Schools (Promoting Positive Relationships, Equality and Safety)

I point to my entry in the register of members’ interests as a sitting councillor on Renfrewshire Council.

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support schools in promoting positive relationships, equality and safety among young people. (S7O-00446)

Our education system supports every learner to reach their full potential. We fund a range of programmes that provide guidance, resources and professional learning in order to uphold children’s rights and to tackle prejudice and discrimination in schools, including the equally safe at school programme and the digital discourse initiative.

The First Minister has committed an additional £1 million through the respect fund to build on work that is already under way in order to ensure that high school pupils can access third sector programmes that teach young people how to reject misogyny, while primary school pupils will receive age-appropriate learning on respect.

Renfrewshire has taken a leading role in implementing equally safe at school across all secondary schools and in expanding the mentors in violence prevention programme into local communities. What lessons can be drawn from that work and how might it help shape prevention efforts across Scotland beyond what the cabinet secretary has already mentioned?

I welcome Renfrewshire’s commitment to fully embedding equally safe at school, and I expect all local authorities to do the same. It is an excellent programme that has already supported many young people across our country to navigate the world around them and to understand their rights and the rights of others. The First Minister has placed emphasis on such support by requiring every school across Scotland to provide age-appropriate anti-misogyny education.

We talked earlier about mobile phones and online harms, and how they manifest themselves in the classroom. We need to support our young people to navigate what can be an overload of information. In addition to programmes such as equally safe at school, I would like to see young people lead that work, because they are excellent messengers in how to protect themselves.