Outline the policies and procedures that should be followed inresponse to concerns or evidence of bullying and explain thereasons why they are in place.Children and young people do not always ask directly for help or discuss their

concerns openly and you need to be alert to some of the signs that may indicate a

bullying situation is occuring, for example:

unexplained injuries

lost or broken possessions

children who withdraw from social situations or experience changes in friendshipgroups

changes in the attitude or behaviour of children or young people

eratic attendance patterns at school or out-of-school activities

Polices and procedures need to be followed when dealing with bullying.

Everybody has the right to be treated with respect and no one deserves to be a

victim of bullying. Children or young people who bully need to learn different ways of

behaving and settings have a responsibility to respond promptly and effectively to

any incidents involving bullying.

When bullying is reported, it must be taken seriously and investigated fully. All

schools are required by law to have measures in place to prevent all forms of

bullying and most will take a ‘zero tolerance’ approach towards bullying in any form.

Many children and young person settings include guidance about responding to

bullying in their behaviour policy and it is vitally important that these policies are

rigorously upheld. This ensures that an environment of trust is created, which

supports children and young people and helps them to feel safe. If professionals do

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not take bullying seriously or fail to support children and young people when bullying

incidents occur, it can create an environment of fear and disrespect.

Anti-bullying policies and procedures in children and young persons settings help to

ensure that children and young people:

can feel secure in the setting

understand that professionals care about their wellbeing and will protect their welfare

can be fully engaged with their own learning and development and inspired to

reach their full potential

In 2014, the Department for Education issued the guidance for schools “Preventing

and Tackling Bullying” (DfE 2014). This recommends that anti-bullying policies are

developed as part of the wider behaviour policy and should involve children and

young people as well as staff, parents and carers. The Welsh Assembly has also

developed anti-bullying guidance called ‘Respecting Others’, which provides a series

of information on tackling bullying around race, religion, culture, special educational

needs and disabilities, homophobic, sexist and cyberbullying.

You can find out more about this at:

(http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/publications/circulars/antibullying/?lang

=en)

Did you know?

45% of young people experience bullying before the age of 18 and that 83% of theseyoung people said bullying had a negative impact on their self-esteem.

Annual Bullying Survey, 2014 (http://www.ditchthelabel.org/uk-bullying-statistics-2014/)

Effective anti-bullying policies and procedures should include guidelines about

acceptable behaviour, detailed advice about how to deal with bullying incidents in

addition to cyberbullying and e-safety. Different organisations will all have individual

procedures that should be followed in response to evidence or concerns about

bullying, but in general, this will include:

reporting bullying incidents to an appropriate member of staff

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informing parents or carers and arranging to discuss the problem

informing the police or other outside agencies such as Children’s SocialCare (if necessary or appropriate)

a full investigation of the bullying behaviour or threats of bullying with theaim of stopping the bullying immediately

supporting the children or young people who have been involved in the incident(bully and victim)

asking the bully (bullies) to genuinely apologise

helping the bully (bullies) to change their behaviour

attempting to reconcile the children or young people involved

recording the details of exactly what has taken place

monitoring the situation to ensure repeated bullying does not take place

The best kind of anti-bullying policy includes details about how to prevent bullying

happening in the first place. In school settings, this can be achieved by:

involving the children in creating an effective behaviour policy and displaying thisprominently in the setting

sharing this policy with parents, carers and others involved in the setting

having a ‘behaviour contract’ which is signed by all the children, young people, theirparents and those working in the school.

promoting positive behaviour, peer support and the celebration of diversity

promoting self-esteem, social skills, emotional literacy and resilience with thechildren and young people (discussed in Section 6.2)

providing effective supervision of the children at all times

making use of anti-bullying activities, stories and role-plays and external initiativesand events such as Anti-Bullying Week

having discussions about bullying and why it matters

Best practice guidelines on bullying can be downloaded at:

http://www.kidscape.org.uk/advice/advice-for-professionals/professional-guidelines/

Further resources about preventing bullying can be accessed at:

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http://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/resources/safe-to-learn.aspx

http://www.bullying.co.uk/bullying-at-school/ You can also view

video resources at:

http://www.safenetwork.org.uk/getting_started/Pages/Why_does_safeguarding_matt

er.aspx

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