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Trellis is a digital tool that helps teachers and school staff to take notes during meetings about how to support learners with additional support needs (ASN). These meetings are often called “Team Around the Child” or something similar.

With permission from everyone in the room, Trellis records the meeting. It then helps create the paperwork that comes after, like Child’s Plans and meeting minutes.

Meetings with learners, parents/carers, teachers and other professionals are important for planning the right support for children and young people. But writing up the paperwork after these meetings can take teachers hours.

Trellis helps reduce that admin time. This means teachers can spend more time supporting learners. It also helps make sure documents are clear, consistent, and follow best practice.

If everyone agrees, Trellis records the meeting. Afterward, it creates draft documents based on what was said.

A teacher then reviews and edits these drafts carefully. Nothing is shared without being checked by a person.

Yes. Keeping your information safe is our top priority:

• We store all information securely in the UK using trusted Microsoft technology.
• The app follows UK government rules to keep information safe. We're also working towards international standards that show we manage personal data carefully and securely.
• Trellis follows GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child), which means we put learners’ wellbeing and rights at the heart of everything we do.
• Experts from the Information Commissioner’s Office Innovation Hub have helped guide Trellis to make sure it protects personal data properly.

Teachers do not see or hear the recording. Teachers see the draft documents created from the recording. Only authorised staff involved in your family’s support can access these documents. They are stored in Trellis for 30 days.

Only Trellis engineers can access the recordings to help improve the tool. Our team have delivered similar technology to the NSPCC and Citizens Advice Scotland, and our machine learning engineer was a caseworker for 10 years previously.

Absolutely. Before any recording starts, the teacher will ask if everyone is ok with it. If anyone says no, the meeting will go ahead with manual note-taking instead. There’s no pressure to agree.

No. Trellis does not make decisions - people do.

Trellis is like an assistant. It helps with note-taking and drafting documents. Teachers and other professionals are still fully responsible for all decisions about support and next steps.

Trellis lets teachers focus more on the conversation, rather than writing everything down. But teachers still check and edit every document before it is finalised, just like they would with handwritten notes.

If you come to the meeting, the things you say will be written down in the right part of the document.

If you don’t attend the meeting, the teacher will fill in this section based on their conversations and interactions with you. This happens with or without Trellis.

No. Trellis is just a tool to help with paperwork. The support you receive, how decisions are made, and who's involved in those decisions all stay the same.

We really want to hear from you. You can use the feedback link in any documents you receive, or you can speak directly with your teacher or guidance staff. Your feedback helps us improve Trellis.

Trellis is funded by CivTech (a Scottish Government programme) and the Learning Directorate. The team behind it has built successful AI tools for the NSPCC and Citizens Advice Scotland. They have worked closely with teachers, Quality Improvement Officers, Education Scotland and others to design Trellis.

No. Trellis is currently free for Scottish councils during the pilot, with thanks to funding from CivTech and the Scottish Government Learning Directorate.

You can speak with your teacher or the school office. You can also contact the Trellis team directly at support@trellis.scot