Concerns over “intrusive” questions about sexual health could see them pulled from a Scottish Government survey in East Renfrewshire schools.
The council’s education team has been meeting with parent council chairpeople this week to gather their views on the controversial health and wellbeing questionnaire.
They have a “tentative” plan for the roll out of the census, but have yet to finalise the questions that will be put in front of pupils.
Cllr Gordon Wallace, the Conservative group’s education spokesman, said the survey asked some “very direct” questions and parents have been “very concerned”.
A council officer said a “small” number of parents have voiced concerns over queries related to sexual health, including potentially criminalising young people through the survey.
The government census, for S4 to S6 pupils, includes questions about sexual relationships and contraception.
There has been a national backlash to the introduction of the survey, which asks 14 to 16-year-olds about their sexual activity and experiences with drink and drugs among other things, with some councils opting not to take part.
Scotland’s children’s commissioner Bruce Adamson called for the survey to be paused in December, raising privacy and consent concerns.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said either “we can bury our heads in the sand” or “seek to properly understand the reality young people face and then provide them with the guidance, the advice and the services they need to make safe, healthy and positive decisions”.
East Renfrewshire Council is reviewing its content before asking children to answer.
The council officer added: “What we are clear in is that any questions that could put young people in a vulnerable position, in terms of answering questions that potentially could criminalise them, will be fully anonymous.
“We are also looking at changing and potentially removing some of the questions that parents have fed back they feel are quite intrusive in terms of personal life, but obviously there are certain questions that from a children’s partnership point of view, it’s really important for the council to gather.
“We know there are trends around young people drinking alcohol, drug use, unprotected sex. There are areas in order for us to put the right plans in place and target the right resources, we do need to gather that information.
“Obviously we need to do that in a way that is suitable and take on board some of the concerns that have been raised by parents and carers.”
Cllr Wallace had said: “I’m getting a lot of feedback and information coming through from parents who are very concerned about this questionnaire.
“I wonder if you could perhaps give me some information as to what the proposed direction of this education department is as far as that wellbeing survey is concerned.”
He also asked: “When will councillors get sight of the final questions that will be asked?”
Mark Ratter, the council’s education director, said: “We’ve been discussing it with our headteachers during January, taking feedback from parent council chairs last night. We’ve been in discussions with wider stakeholders, including the Catholic Church.
“We are looking to try and finalise that over the next few weeks and we will certainly make it available to all the elected members and to all the parents.
“We want to be very transparent with them and give them that option that if they don’t want their young person to take part in that survey then there’s absolutely no compulsion to do that.”
He added more than 90% of the questions are “similar to ones that are already asked in different forums”. “It is really important that we gather those but we’re also very cognisant of what elected members and other stakeholders have fed back to us.
“If we need to adapt the survey we are very clear that it would be our survey, not a Scottish Government survey. We are not just implementing something that has come from Edinburgh.
The council has extended the time frame for the survey up until June to give “parents enough time to have a proper look at the questionnaire”.
