Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools minutes: January 2025

Attendees and apologies

Attendees

Association of Head Teachers and Deputes Scotland (AHDS)

Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP)

COSLA

Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS)

Education Scotland

NASUWT

respectme

Scottish Secondary Teachers Association (SSTA)

UNISON

Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)

Children & Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ)

Connect

Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT)

Early Years Scotland

Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU)

Support and Wellbeing Unit, Scottish Government (Chair, Secretariat)

Apologies

General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS)

Scottish Council of Deans of Education (SCDE)

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIe)

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

The chair welcomed attendees to this informal meeting of SAGRABIS, noting the chairing would be undertaken by officials. The new members of SAGRABIS were welcomed to their first meeting and introductions were made. Apologies were noted.

The minutes from the previous meeting on 28 November 2024 were issued for information. These minutes will be agreed at the next formal meeting on 4 March 2025 with the Chairs present.

Action: Minutes from the 28 November meeting to be agreed at the next formal meeting of SAGRABIS on 4 March.

Introduction to membership and purpose of SAGRABIS (including updated Terms of Reference)

The Chair provided an overview of SAGRABIS and highlighted the terms of reference was last updated in 2022. It was highlighted that in August 2024, the action plan was published, providing the framework for SAGRABIS.

One member of SAGRABIS raised concern  there was no representative for children and young people on the group. SG noted challenges in involving young people meaningfully in this type of forum and highlighted that some new members would be able to represent the views of children and young people. It was suggested that children and young people’s organisations could potentially contribute to the tracker, even if not actively involved in meetings. Members asked that the TOR be updated to ensure SAGRABIS are finding opportunities to engage with children and young people. The next iteration of BISSR may be a way to do this.

A suggestion was made to make links with the anti-racism in education programme and to consider inviting someone from the programme to join SAGRABIS.

There was a discussion on how to make the objectives achievable and whether other areas need attention.

Clarification of SAGRABIS’s remit in relation to early years, particularly in terms of the joint action plan, was sought. The Chair noted the findings from BISSR regarding the behaviour of younger children and noted the desire to make stronger links with early years to identify emerging challenges. UNISON expressed interest in being involved in any further exploration in early years, as they represent many members in this area.

Action: SG to update the terms of reference based on the discussions and bring the revised version to the next meeting.

The Chair sought views on the approach to developing the agenda for SAGRABIS meetings and whether there would be benefit in developing a workplan for the year ahead. Members made a number of suggestions for future meetings: :

• Approaching schools to incorporate the voice of children and young people.
• Inviting Headteachers to some meetings.
• Maintain a focused agenda while allowing flexibility for emerging issues.
• Opportunity to provide a more reflective space in some meetings.

Action: SG to review agenda process and propose any changes at a future meeting.

Development of a clear national definition of relationships and behaviour, including violence and aggression

The chair provided an overview of the paper and invited members to share their thoughts. Some points raised were:

• The need for clarity on defining violent incidents in schools served two main purposes: to prompt appropriate responses from headteachers and local authorities; and to support accurate and consistent recording and monitoring.
• The approach should not narrow the definition to only legal assault, and should reflect both deliberate and accidental violent incidents.
• The HSE definition was regarded as an appropriate starting point, though was noted to relate more to incidents between adults rather than children and adults.
• The World Health Organization definition was highlighted as an alternative approach, which considers intent and perception.
• Concerns were raised about abuse to staff’s personal social media accounts potentially being categorised as non-workplace-related abuse; it was considered that this abuse would be in connection with their employment.
• including why some incidents may not be consistently recorded.
• In addition to HSE legislation, it was noted there is existing legislation around sexual harassment, and employers have a responsibility to address it.
• Varying practice amongst local authorities was highlighted and it was suggested it would be helpful to gather more information about local practices.
• Recording was highlighted as being important in identifying patterns of incidents, which required interventions.
• It was reported that some schools were adopting policies of not recording violent incidents involving pupils with Additional Support Needs (ASN). There was agreement amongst SAGRABIS members that all pupils should be treated equally in terms of incident recording, acknowledging that support and response for those young people may be different.

Action: SG to work with ADES to gather an oversight of how local authorities are defining violence and recording incidents.

Action: ES to circulate risk assessment paper.

Consequences and staged intervention model

The chair provided an update on the consequences subgroup, advising that the work will cover:

• The policy position – what are consequences, why they are important and that schools can and should be using them.
• The use of consequences within UNCRC.
• Exemplification and self-reflection questions to support local implementation by local authorities and schools.

Action: SG to share consequences paper at next SAGRABIS meeting.

Proposed structure and approach to annual progress report

The chair provided an overview of the Action Plan progress report. It was highlighted the annual reporting needs to be completed by the end of March and a paper will be required to be signed off at the next meeting. Members agreed with the overall approach set out in the paper. Some members offered to send comments by correspondence in advance of the next meeting.

The chair also highlighted that the activity tracker will be discussed at the next meeting and action leads will be contacted to provide updates before the meeting.

Action: Members to share comments on progress report in advance of next meeting.

Action: SG to confirm the structure of the tracker and gathering updates at the next meeting.

Proposed sub-group on risk assessment

It was proposed that a sub-group be formed to begin work on the risk-assessment work outlined in the relationships and behaviour action plan. It was proposed that this sub-group would involve members of SAGRABIS and Education Scotland’s new Social Emotional and Behavioural Needs (SEBN) Network.

Members were happy with this approach and it was agreed work would be take forward to establish this sub-group.

Next steps/AOB

The chair thanked members for attending. It was noted the next meeting will take place on 4th March and would be a formal meeting, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary.

No other business was raised. The chair closed the meeting.