Here are the origins and purpose of the ESOL theme of the New Scots Edinburgh Refugee Integration Strategy:
- The development of this delivery plan presents a shared strategic approach to ESOL that has been locally led by Capital City Partnership, with strategic input from a cross-sector ESOL Strategic Group including Edinburgh College, University of Edinburgh, DWP, The Welcoming, and the City of Edinburgh Council.
- In 2019, the Scottish Government merged the standalone ESOL Strategy into the national Community Learning & Development (CLD) Adult Learning Strategy. Stakeholders observed that this reduced the strategic focus on ESOL.
- The ESOL theme within the New Scots Edinburgh Strategy seeks to address this gap by providing targeted support and coordination for ESOL learners in the city.
- The strategy reflects a shared aspiration to secure increased investment in ESOL provision across statutory services, Higher and Further Education, and the third sector.
- This draft strategy will help to inform future engagement with key strategic partners, including the Edinburgh Partnership and the Scottish Government.
Here are the identified needs, existing resources and actions for the English for Speakers of Other Languages theme.
Need 1: Timely access to ESOL provision to suit their needs
Resources:
- Glasgow ESOL Bid to Scottish Government.
Actions:
- Develop a coherent plan for Edinburgh’s ESOL provision to support a citywide bid to Scottish Government for funding.
- Connect with outcome 2.2 of the National NSIRS delivery plan.
- Explore ways to increase the provision of ESOL across the city with emphasis on links to employment and wellbeing.
Need 2: Shorter waiting lists for ESOL classes
Resources:
- Community learning settings (e.g. conversation cafes) as holding places for learners.
Actions:
- Support more community learning settings.
- Develop a triage system to place potential learners in the appropriate ESOL learning context as efficiently as possible.
- Identify and secure additional funding (see Need 1).
Need 3: Increase awareness among New Scots of the ESOL provision available across the city
Resources:
- Community learning settings (e.g. conversation cafes) as holding places for learners.
Actions:
- Share information with New Scots in accessible formats.
Need 4: To build sufficient capacity of volunteers and trained teachers, and organisations to deliver ESOL effectively
Resources:
Actions:
- Review provision; identify whether insufficient ESOL provision is due to a lack of organisational capacity or teaching capacity.
- Investigate and address the impact of short-term contracts and the lack of employment during long holidays across statutory and third sector organisations.
- Raise awareness across the city of the skills and impacts of the work ESOL professionals.
Need 5: More venues for ESOL classes
Resources:
- Community hubs and centres
Actions:
- ESOL providers to connect with local community organisations – learners can help be the bridge for this connection.
Need 6: More Flexibility in venues
Resources:
- Community hubs and centres
Actions:
- ESOL providers to connect with local community organisations – learners can help be the bridge for this connection.
Need 7: Sustainable, long-term funding (3 years+)
Resources:
- Funding initiatives such as the Regenerative Futures Fund
Actions:
- Connect with Regenerative Futures Fund
- Pressure the Scottish Government for longer-term funding (link with ESOL strategy point)
- Provide evidence that funding ESOL reduces costs elsewhere (e.g. in translation, including for Council or Edinburgh employability, in the NHS, DWP) – this was suggested at ESOL Strategic Group meeting no. 6 and no. 7.
Need 8: More trauma-informed practice
Resources:
- A growing body of resources and guidelines exists across the voluntary and statutory sectors.
Action:
- More trauma-informed support for teachers so they can better support learners.
- Involve learners in feedback to improve trauma-informed practice.
- ESOL teachers need appropriate training in supporting complex needs, particularly with trauma-informed approaches.
Need 9: ESOL courses tailored for specific needs (e.g. for specific jobs, for employment applications, for applying to university, for going to GP, for speaking to officials (see Strategic Group Meeting no. 7), for understanding forms, etc.)
Resources:
- Expertise already exists in the ESOL forum.
- Stakeholders engaged in both the ESOL strategic group and the providers forum have the expertise to develop courses and new learning material.
- Edinburgh College embed day-to-day (‘informal’) functional language within courses to support learners.
Action:
- Gather expertise and develop courses.
- Engage with the ESOL providers forum and the strategic group.
Need 10: More provision for learners who are not literate / struggle with literacy
Resources:
- Organisations such as The Welcoming and the City of Edinburgh Council have been running such classes for people from Syria for several years – the expertise exists within current networks. Petros Mersinis from DWP was providing evidence to the Strategic Group meetings (no. 6) on clients who are not literate (term “illiterate” avoided due to negative connotations) – sounds like the strategic group were writing a report on this.
Actions:
- Increase and enhance existing provision; share knowledge; embed in ESOL strategy moving forward.
Need 11: Person-centred approach to ESOL classes
See Need 10 above
Need 12: ESOL teachers need continued motivation to support ESOL in the city
Actions:
- The contribution and commitment of teachers should be suitably recognised.
Need 13: Evidence of English level and certification needs to be available, appropriate, and only asked for when required (issue highlighted in Strategic Group Meeting no. 7)
Resources: To follow
Actions: To follow
Need 14: To assess learning needs and opportunities in relation to the development of ESOL for young people
Resources: To follow
Actions: To follow
Need 15: Support for learners to overcome barriers to accessing ESOL classes (e.g. childcare costs, logistics, travel time, work, and cost)
Resources:
- All the organisations and services are here – the resource needed is time, time to plan outreach and communication and time to deliver it sustainably. Aiseosa Erhahon from Capital City Partnership was working on mapping for Sept 2025. See also Nadia Aslam (CCP) and Aiseosa Erhahon’s work on presenting data from focus groups and teacher surveys (Strategic Group Meeting No. 5)
Actions:
- Link with other services – e.g. employment forum to support specifically tailored ESOL classes. The DWP also raised as a service which needs more information and training on ESOL students’ needs (Strategic Group Meeting No. 7).
- Create a simple information pack (infographic/diagram/leaflet) explaining the ESOL system so that other services and learners can understand.
- More connections between ‘official’ ESOL classes and ‘informal’ community cafes so that people can be referred between these different ways of learning.
Need 16: Support for learners to overcome barriers to accessing ESOL classes (e.g. childcare costs, logistics, travel time, work, and cost)
Actions:
- Find evidence on the main barriers facing people who are not currently accessing ESOL (all our data is currently on those who do now have access). Nadia Aslam (CCP) was setting up focus groups through Multicultural Family Base and LinkNet Mentoring according to ESOL Strategic Group meeting no. 6.
Need 17: A system of peer support for learners – ‘learning buddy’ system – to continue progress outside the classroom setting
Resources:
- Classes provided by Amina have helped to make connections with women in other parts of Scotland and to learn more about life here. That has also helped with living in Edinburgh. (Source: ESOL in Edinburgh 2025).
- ESOL strategy as a place to set out why and how this could work/works.
- Learners and teachers are already present as a resource – this needs some time allocated to setting up and monitoring a learning buddy system.
- The settings and classes already exist; the resource needed is time and the will to initiate this communication (see point above).
Actions:
- If this already happens, can it be rolled out further; if not, develop in collaboration with learners.
Need 18: More provisions for women
See need 17 above.
Need 19: Longer-term approach to ESOL classes (not just stop-gap emergency language learning)
Resource:
- Space @ Broomhouse is funded multi-year to deliver ESOL provision.
Actions:
- Develop a citywide funding proposal to the Scottish Government to ask for support for ESOL provision in the city.
Need 20: Sustainable, long-term funding (3+ years)
Resource:
- Funding initiatives such as the Regenerative Futures Fund
Actions:
- Connect with Regenerative Futures Fund
- Pressure the Scottish Government for longer-term funding (link with ESOL strategy point).
- Provide evidence that funding ESOL reduces costs elsewhere (e.g. in translation, including for Council or Edinburgh employability, in the NHS, DWP) – this was suggested at ESOL Strategic Group meeting no. 6 and no. 7.
Need 21: ESOL strategy (not just as part of Adult Education) for Scotland
Resource:
- There used to be an ESOL strategy. So the blueprint is there.
Action:
- Review why and how ESOL was absorbed into Adult Education; review the critiques of this shift; apply learnings in developing a new ESOL strategy.
Need 22: ESOL strategy for Edinburgh as a starting point
Resources:
- The previous national ESOL strategy could be used as a blueprint.
- Experience and knowledge of the ESOL forum; input and experience from learners.
Action:
- Start from the previous national ESOL strategy; develop this into a strategy that works for Edinburgh, drawing on local expertise from providers and learners.
