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

Attendees and apologies

• Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills (Joint chair)
• COSLA Spokesperson on Children and Young People (Joint chair)
• Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)
• Association of Head Teachers and Deputes Scotland (AHDS)
• Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP) 
• CELCIS
• Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ)
• Connect
• COSLA 
• Early Years Scotland
• Education Scotland
• Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS)
• General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS)
• Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIe)
• NASUWT
• respectme
• Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT)
• School Leaders Scotland (SLS)
• Scottish Council of Deans of Education (SCDE) 
• Scottish Secondary Teachers Association (SSTA)
• Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU)
• UNISON
• Education Analytical Services, Scottish Government 
• Health and Wellbeing Unit, Scottish Government (Secretariat)  

Items and actions

Welcome, introductions and minutes from previous meeting

The chair welcomed attendees, including new members. The chair noted apologies and introduced colleagues that were deputising on their behalf. The Scottish Government (SG) confirmed that September minutes had been updated and published. The minutes from the previous meetings on 28th November 2024 and 20th January 2025 were circulated in advance of the meeting for information. SAGRABIS members were content to agree the minutes.

Action: SG to publish minutes on SG website.

Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research 2026 (BISSR)

Education Analytical Services circulated a paper in advance of the meeting outlining plans for BISSR 2026. Feedback from members included:

Timing and process

• A proposal for research to begin earlier in 2026, with fieldwork to begin in February and case studies to begin in June, was agreed by members.
• Members agreed that the proximity between qualitative and quantitative phases should be retained.
• Consideration should be given to potential ways to improve methods of distribution, whilst recognising the need to retain sufficient consistency with previous surveys for comparison purposes. 

Scope

• Members agreed that the views of children and young people should be included in the 2026 wave of BISSR. 
• It was suggested that particular thought should be given to capturing the views of both pupils and staff with protected characteristics. 
• It was suggested that the views of parents and carers should be included subject to budgetary implications. 
• It was suggested that the views of children, young people and staff should be prioritised as they provide a first-hand account of behaviour in schools. 
• It was agreed that consideration be given to extending the support staff questionnaire to also include their experiences around the school. However, clarity was needed around which support staff should be included, and impacts on length of survey and therefore response rates, should be considered. 
• It was agreed that the number of local authorities (LAs) interviews should be reduced as a way to offset costs to gather feedback from parents and young people. The importance of including representation from a broad range of contexts (e.g. rural, island, urban and different socio-economic contexts) was highlighted. 

Content

• It was agreed a research advisory group would be established to advise on questionnaire development. 
• Some concern was raised that the suggestion of adding questions may impact on the return rate. 
• It was suggested that the research advisory group could reframe covid related questions, but they should be maintained due to ongoing issues in schools. 

Action: SG to take forward next steps for commissioning BISSR following feedback from members. 

Update on action plan including progress report 

SG provided an update on progress against the Action Plan Activity Tracker. SG reported that the current priorities are the actions on violence, consequences and risk assessment. 

SG agreed to provide an update on priorities for Phase 2 and delivery timeline of the action plan at the next meeting.

Action: SG to provide an overview of the priorities for Phase 2 and the delivery timeline at the next meeting.

Feedback was sought on the progress report. respectme requested a minor drafting change relating to the description of their service.  

It was suggested it would be helpful for feedback to be provided to school staff on the progress report. It was agreed SG and COSLA would discuss potential feedback mechanisms. 

SAGRABIS agreed to the publication of the progress report, subject to drafting changes.

Actions

• SG to update progress report and proceed with publication process. 
• SG and COSLA to discuss means to promote the progress report to school staff.

Update on Consequences Guidance

The chair gave an update on the timeline of the publication of guidance on consequences in schools. In order to address feedback from the Consequences Subgroup that exemplification should be built into the guidance, it was agreed there should be an extension to the timeframe for publication. SAGRABIS members expressed a preference that the guidance be published before the summer break. 

Members provided feedback on the draft guidance: 

• It was noted the guidance had a broader scope than just consequences, and this may require to be reflected in communications.  
• It was agreed that specific examples of the use of consequences should be incorporated into guidance. 
• It was important for the guidance to highlight the importance of strong home school links and partnership with parents and carers. 
• The guidance would not provide fixed suggested responses to specific behaviours, and would emphasise the need for schools to take a child-centred approach. 
• Reflective questions would be incorporated throughout the guidance. 
• There was discussion about the extent to which exclusions should be referenced within this guidance. It was suggested it would be helpful to restate the position, particularly in relation to exclusion of pupils who are care experienced or have additional support needs.
• It was noted that some local authorities are waiting for the guidance to inform behaviour policy. t was agreed that raising awareness of the guidance prior to publication would be helpful. 

Action: SG to consider communication about upcoming guidance at the end of March followed by the full guidance with exemplification in June. 

Any other business

Members were reminded that the action plan is jointly owned, and all members have a responsibility to ensure they support its implementation and delivery. It was suggested that all SAGRABIS members consider how awareness of the action plan can be communicated and implemented through their networks. 

Action: Members to consider how to raise awareness of the action plan within their networks.

SG provided an update on the work of YouthLink Scotland related to violence prevention and knife crime. 

The next meeting of SAGRABIS will take place in May. 

No other business was raised. The chair thanked all members for their contributions and closed the meeting.