Whole School Approach to Racism and Racist Incidents - child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment Template

1. Brief Summary

Type of proposal: Decision of a strategic nature relating to the rights and wellbeing of children

Name the proposal, and describe its overall aims and intended purpose.

A Whole School Approach to Addressing Racism and Racist Incidents Guidance

This guidance has been designed to assist school leaders, school staff, and local authorities to implement a consistent and robust approach to addressing and responding to racism and racist incidents in schools. Robust policies and practices in this area play an important role in creating and reinforcing an antiracist culture and ethos, in upholding children’s rights, and in supporting the health and wellbeing of all members of a school community. A whole school approach to racism and racist incidents will support schools to:

• Positively influence school culture by fostering a shared, consistent approach to addressing racism and racist incidents
• Develop a shared understanding of what racism is and how everyone in a school community has a role to play in challenging racism
• Consider how all areas of school life can contribute to and support the school’s antiracist approach.
• Challenge traditional structures that can perpetuate racism and uphold disadvantage to some communities over others. For example, systems or policies around equalities, relationships and behaviour, or school uniform can unequally impact adversely realised children and young people or allow racism to go unchallenged. This can be an unintended outcome of existing policies or structures. The guidance sets out examples of how this might happen, as well as how schools can consider their existing structures and policies to ensure that all school systems and policies support a whole school approach to antiracism.

The guidance is part of the Relationships and behaviour in schools national action plan. It incorporates the previously-published Addressing Racism and Racist Incidents guidance. The Addressing Racism and Racist Incidents was published in June 2025 to provide support for schools in responding to racist incidents between pupils. The Whole School Approach incorporates this previous guidance, and additionally provides guidance on:

• Creating a whole school antiracist environment and ethos, including: school culture and ethos; curriculum, teaching and learning; professional learning and development; and policies and systems.
• Racist incidents experienced by school staff
• Racist incidents experienced by parents, carers, and families in a school setting

Start date of proposal’s development: The guidance was developed in collaboration with the Racism and Racist Incidents workstream of the Anti Racism in Education Programme. The workstream met for the first time in August 2021. Drafting commenced in December 2023.

Start date of CRWIA process: July 2025.

2. With reference given to the requirements of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, which aspects of the proposal are relevant to/impact upon children’s rights?

The whole school approach to racism and racist incidents encourages education authorities and school leaders to consider how to embed an antiracist environment throughout their school community. The guidance will therefore have a direct effect on children and young people who are enrolled in school and who are between the ages of 4 and 18. There is positive impact identified in relation to best interests of the child (Article 3), respecting the views of the child (Article 12), the right to education (Article 28), the right to protection from all forms of violence and discrimination (Articles 2 and 19), the right to an education which develops respect for human rights and prepares children for responsible life in a free society (Article 29), and the right to play and recreational activities and free participation in cultural life and the arts (Article 31).

Children and young people who experience racism are the particular focus of the guidance, however a school culture and ethos which promotes inclusion and respect and effectively addresses discrimination whenever it occurs, will benefit all children.

3. Please provide a summary of the evidence gathered which will be used to inform your decision-making and the content of the proposal

Evidence from:

• existing research/reports/policy expertise

The Behaviour In Scottish Schools Research 2023 noted that 17% of school staff encountered racist abuse towards other pupils in the classroom in the last week. This was more common in secondary schools (22%) than primary schools (13%).

A 2022 CRER report on Local Authorities’ approaches to racist incidents demonstrated an upward trend in recorded incidents of racism from 2016/2017 onwards (with a dip in 2019/2020 reflecting school closures), while also noting a strong likelihood of inconsistencies in policy and practice across Local Authorities. In 2017, the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee highlighted the serious impact of racism experienced at school on children and young people. The Committee noted that ‘the fear of victimisation amongst parents can have a disproportionate impact on the education and wellbeing of children.’ This was particularly noted with respect to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities. This concern is echoed in Maureen Finn’s study on ‘The educational experiences of children and adults from the Gypsy/Traveller communities in Scotland’ (2024), which found that “children and families experiencing persistent racism and discrimination was noted as a key barrier preventing Gypsy/ Traveller children and their families from participating fully in the Scottish education system.” Examples included incidents when staff failed to recognise and manage racist incidents.

Research published in 2024 on ‘Teacher responses to racially motivated bullying in Scotland’ found that racially motivated bullying remains pervasive across Scottish schools, but that ‘teacher responses to the study indicated a reluctance and, at times, inability to recognise and name incidents as racist.” Further data highlighted the reliance on strategies such as asking the person who had experienced the racist incident to educate their peers, one-to-one discussions with both pupils involved in an incident, and a dependence on using their own ‘instinct’ to appraise an incident and response which can lead to inconsistent responses both within and between schools.

• consultation/feedback from stakeholders

Feedback from the members of the Anti Racism in Education Programme (AREP) Stakeholder Network Group and Racism and Racist Incidents workstream formed an important aspect of the evidence base. Members of these groups represented expertise in education and antiracism, and several contributed from the perspective of their grassroots experience of working with children and young people who experience racism. Feedback from these groups demonstrated that:

• Stakeholders were clear that not enough was being done to address racism in schools
• Adversely racialised children and young people were experiencing racism in schools, and when reported, schools were unsure or unwilling to respond.
• This was causing harm to children and young people and their families.
• Racism was being misidentified as ‘bullying’, which was causing it to be responded to inappropriately. There was a strong call to distinguish racism from bullying.
• Current school responses to incidents of racism were creating feeling of distrust between adversely racialised families and schools, as families did not feel incidents were being responded to appropriately.
• The group encouraged work to focus “on the mental wellbeing or racial trauma of minority ethnic children”, which was currently being negatively impacted by their experiences in schools.
• consultation/feedback directly from children and young people

Intercultural Youth Scotland, as a member of the Racism and Racist Incidents workstream, facilitated two young people’s focus groups to provide direct feedback on a draft of the Whole School Approach, which was incorporated into the guidance. Key points of stakeholder feedback were that:

• Children and young people in Scottish schools are experiencing racism and racist incidents. This is harmful to their wellbeing in school.
• There are inconsistencies between and within schools in responses to racist incidents. Schools may not have robust policies in place to respond to racist incidents
• This can lead to incidents being misidentified as bullying, lack of appropriate response and support offered, and further distress for the children and young people involved.

A 2021 report by Intercultural Youth Scotland found that racism had a negative impact on most of the children and young people’s mental health in the study. The report noted that most young people “did not feel they could approach their teachers or school guidance counsellor…because the young people felt racist incidents were not taken seriously enough by their school and were therefore not discouraged.” Recent work by the Children’s Parliament and Intercultural Youth Scotland showed that children and young people have a strong desire to learn about how to stand up to racism. Their Calls For Action outline what they believe adults should to do support them, including helping children and young people to identify racism and how it hurts people.

While the evidence collected was from different sources and covered a long duration of time, the overall message remains consistent that racism and racist incidents remain pervasive across Scottish schools. This has a negative impact on children and young people who experience racism, affecting their wellbeing at school.

4. Further to the evidence described at ‘3’ have you identified any 'gaps' in evidence which may prevent determination of impact? If yes, please provide an explanation of how they will be addressed

Data on racist incidents is not routinely gathered from Local Authorities or published. Impact will be able to be determined via the evidence provided through those with experience in schools and antiracist organisations as part of engagement with the Anti Racism in Education Programme, and as part of the next iteration of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools research, due to be undertaken in 2026.

5. Analysis of Evidence

This guidance has been considered through the lens of children’s, parents and carers’, and employees’ rights. There has been engagement with the Anti Racism in Education Programme and the Racism and Racist Incidents workstream, which includes experts in the fields of antiracism and education. This has been further supplemented by research evidence, highlighted above, which confirmed the negative impact of racism and racist incidents in schools in relation to the wellbeing of children and young people who experience racism, and also the wider school community.

The evidence gathered is consistent in demonstrating that racism and racist incidents must be appropriately addressed in order to limit harm, but that schools may struggle to do this consistently or effectively, as noted in the report by Intercultural Youth Scotland (2021) and ‘Teacher responses to racially motivated bullying in Scotland’ (2024). This in turn causes further distress for children and young people who experience racism, and their families, as demonstrated in the evidence provided by the AREP Stakeholder Network Group and members of the Racism and Racist Incidents workstream (detailed above). The guidance provides support for schools to develop and implement a consistent and robust approach to addressing racist incidents and creating a whole-school antiracist environment, including key issues such as responding to racist incidents between pupils, and recording and monitoring. There are clear benefits for all children and young people, in supporting schools to develop an environment which promotes inclusion and equity.

6. What changes (if any) have been made to the proposal as a result of this assessment?

As a result of the assessment of evidence, the guidance recognises that robust policies and practices in this area play an important role in upholding children’s rights, and in supporting the health and wellbeing of all members of a school community. Links to UNCRC Articles are therefore included within the guidance, along with explanations as to how the guidance supports meeting those rights. Schools will be mindful of the particular ways in which racism and racist incidents may manifest in their own contexts and within their own communities, and the guidance encourages schools to consider their whole school approach in light of this.

In response to evidence on the misidentification of racism (where racist incidents are incorrectly assumed to be incidents of bullying), the guidance sets out how to identify a racist incident and encourages schools to consider the particular sensitivities around responding to incidents of racism. The guidance is clear that the rights of children and young people, parents and carers and school staff all require to be recognised and respected.