Support inconsistent across Scotland
Children and young people have told me to focus on education as one of my office’s main priorities. As part of that, we called on the Scottish Government to urgently reform the education system, and set out a series of recommendations in our report published in March called ‘“This is our lives, it matters a lot”: Putting children’s rights at the heart of education’.
We know that there are particular groups of children whose rights are most at risk, and that includes care experienced children. We need to understand the issues that may affect them specifically. So we commissioned Who Cares? Scotland to explore care experienced children’s education as part of our priority work. Children participated in shaping the report and it was also based on evidence from advocacy workers. The report makes clear calls from Who Cares? Scotland, on behalf of the children they support and advocate for.
Five years ago, the Scottish Government committed to keeping The Promise – a pledge that care experienced children would grow up loved, safe, and respected. This report shares positive examples in education that help meet The Promise. However, that support continues to be inconsistent across Scotland.
Exclusions
Who Cares? Scotland has reiterated The Promise’s commitment to end the use of exclusions, both formal and informal.
In 2023, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child was clear that Scotland should be working towards banning exclusions in primary schools; only use them in secondary schools as a last resort; and ban informal exclusions, positions that my office agrees with.
Care experienced children are now almost six times more likely to be excluded from school.
That is not acceptable.
We must urgently address the reasons why exclusions continue to happen and what increased supports need to be in place earlier for children, families and professionals.
There is research by a group of experts and extensive work by Professor Gillean McCluskey taking place to understand these issues, but it needs commitment from education duty-bearers and the Scottish Government to learn from this, address the causal factors, and to provide the correct resources and support much earlier for children and young people.
Part-time timetables
This report reveals the worrying extent to which care experienced children and young people face informal exclusions from education, including being limited to a part-time timetable.
Part-time timetables are not necessarily the wrong approach. Some children find them useful, and they may want or need their education to be structured like that for a variety of reasons. But if a child’s timetable must be reduced, it should be done with the child, not to the child. Part-time timetables shouldn’t be mandatory, and they shouldn’t be based on a lack of resources. They should be designed to be responsive, and they should be documented, monitored, and evaluated. We need more data on whether part-time timetables are created with the child and how they are monitored.
Inconsistency
The report also echoed what I have heard about an inconsistency for children and young people to access support – such support can be crucial for them to realise their right to education. All education staff must understand the challenges care experienced children face. For example, the multiple transitions care experienced children can face, including many school moves. How can schools and other education settings offer maximum understanding, stability and support?
The report highlights the positive impact of Virtual Headteachers, who can offer additional support to care experienced children and young people. However, these are not available across the country, so not all care experienced children are able to benefit.
Who Cares? Scotland’s work reveals how far the education system has to go to deliver care experienced children’s rights, following my report which urged the Scottish Government to redesign the entire system so it works for all children.
If the Scottish Government is serious about keeping the Promise, it must commit to essential change needed across the whole education system. And in doing so, it must put children, young people, and those who work with and for them at the heart of that.
