this issue.

Action: Secretariat to add supporting guidance on microaggressions.

ADES suggested it would be useful to have scenario on engaging with parents when children have displayed racist behaviour. Scottish Government noted Scenario 6 could be expanded to include this circumstance and consider how both families (of child experiencing and child displaying) are engaged. Connect added it may also be useful to have examples of positive engagement with parents, where parents want to be involved in response. It was agreed that scenario 6 needs detail around engagement with families.

 

ADES noted that flowchart was helpful but could be moved earlier in the document to give more prominence.

CEMVO added that it would be helpful to have a scenario about teachers or staff who encounter racism. This may be for the WSA. Much of content on processes could be referred to Respect for All, e.g., “for process around monitoring, refer to Section XX of Respect of All,’ but the Interim Guidance should provide examples of language to use in racism-specific scenarios.

The group discussed how practitioners have many skills and approaches to working with parents and families in complex situations. Anti-racist work should sit alongside these other situations. It was noted that practitioners may feel less certain in these areas. Guidance can support school staff to recognise the skills they have and apply them in this context, with awareness of the specific requirements of a racist incident.

The policy section of Interim Guidance should point to relevant policies (e.g., Respect for All) and ask schools to consider where areas of overlap may be.

Action: Secretariat to reframe scenario 6 to take account of feedback.

Action: Secretariat to review policy section to take account of feedback.

IYS noted that support should be given in a person-centred way, keeping the health and wellbeing of the child affected at the centre of decision-making.

There may be scenarios where families resist recording; the guidance should be very clear that schools have an obligation to record incidents. The purpose of WSA and Interim Guidance is that schools can point to guidance to confirm that it is their responsibility to record all incidents.

Respectme noted support of demystifying the purpose of the recording and what happens to the data. This would be helpful in mitigating concerns of families around what happens to the record and what happens to the information long term. With racism, there may also be concerns about hate crime and data following a child through their school career. Connect agreed that transparency and openness about data collection, confidentiality and data handling by schools and local authorities (LAs) is important for all involved.

Action: Ensure that communications reflect duty of schools to record incidents.

Independent anti-racism consultant noted that they would like to victimisation teased out more in Interim Guidance. A scenario demonstrating intersectional discrimination would also be helpful.

It was noted that children and young people with additional support needs will need extra support when responding to a racist incident.

Action: Secretariat to add scenario on intersectionality.

Scenario 7: Secretariat had received feedback that this scenario should look beyond pupil to pupil racism. Some options were discussed:

• cultural appropriation
• child or young person displaying racist behaviour to teacher of colour
• a child whose parents do not speak English, who want to raise concerns of racism. Schools should arrange for interpreters so that all families have an equal opportunity to be heard.

Action: Members to share any further ideas for scenario 7 with Secretariat.

Whole School Approach (WSA) revised workplan

The draft workplan sets out steps to enable finalising and publishing Interim Guidance by the end of the school year, and the WSA by end 2025. The final draft of the Interim Guidance will need to be agreed by workstream members by the end April to allow for the internal Scottish Government clearance process. Members agreed to do work by correspondence, to enable a focus on agreeing the final document at the April meeting.

Members confirmed they are content with proposed workplan regarding interim guidance

On the wider workplan, IYS noted that there should be an item on children and young people input on the WSA. This will be addressed by the action under item 4. Members agreed to swap April and June WSA drafting topics, to allow members to attend session on families.

Members agreed workplan going forward.

Any other business

The Chair raised future chairing arrangements for the group. Chairs have agreed to draft a description of the role and invite members to nominate themselves. The Chairs will be in touch with group to circulate description of role ahead of the next meeting.

The meeting has been scheduled for 30th April and invitations have been sent out. The Chair thanked members for their time and contributions.