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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’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.

The Scottish Government is aware that supplies of various ADHD medicines continue to be intermittent. The supply of medicines and associated legislation are a reserved matter for the UK Government and the Scottish Government continues to engage with them on all medicine supply issues. At present, information provided by the UK Government indicates that some ADHD medicine shortages will continue into early 2025.

Scottish Government officials continue to monitor the situation for any further developments and are maintaining a close dialogue with all Health Boards to help manage these medicine supply disruptions. The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (CPO)

for Scotland is a member of a UK-wide Medicines Shortage Response Group that supports the management of medicine shortages. In addition, the CPO will be holding a roundtable meeting with key stakeholders in Scotland on 12 November 2024 to better understand the impact of ADHD medicine shortages locally and to determine if there is any further action that can be taken to strengthen our response.

Children and young people should feel happy, safe, respected and included in the learning environment and all staff should be proactive in promoting positive relationships and behaviour in the classroom, playground, and wider learning community.

It is for teachers, head teachers and other professional educational practitioners to decide the development and implementation of the curriculum within the overall framework. Schools are encouraged to work closely with parents and carers on the development and delivery of learning and teaching.

Guidance is, however, made available on health and wellbeing, such as relationships, sexual health and parenthood education, and is updated regularly. The Racism and Racist Incidents Sub-group of the Anti-Racism in Education Programme is currently developing guidance on a whole-school approach to preventing and responding to racism and racist incidents in schools, including how to engage with children and young people.

As part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to embedding the Breaking the Mould anti-racism curriculum principles, we have funded development of new online anti-racism in education resources, antiracisted.scot published last month. Personal and Social Education was identified as the priority for curriculum development by children and young people that were part of the Anti-Racism in Education Programme and this was selected as the first topic for focus. The resources were created by the Development Education Centres in collaboration with a range of different voices and perspectives. The voices of learners from St Euan’s Primary School in Clydebank and Drumchapel Hight School in Glasgow are reflected in the animations as well as other areas of the resource.

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.

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 See Hear Strategy is supported by Scottish Government See Hear funding of £320,000 yearly, shared across each local authority area and based on population size, to deliver local implementation of the Strategy. This is in addition to Section 10 grant awards made in 2024-25 and totalling £102,475 to support sensory loss projects that meet recommendations in the Strategy.

Future funding of the Strategy will be subject to the outcome of the Scottish Budget which is due to take place on 4 December.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-22870 on 22 November 2023 which details the amount of funding used to support the Strategy since its publication in 2014. 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.

Scotland’s Digital Inclusion Charter is delivered by SCVO as part of an annual grant of £308,000. This funding supports a much wider programme of activity delivered by SCVO to tackle digital exclusion. SCVO estimates that around 10% of the annual grant covers staff time and costs directly associated with development and promotion of the Charter.

The launch event in August 2024 was hosted as an in-kind contribution from Standard Life plc, a Charter signatory, which covered the costs of the event.

In May 2023 the Scottish Government published an analysis of survey data of health boards’ arrangements: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Services in Scotland: Findings from an analysis of surveys issued to NHS Boards in Autumn 2022 (www.gov.scot) for the care and support of individuals with ME/CFS, with the aim of establishing a clearer picture of variations in service provision around Scotland.

The report sought to map ME/CFS support and service provision, review implementation of the 2021 NICE guideline and identify barriers to this, and highlight areas of good practice or where further support is needed to embed the guidance.

We have since gathered updated information on ME/CFS care from every health board in Scotland and are currently preparing to publish a revised report later this month.