OIC to consider penning children’s survey

A group of 19 education representatives could form an alternative health and wellbeing survey for Orkney’s children and young people.

The proposal to create a short-life working group comprised of education officials, councillors and teachers follows Orkney Islands Council’s (OIC) decision to not participate in the Scottish Government’s own version of the survey last year.

In what proved to be a controversial “behind closed doors” move, the council elected to “postpone” the survey in order to form a “more localised approach”.

This came after the contents of the government-produced survey sparked concern in Orkney and further afield, due to the explicit nature of some of the questions, and how privacy would be handled.

With the need for a local authority to plan for children’s services effectively in mind, OIC officials are now proposing that a working group be formed, with the purpose of creating an Orkney version of the survey. This would then be rolled out to children and young people — from P5 to S6 — between March and May 2024.

The proposal is due to be considered at a meeting of the education, leisure and housing committee this Wednesday.