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As part of the Anti-Racism in Education Programme - gov.scot (www.gov.scot), the Scottish Government has established the Racism and Racist Incidents (RRI) workstream. This workstream is focussed on developing support for schools and school staff to improve understanding of racism and to ensure that these issues are properly identified and addressed.

The RRI workstream is currently developing practical guidance for schools to support them to respond to racism and racist incidents, including strengthening approaches to recording and monitoring.

It is anticipated this guidance will be published in Spring 2025.

The Scottish Government has provided funding to Connect for this financial year to establish and host the Scottish Assembly of Parents and Carers. This new model will enhance the diversity of parental voices to help inform policy and provide advice and challenge as we drive forward reform of our education system.

Additionally, our Anti-Racism in Education Programme (AREP) brings together education bodies and organisations and individuals with anti-racist expertise and lived experience. The AREP contains a number of ambitions which seek to support teachers, school staff and leaders at all levels in the education sector to embed antiracist approaches.

We expect schools and local authorities to record all incidents of bullying and violence in schools.

In 2019 we introduced a consistent national approach to recording and monitoring bullying incidents in schools. HMIe carried out a thematic review of approaches to recording and monitoring incidents of bullying in schools and published its report in February 2023.

As part of its response to this review, the Scottish Government established a working group to review Respect for All, its national anti-bullying guidance as well as the supplementary guidance on recording and monitoring bullying incidents. The updated guidance will be published in November 2024.

Education Scotland provides a range of professional learning opportunities for school leaders, which focus on anti-racism. These include Into Headship, Connected and Collaborative Systems Leadership, Aspiring to Middle Leadership, and Middle Leaders Leading Change, as well as the award winning Building Racial Literacy Programme (BRL) and the Anti-Racism Mentors project. All Professional Learning resources are subject to review and, as part of the evaluation cycle, updated based on participant feedback.

In addition to this, the recent external evaluation of the BRL programme concluded that as a national anti-racist professional learning opportunity, it achieves its goal in supporting participants to become racially literate, with them feeling more confident in challenging discrimination and racist incidents. While the programme has welcomed a wide range of school leaders across Scotland, the evaluation identified the need for enhanced anti-racist professional development for school and system leaders. This in part led to the development of Education Scotland’s new Anti-Racism Mentors project being piloted this year.

Beyond Education Scotland’s offers, a range of local authorities and third sector organisations have different levels of professional learning available as well. These are not subject to formal Scottish Government review processes.

As part of Education Scotland’s Anti-Racism Mentors project, selected alumni from the Building Racial Literacy programme are working to take forward anti-racist action at local and national levels, with some of their activities exploring models of parental engagement.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-30894 on 11 November 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government routinely analyses labour market data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), with the latest Scotland's Labour Market Insights: October 2024 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) statistical publication released on 28 October 2024. The latest ONS Labour Force Survey statistics for June to August 2024 show that Scotland had an estimated economic inactivity rate of 23.2% compared to 21.8% for the UK.

Analysis suggests that the recent upturn in economic inactivity in Scotland appears to be driven by increases in those who are long-term sick or disabled. ONS Annual Population Survey (APS) statistics for July 2023 to June 2024 estimate that 32.0% of inactive people in Scotland were inactive due to being long-term sick or disabled. The second most common reason for being economically inactive was being a student (24.6%), followed by looking after family/home (16.1%) then retired (14.5%).

The Scottish Government’s latest Scottish Economic Insights report, Overview - Scottish economic insights: October 2024 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) published on 18 October 2024, provided an illustrative example of how an increase in economic activity of individuals aged 16+ could impact the economy. It found that even a relatively small increase of 0.25 percentage points in the economic activity rate could boost GDP in the long-term by around 0.1%, or around £180 million a year (in 2024-25 prices).

Economic inactivity due to ill health is a key concern of the Scottish Government and as outlined in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government, published in September 2024, we are taking action to help people access and stay in the labour market.

The Scottish Government’s Anti-Racism in Education Programme continues to consider the best ways in which the voices of young people, particularly those with lived experience, are centred within the programme. Since 2021, we have provided funding to a range of young people’s organisations, including Intercultural Youth Scotland, Show Racism the Red Card, the Scottish Youth Parliament and the Children’s Parliament, to participate in discussions and support the development of all of our resources, guidance and professional learning.

A number of approaches are being used to collect and publish effective practices underway in schools and local authorities that embed anti-racism practices in schools:

• Case studies are being gathered and published to illustrate Scotland's Breaking the mould: Principles for an anti-racist curriculum | Resources | Education Scotland located on Education Scotland’s Anti-Racist Curriculum Principles – Promoting Anti-Racist Education in Scotland (glowscotland.org.uk) web-based resource.
• As part of Education Scotland’s Anti-Racism Mentors project, alumni from the Building Racial Literacy programme are also providing case studies of effective anti-racist practice.
• Case studies taken from examples of practice that inspectors see in schools are shared on the Education Scotland webpage, Promoting improvement through sharing highly effective practice | Inspection and review | Education Scotland. Through inspection and review, HM Inspectors continue to identify and share highly effective practice, within and across sectors. They work closely with a range of organisations to disseminate good practice and build the capacity of establishments and authorities to provide education and services for children, young people and adult learners of the highest quality. HM Inspectors exemplify and promote good practice through web-based publications, video extracts and events.

In February 2023, Education Scotland published the report of its thematic review on approaches to recording and monitoring of bullying incidents in schools. This report can be accessed at: Approaches to recording and monitoring incidents of bullying in schools (education.gov.scot).

In January 2024 Education Scotland published an online resource following a second phase of its thematic review, which looked at good practice in preventing and responding to bullying behaviour. This resource includes examples of schools responding to increases in prejudice-based behaviours. Information and case studies can be accessed here: Preventing and responding to bullying | Bullying | Resources | Education Scotland.

The findings from the thematic inspection are informing the work of the Racism and Racist Incidents workstream. This includes the development of resources which are focused on preventing and responding to racism and racist incidents, including strengthening approaches to recording and monitoring, and developing guidance on a whole-school approach to anti-racism.

Schools and education authorities should ensure any allegations of racism are investigated fully and any necessary action taken.

A consistent and uniform approach to recording and monitoring incidents of bullying in schools was introduced in 2019. The Bullying and Equalities Module on SEEMiS, the school’s management information system, was updated to reflect the new approach. The Bullying and Equalities Module should not be interpreted as being focused solely on bullying; it is designed to capture a range of behaviours related to equalities and includes ‘Racism or racist incident’ as a category.

Our work on Racism and Racist Incidents, which is part of the Anti-Racism in Education Programme, alongside work to refresh Respect for All, the national anti-bullying guidance, will provide further guidance for schools on recording and monitoring racist incidents and instances of prejudiced-based bullying.