Scottish Armed Forces Education Support Group minutes: July 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Scottish Government (SG) Learning Directorate (Chair)
• Scottish Government (SG) Safe Communities Directorate
• Assosciation of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)
• National Education and Transitions Officer (NETO)
• Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) Advisor (AA)
• Royal Navy (RN)
• MOD Armed Forces, Children and Young People Directorate (MOD)
• MOD Army Representative
• Naval Family Federation (NFF)
• Deputy Commander of HQ 51st Infantry Brigade
• RAF Family Federation (RAF-FF)
• Director of The Centre for Military Research, Education and Public Engagement, Napier University
• Army Family Federation (AFF)
• RAF

Apologies

• Forces Children Scotland (FCS)
• Education Scotland Inclusion, Wellbeing and Equalities (ES)

Items and actions

Review of Actions from the previous meeting – 10 June 2024

The note of the last meeting was shared for comments.  No further amendments were requested in response.  

Action 1:

• The Chair will progress setting up a subgroup to look at Transitions.

Update:

• The Chair is looking into setting up a meeting towards the end of Summer and will contact SAFESG members to arrange.

Safeguarding

The ADES advisor shared with the group some of the work of the Cadet Forces on Safeguarding.

Data Collection

The Scottish Government continues to explore the feasibility of centrally collecting data pertaining to children in Armed Forces Families, the Chair provided an update to the group on the progress. 

Additional Support for Learning Review Action Plan

The response to the Education, Children and Young People Committee’s review into Additional Support for Learning has been sent to the committee and is available online - Additional Support for Learning Response from the Scottish Government | Scottish Parliament Website.

The next progress report for the Additional Support for Learning Review Action Plan is being finalised and is due to be published Autumn 2024.

Transitions

Following on for the last meeting of the SAFESG, the chair is taking forward actioning a subgroup specifically aimed at transitions.

SG drew the groups attention to the action - ‘The Scottish Government will seek to expand and consolidate opportunities for participation and engagement with children and young people’ within the Additional Support for Learning Action Plan.

SG suggested that the work of the transition subgroup involve children and young people so that their voices become integral to the work.

Additionally, the Code of Practice refresh has previously been discussed by the group and this work could assist and inform an Armed Forces Family transition-based case study.

The group agreed with this suggestion.

Updates from Group Members

Forces Children Scotland (FCS) were not in attendance at the meeting, so the chair provided an update

• Forces Children Scotland’s report “It’s not just their job, it’s our whole lives: An exploration of human rights for children and young people from armed forces families” has been published on their website.  There will be an opportunity to discuss this report with FCS at the next meeting.

Royal Navy (RN)

• RN have their family day coming up, the event will include stalls providing information for families, children and young people.

Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (AA)

• Additional Support Needs research are moving from data collection to speaking to children and young people.
• ADES are in the process of setting up the data collection exercise for this year.
• The CMREPE Director from Napier University is co-chair of the SCiP hub review meeting scheduled for 18 September 2024 and also leads the research project looking at the challenges facing armed forces families and their children who require additional education support.  As a member of the SAFESG, she is ideally placed across the groups to improve the coherence of the landscape.

Scottish Government (SG) Safer Communities Directorate 

• SG are continuing to fund the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) National Education and Transitions Officer (NETO) post, and this has been approved for this financial year (24/25).

Army Family Federation (AFF)

• AFF have released the Summer 2024 edition of their magazine with the focus being around mobile life and how it may affect family life.

Naval Family Federation (NFF)

• NFF Summer 2024 Homeport magazine is published and available on their website and includes articles relating to Scotland. The Naval Children’s Charity have included an article on summer holiday activities.

RAF Family Federation

• If families are requiring support with childcare, they are encouraged to make contact.
• The Summer 2024 edition of Envoy, the RAFFF magazine, is published and available online.
• The SCiP Alliance annual conference will be held in Cardiff this year (November 2024) and the SCiP Scotland Hub Development Event will be held in September 2024 - further details and information on how to register are available on the SCiP Alliance website.

Napier University

• Working on a UK wide strategy with the aim of developing a tool to monitor wellbeing.

Research – Understanding Data

The ADES Advisor shared the results from the fourth annual ADES data collection exercise on Armed Forces children and young people in Scottish local authority schools with the group. 

Future Meeting Dates

• Wednesday 4 September 2024 - 10:30 - 12:00
• Wednesday 4 December 2024 - 10:30 - 12:00