Outline the policies and procedures that should be followed in
Transcript of Outline the policies and procedures that should be followed in
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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