Recording and Monitoring in Schools Short Life Working Group minutes: 27 August 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Health and Wellbeing Unit, Scottish Government (Chair)
• Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)
• Clackmannanshire Council
• Connect
• East Lothian Council
• Early Learning and Childcare Division, Scottish Government
• Education Scotland SEBN Network
• Falkirk Council
• Fife Council
• National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT)
• Perth and Kinross Council
• School Leaders Scotland (SLS)
• Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS)
• Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA)
• South Ayrshire Council
• West Lothian Council
• Health and Wellbeing Unit, Scottish Government (Secretariat)

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

The Chair welcomed members to the first meeting of the Short Life Working Group on recording and monitoring.

Background to convening the group

Scottish Government (SG) outlined the background to this work. SG noted that concerns were raised around recording and monitoring at the 2023 behaviour summits and were also highlighted in the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR). This lead to commitments in the Relationships and Behaviour in Schools National Action Plan.

SG noted that its guidance to date (including on anti-bullying and gender-based violence) makes clear that there is an expectation that all incidents should be reported. The Cabinet Secretary has also made this clear, acknowledging improved recording may increase the numbers reported, but demonstrates transparency and enables appropriate support for children and young people to be put in place.

The group’s deliberations were likely to focus on overarching issues to improve processes of recording and monitoring rather than systems.

Evidence paper on recording and monitoring

SG introduced an evidence paper which identified three themes that had arisen from the summits and BISSR: consistency, complexity and staff confidence. Members were invited to provide comments. Points raised included:

• there is variation across local authorities in terms of systems, expectations and processes which undermines consistency

• feedback to staff on incidents is inconsistent and the absence of feedback discourages reporting. Where feedback is provided, staff are more likely to engage with systems

• there is a need for a clearer national picture but this must be balanced with local flexibility to ensure meaningful action at school and authority level

• any national statistics must have a clear purpose and the level of reporting must be carefully considered

• definitions and thresholds for different behaviours are not always clear, making it difficult for staff to know what should be recorded. SG confirmed that work is underway on the definition of violence in collaboration with SAGRABIS

• a wide range of behaviours are logged in different systems (e.g. peer-on-peer incidents, pupil-on-staff incidents, physical interventions), which can prevent a holistic overview and create disconnects between data sources

• some local authorities have developed dashboards and approaches to review patterns, identify hotspots and agree support with schools

• effective approaches include providing staff with different categorisation options (e.g. distinguishing between “challenging”, “distressed”, and “violent”), and holding regular review meetings to analyse trends

• debriefing and support for staff after incidents is as important as recording, and should focus on wellbeing and prevention

• the lack of consistent approaches in Early Learning and Childcare was highlighted as a gap, particularly given evidence of higher levels of violence in early primary

• wider influences, such as social media trends, can affect behaviour

• opportunities exist to align this work with the upcoming refreshes of Included, Engaged and Involved 1, 2 and 3

Outputs and next steps

SG summarised suggested next steps:

• members to provide details of their local processes and systems
• a useful output of working group could be the development of Principles of Recording, to support a more consistent approach

Action:

SG to issue a short form to group members to gather information on local processes and systems in their local areas.

Any other business

No other business was raised.