Recording and Monitoring in Schools Short Life Working Group minutes: 19 November 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Glasgow Council (ADES)
• West Lothian Council (ADES)
• SSTA
• NASUWT
• EIS
• South Ayrshire Council (Education Scotland SEBN Network)
• SLS
• SG Early Learning and Childcare
• SG Health and Wellbeing in Schools team

Apologies 

• Education Scotland
• Connect
• Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS)
• Inverclyde Council (ADES)
• Falkirk Council (Education Scotland SEBN Network)
• East Lothian Council (Education Scotland SEBN Network)

Items and actions

Welcome and apologies

The Chair welcomed members to the meeting and noted apologies. 

Note of previous meeting

The group confirmed that they were content with the note of the previous meeting. The chair noted that a webpage will be set up for the group and meeting notes will be published in due course. The webpage will show organisation membership only.

Action:

SG to set up webpage and publish minutes.

Survey summary paper

The Chair noted that the survey summary paper was drawn from responses to the survey sent out to local authority representatives on the group at the start of October. The paper gave high level information only and evidences the wide variety of approaches used in recording and monitoring as well as the different mechanisms and systems used.

Comments included that consideration should be given to gathering information from more LAs. It was noted that the information currently did not include ELC, and that this would be a helpful addition.

Actions:

• SG to follow up with colleagues in ELC Division regarding information from local authority representatives on approaches to recording and monitoring in early years

• SG to consider gathering information on approaches to recording and good practice from a broader range of local authorities

Draft principles paper

Scottish Government welcomed feedback on the Principles, which were drafted in response to discussion during first workgroup meeting. The overarching goal of the Principles is to provide a consistent basis for recording and monitoring. Group members made the following comments:

• a key priority for this group should be to provide guidance on the recording of violent incidents and threatening behaviour, particularly to inform risk assessments
• other incidents of concern, such as racism and misogyny in schools, should be reflected in the Principles
• the group noted the importance of making links with existing guidance on recording and monitoring, such as Respect for All
• it was suggested RIDDOR should be mentioned explicitly in the Principles document
• a function for the principles should be to address concerns about incidents being underreported
• it is important to be clear that the purpose of collecting the data is to ensure that the right support is given to staff and pupils in schools
• consideration should be given to how to how to reflect recording and monitoring of lower levels incidents to support early intervention
• it was suggested that exemplars may be useful
• the interaction of pupil policies (like anti-bullying policy, based on the respect for all model) and whole school approaches (such as GBV) versus employee-only policies (like violence against staff) means procedures and processes may not be identical and this may cause confusion. Mapping out the landscape would demonstrate how these things interact

It was agreed that the Secretariat would redraft the Principles document to incorporate the comments made during the meeting and would share with the working group for consideration via correspondence in the first instance.

Comments received by correspondence will be incorporated into the draft. The Principles will then be shared with SAGRABIS in January for feedback. A working group meeting will be organised for late January.

Actions:

• SG to redraft and share Principles document for consideration via correspondence before festive break

• SG to include recording guidance from existing thematic guidance on racism, misogyny and other behaviour-specific guidance

• SG to consider use of exemplars to accompany the Principles

Any other business

No other business was raised. The Chair thanked everyone for their contributions and advised that the Secretariat will share details of the next meeting.