The Group Manager – Transformation and Customer Services presented a report which provided Cabinet Committee Equalities with information on racial and/or discriminative incidents within schools, as monitored using the Racist Incident Report Form, along with initiatives to combat racism within schools.

He explained that In Autumn 2019, Welsh Government announced several grant funded streams to deal with hate crime. Amongst these was a project to work specifically in 100 schools across Wales. Its aim was to deliver critical thinking skills and raise awareness of all aspects of hate crime in schools, with a focus on pupils at Key Stage 3.

Following a series of meetings between WLGA, Community Cohesion Coordinators and preferred providers for delivering hate crime projects, a number of schools in Bridgend were identified on the basis of data on reported hate crime. Details on this were listed at section 3.4 and 3.5 of the report.

The Group Manager – Transformation and Customer Services explained that in January 2020, WLGA commissioned Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC) as their preferred partner to deliver the project to identified schools across Wales. Further details on the project were at section 3.7 and 3.8 of the report.

The Group Manager – Transformation and Customer Services explained that in the academic year 2020-21 there have been twenty-five racist incidents reported by schools across the county borough. These were listed at 4.1 of the report. with the details of these incidences being categorised as the following:

• verbal abuse or insults (18)
• racist comments in the course of a discussion (4)
• social media posts (2)
• refusal to cooperate with others because of religion, ethnicity, or language (1)
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Further information on the figures and actions taken was at section 4 of the report.

The Leader asked if we were able to identify any trends over the years on the figures provided.

The Group Manager – Transformation and Customer Services stated that the data was there showing trends and was happy to collate this and share with Committee as well provide at future meetings.

The Leader asked if the feedback received from the work that SRtRC had been doing was still positive. The Group Manager – Transformation and Customer Services was happy to provide data at future meetings on the feedback received.

The Leader asked if the delivery method was focusing on teachers or pupils as it alluded to both in the report. The Group Manager School Support stated that the delivery method applied to both teachers and pupils. The feedback received on this had been positive.

The Chairperson stated that the report noted that the work was focused on KS3 pupils however some of the incidences reported had been primary age. What work was being done to ensure that primary school were also receiving training. The Group Manager School Support explained that she was unsure of what additional training was being provided to primary schools over and above their normal teacher training, however would provide further details on this at a later meeting.

RESOLVED: That Cabinet Committee Equalities received and considered this report.