Local Authorities and Anti-Bullying - What's Going On?
We invited local authority contacts to tell us about any recent policy or practice developments aimed at tackling bullying among young people

Policy

Nine Councils spoke of their Anti-Bullying/Anti-Bullying and Anti-Racist policies. Edinburgh, Glasgow and Falkirk spoke of reviewing these in 2005, while other councils spoke of recently produced policies which they are now implementing. Edinburgh launched its Race Equality Education Policy in 2004 and all its schools have now put in place their own Race Equality Policies. Edinburgh's Community Education Service launched its own revised guidelines and proforma for recording incidents (mainly concentrating on discriminatory incidents) in 2004.

Dumfries and Galloway's policy, produced in 2004, was backed up by an Anti Bullying conference in November 2004 attended by senior managers from schools, parents, senior pupils, educational psychologists and bus operators. Renfrewshire is planning events focusing on the parent's role in tackling bullying in each of their high school clusters, which will also feature video work by pupils on bullying. Fife is working with a group, including parents, who are producing guidance to support their Policy. Sixty parents responded to a request for participants for this group. Fife will hold a consultation session to gather parent responses about the guidance.

Highland's guidelines for anti-bullying and anti-racist procedures are contextualised by recent legislation. Incidents are logged electronically, allowing trends to be picked up and Council-wide action to be more readily identified. East Renfrewshire has been implementing its policy and has re-issued a 'Beating the Bullies' pamphlet. Brendan Byrne's book 'Bullying, a community approach', The Columba Press, 1994 has been distributed to schools. Class Act Tours of Belfast have toured primary schools, and a further anti-bullying drama has been put in place with Strathclyde police.

Falkirk are responding to parents' recommendations of 2004 and bespoke a 'Creating a Confident Child' workshop which was so successful in the Denny area it will now be delivered across the authority. Two one-day learning game 'Discovery Programmes' for children are also being piloted in the Denny area.

Argyll and Bute place their initiatives within the context of the Health Promoting School and Integrated Community Schools. The main focus continues to be on peer support and befriending activities. Schemes are in place in the majority of schools and hostels and training is provided to support these. In one pilot scheme all staff in one secondary school have been trained in restorative justice, and are using these skills to provide support for young people.

Other developments

East Lothian made anti-bullying an established feature years ago. This included setting up Anti-Bullying East Lothian (Tel: 0131 653 4525) which is now an independent voluntary organisation supporting children and families, and offering extensive training. They also introduced a range of anti-bullying strategies. This work is maintained. A new, related development has been the establishment of a mental health team which has been 'invaluable' in supporting vulnerable youngsters.

In East Ayrshire a wide variety of anti-bullying initiatives includes an annual summer school for primary/secondary transition at St. Joseph's Academy (see photo), using senior students as buddies to the younger ones, and using the 'No Blame Approach' at James Hamilton Academy. Most primary schools have adopted the Quality Circle Time approach.

Moray has bought the 'What's the Score' Anti-Bullying pack for all schools and are offering training to deliver the programme.

South Lanarkshire has developed 'Active Breaks'. Trained youth workers go into schools at interval and lunch times, and before and after the school day to work with young people who are potentially involved in bullying situations either as victims or perpetrators. All secondaries and a large number of primaries are involved.

West Dunbartonshire Council tell us of the DASH (Dumbarton Academy Seniors against Bullying) and DAM (Dumbarton Academy Mediation) schemes. The latter is a non blame mediation service run by senior pupils.

West Lothian is engaged in a major research project across all its schools to support policy into practice, and crucially make improvements for future action. This reports in September 2005.

Glasgow City Council, Childline and NHS Greater Glasgow recently held a two-day conference/training event about peer support systems to which 2 students and 2 staff members from each secondary school were invited, and then reported back to their school communities. A joint working group produced a training pack on Peer Support for Glasgow schools. Glasgow also recently held a half day training event for school staff addressing the issue of homophobic bullying. The course was facilitated by Stonewall and LGBT Scotland and was 'evaluated highly'. A SWOT analysis of work around LGBT issues and individual school action plans were disseminated across Glasgow.

These responses are held in a database at www.schoolethos.net (key in local authorities).

Advice on dealing with incidents (Highland)