Countering Bullying
Regulations and Standards
The Positive Relationships Standard
Regulation 11
All children and young people have a right to feel confident that this is a safe and healthy environment.
We want to ensure that all children, young people and staff remain safe from bullying behaviour and have the opportunity to thrive and prosper, emotionally and socially within and outside the Home.
When bullying is encountered we will ensure that the procedures are in place to allow:
- Reporting of the incident;
- Having incidents of bullying properly recorded;
- Having concerns or incidents of bullying properly monitored;
- Ensuring appropriate action is taken in response to incidents of bullying and that is followed up.
This will ensure that people feel listened to and understand that their concerns have been and will be taken seriously.
Within the home a culture of respect and dignity is agreed and promoted amongst the staff, children, and any visitors into the home and a set of shared standards of what behaviour and language is acceptable across the home will be advocated.
Staff and children will receive guidance and training that encourages an understanding and appreciation of what bullying is and how it impacts on self and others.
Bullying is defined as behaviour or actions of a person, group of people or a whole organisation designed to cause distress or to hurt a person or group of people.
Bullying can be:
- Emotional - being unfriendly, excluding, tormenting (e.g. hiding books, threatening gestures), setting unattainable targets, reducing someone’s effectiveness by withholding information, ostracism, not giving credit where it is due, belittling someone’s opinion, imposing unfair sanctions or threats of harm;
- Physical - pushing, kicking, hitting, punching or any use of violence;
- Racist/Discriminatory – racial taunts, graffiti, gestures both physical and psychological, that makes a person feel unwelcome, marginalised, excluded, powerless or worthless because of their colour, ethnicity, culture, faith community, national, origin or national status;
- Sexual - unwanted physical contact or sexually abusive comments;
- Homophobic - because of, or focusing on the issue of sexuality; or remarks about gender identity;
- Verbal - name – calling, sarcasm, spreading rumours, humiliating someone in front of others, including teasing and taunting, persistent negative comments and criticism, offensive or abusive personal remarks’ which are painful and distressing, making false allegations;
- Cyberbullying - e.g. using mobile phones or social networking sites to intimidate or bully others;
- Relational aggression -this form of bullying can include alienating friends, isolating or ostracising someone. The deliberate isolation and exclusion of another individual or winding an individual up to a point where they lash out and are then held accountable. It can include deliberately getting someone into trouble within the home;
- Social Isolation – being deliberately excluded from a group, including group events, activities, daily communication and social media.
What bullying is not:
Legitimate, constructive and fair criticism of a young person’s behaviour is not bullying. An occasional raised voice or argument is not bullying. When two friends of equal power have a temporary fallout or disagreement that is not bullying.
An Ofsted thematic review (Review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges (Ofsted, June 2021)) identified substantial levels of sexual harassment for both girls (90%) and boys (nearly 50%) and that in a number of schools this went unreported as a result of the school’s ‘culture‘ – a part of which appeared to be that staff were not aware; did not countenance that this could happen, and because once it was discussed (the children) feared the process would be out of their control.
Sexual harassment and sexual violence exist on a continuum and may overlap. Where the latter occurs, there could be a criminal offence committed.
Staff must be alert to the risk of bullying and should take all reasonable steps to prevent such behaviour. Clear messages must be given that bullying is not acceptable and children must be reassured that significant adults involved in their lives are dealing with bullying seriously. Some acts of bullying could be a criminal offence. This includes:
- Implementing a clear policy within the home/school that bullying is not acceptable;
- Providing information and guidance to children;
- Providing clarity to children on acceptable behaviours;
- Providing opportunities for children to explore issues of bullying e.g. writing stories or poems or drawing pictures about bullying; Keywork;
- Reading stories about bullying or having them read to them;
- Making use of role-plays;
- Having discussions about bullying and why it matters;
- Promotion of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Policy;
- Promotion of the Behaviour Management Policy;
- Promotion of the Supporting Young People policy;
- Young Peoples’ complaint box;
- Advocacy and Mentoring Programmes;
- Training for all members of staff on anti-bullying policy and strategy;
- Safe Zone – Exercises;
- Staff should be vigilant for signs that a young person is distressed, such as poor eating and sleeping habits, sudden weight loss and self-harming See Policy P11-5 (SASH), as all these can be indicators of someone suffering bullying.
It is possible that bullying may occur outside of the Home, e.g. at education, on the way to School, on the School bus, in the local community etc. In such situations, the Home will work diligently with the School/ education provider, and if required the Police, in order to identify the cause of the problem and to implement a satisfactory solution.
If a young person is suspected of being involved of any form of cyber bullying, staff at the home have permission to risk assess the use of their mobile phone or restrict the use of the internet in accordance with policy P8-2 (Phones and Internet Access) to safeguard themselves or others.
We all have a responsibility to respond promptly and effectively to issues of bullying.
Everyone involved in looking after children shares responsibility for countering bullying and for creating a culture which positively encourages acceptable behaviour and reduces or prevents the likelihood of bullying.
As part of this ethos, everyone must understand what bullying means and what measures should be taken within the home and by individual staff to counter it.
Everyone should also be clear what measures they should take if they suspect bullying or it is reported to them.
A part of this must be to recognise where an offence has taken place. Sexual assaults (including rape) are clear examples of this together with the fact that legally a 13yr old child cannot ‘consent’ to intercourse. Additionally, creating or sharing explicit images of a child is illegal, even if the person doing it is a child. A young person is breaking the law if they:
- Take an explicit photo or video of themselves or a friend;
- Share an explicit image or video of a child, even if it's shared between children of the same age;
- Possess, download or store an explicit image or video of a child, even if the child gave their permission for it to be created.
However, if a young person is found creating or sharing images, the police can choose to record that a crime has been committed but that taking formal action is not in the public interest.
See also E-Safety Procedure.
With effect from 29 June 2021, section 69 Domestic Abuse Act 2021 expanded so-called 'revenge porn' to include threats to disclose private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress.
In this respect, everyone should be alert to the fact that bullying may constitute Significant Harm and, if so, must be reported under the Safeguarding Children and Young People and Referring Safeguarding Concerns Procedure.
Where children attend the same school, staff should work together with educational establishments where bullying occurs between children they both have responsibility for.
Each home may have it's own Strategies for countering bullying, depending on the purpose of the home and the needs of child(ren) living there. This should include the procedure for dealing with any allegations of bullying and advising the responsible authority’s social worker. (Where bullying has been assessed as significant or serious, this communication should be made promptly and should apply whether the child has been a victim or perpetrator).
The Home's Strategies should be set down in the Statement of Purpose.
The Children's Guide should also contain information and advice on countering bullying.
As part of the assessment and planning process, the Manager of the home/school must ensure that a Risk Assessment is conducted on each child to ascertain whether s/he may be a victim or perpetrator of bullying.
If there is any risk, it should be addressed in the child's Placement Plan with details of the strategies that must be adopted to prevent or reduce the bullying.
In the absence of such a plan/strategy, the following must apply.
If staff have any concerns, they must discuss them with colleagues and the Home Manager, who should take what actions are necessary to reduce or prevent it.
On admission, young people will be issued with a welcome guide that clearly informs young people of what to do if they feel they are being bullied.
Children will be advised to report any bullying they encounter either to a staff member or to an advocate, or to a mentor, within the home (if someone has been allocated).
All reports of bullying or harassment will be taken seriously and recorded on an initial concern form.
All instances will be thoroughly investigated and interviews will take place with the alleged Target (s), the alleged perpetrator(s) and any others (e.g. witnesses) as is necessary to determine the facts. Direct discussion between the alleged target(s) and the alleged perpetrator(s) will take place where it is warranted and helpful
It may be appropriate to convene a meeting, preferably with the young person/people concerned, to discuss strategies to prevent or reduce the bullying. This may include the following:
- The bully (bullies) may be asked to genuinely apologise;
- In serious cases (see Section 6, Notifications, Recording and Review), some form of sanction or exclusion from the other young person will be considered;
- If possible, the young people will be reconciled;
- After the incident / incidents have been investigated and dealt with, each case will be continuously monitored to ensure repeated bullying does not take place.
If the bullying is persistent or serious, the social worker should be consulted and it may be necessary to conduct a Placement Planning Meetings or a Strategy Discussion in line with Child Protection Referral Procedures.
See: Safeguarding Children and Young People and Referring Safeguarding Concerns Procedure
If the Home Manager is unavailable, staff may take what immediate actions are necessary to reduce or prevent bullying from occurring and then inform the Manager as soon as practicable.
Where bullying is not persistent or not serious it should be notified to the Home Manager at the first opportunity; the manager will decide whether to inform the social worker and what further actions to take.
Serious or persistent bullying must be notified immediately to the Home's Manager and the relevant Social Worker notified within 1 working day - the social worker should be consulted and consideration given to whether a Child Protection Referral should be made, if so, see Safeguarding Children and Young People and Referring Safeguarding Concerns Procedure.
The Designated Manager (Bullying) should also be notified and consideration given to whether the incident is a Notifiable Event.
All incidents must be recorded in the Home's Bullying log and relevant child's Daily Record.
An Bullying log must also be completed (where it is possible the specific category of bullying e.g. verbal/physical/cyberbullying should be identified and highlighted in the incident report so that different incidents of bullying can be monitored as required).
The child's Placement Plan should be reviewed with a view to incorporating strategies to reduce or prevent future incidents.
The Home's Manager is responsible for reviewing the incidence and nature of bullying in the home as part regular Quality Audits, see Monitoring Quality Procedure.
N: B please read in conjunction with the anti-bullying flow chart
1. Do you have a concern?
If you witness or hear something, which relates to the welfare of a young person, it is your responsibility to act upon that. As you know, some of the young people that we care for are boisterous, so you need to consider if, what you are seeing is ‘playful’ ‘normal adolescent behaviour’ or a bullying concern. The best way to ascertain what the situation is is to ask the young person if they are OK. It maybe that they immediately reply that they ‘were messing about’, in which case there is no need to submit a bullying concern, however you could make a note on the shift handover so all staff are aware should things escalate.
If you have witnessed obvious signs of bullying – to include physical / emotional abuse, or the young person who you believe to be ‘the target’ confirms that they feel that they are being ‘bullied’, it is your responsibility to submit a bullying concern form to the Anti-Bullying Lead (ABL)/Manager/Deputy.
Please remember that the information recorded should be specific and brief, it is not an opportunity for you to ‘vent’ about staff practice, nor should this process be used to put your opinions forward. Information should be factual and concise!!
2. What will happen after the bullying concern has been raised?
Should there be multiple concerns raised about an individual on any one day the ABL will collate all information and summarise all concerns and issue this to the Manager/ Deputy in one document. In the absence of the ABL a senior member of the team will follow this process and issue the concern to the Deputy Manager.
The ABL will provide the Manage/Deputy with a summary or a copy of the bullying concern; the Manager/Deputy is required to investigate the matter and feedback to the ABL within 24 hours. It is crucial that all bullying concerns are investigated swiftly as there may be possible safeguarding implications with any delays.
The Manager/ Deputy will make a decision based on their findings as to what is the next most appropriate cause of action, and inform both / all young people of what action will be taken.
3. Option 1 – Evidence of bullying – Full Anti Bullying Log
If there is clear evidence that a young person is being subjected to bullying, the ABL/ Manager / Deputy Manager will be notified, who will authorise a full log to be opened with immediate effect.
The Manager/ Deputy will write an action plan for both the perpetrator and the target; this will be discussed with both young people and reviewed weekly. Work completed will need to be evidenced and given to the ABL.
The perpetrator will be on a Full bullying log for a minimum of 2 weeks or until all work set (on the action plan) has been completed. Work packs accessed via ABL.
The ABL will send out standard letters to external parties of both the perpetrator and the target to advise them of the log being open.
Care staff will be required to monitor and record observations, which will be reviewed weekly by the Manager/Deputy Manager. Entries need to be descriptive, clear and concise. A senior member of the team will need to see the logs daily and sign them off.
The log will be presented to the ABL/deputy in advance of the meeting, who will review the behaviour recorded and feedback in the meeting. The ABL/deputy will write a review for every week that the log remains open and a decision will be recorded as to what the next step is.
Log closed – This following a meeting with the Manager/ Deputy Manager.
Deputy Manager to write to external parties and advise that the log is now closed.
All paperwork (logs, letters and supporting evidence) to be returned to ABL. ABL issues all completed paperwork to Manager/ Deputy Manager for filing. N: B paperwork to be placed in both perpetrator and targets file.
4. Option 2 – No evidence of bullying, but suspected – Tracking Log
If there is no evidence of bullying but there is a suspicion, a tracking log will be opened to monitor and evidence interaction between the young people named. Both young people will be aware that their behaviour will be monitored, as this will be shared with them as part of the investigation process.
A file will be issued to the Manager/Deputy Manager by the ABL. All relevant documents will be kept in this file and brought to the meeting each week for review.
Care staff will be required to monitor and record observations, which will be reviewed at the meeting (weekly). Entries need to be descriptive, clear and concise. A senior member of the team will need to see the logs daily and sign them off.
The tracking log will be owned by the target and the perpetrator will be named. However, if during the period of ‘tracking’ another perpetrator is named their name will be added to the log.
The ABL will write a meeting review for every week that the log remains open and a decision will be recorded as to what the next step is.
If there is further evidence of bullying and agreed with Manager/ Deputy Manager / ABL the young person will progress to Option 1 – Full anti bullying log (see process above)
Log closed – This can only be done at a meeting with the Manager / Deputy Manager
Deputy Manager to write to external parties and advise (using the standard letter) that the log is now closed.
ABL issues all completed paperwork to Deputy Manager. N: B logs will be saved on the child’s electronic file
5. Option 3 – Mediation
Mediation is offered to both / all young people. Should this be successful No further action will be taken. Evidence of the mediation will need to be returned to the ABL/Deputy along with the investigation paperwork.
If mediation is unsuccessful further monitoring of the situation will be required. Refer to Option 2.
6. Option 4 – No further action
The Manager/ Deputy Manager are satisfied, having investigated the situation that the young person is not being targeted / subjected to bullying. This is evidenced in the investigation summary report with a no further action recommendation and returned to the ABL.
7. What do I do if I have a concern and there is already a log open?
If you have a concern about a young person and you know that they are being monitored through the anti-bullying process, you can still submit a bullying concern.
If a concern is received by the ABL and relates to a young person who is already being monitored, the ABL will inform the Manager / Deputy Manager that a new concern has been raised. This will be investigated by the Manager/ Deputy Manager as in the above process (2); however, this will be logged under the original concern and added into the tracking log. The ABL will raise in the next meeting ensuring that the entry has been made in the tracking log as part of the review.
8. Evidence required
The ABL/deputy will keep a log / chronology of all actions taken in respect of all concerns raised. In order to close off any concern raised the ABL/deputy will require evidence that all actions discussed have taken place. This is crucial supporting evidence that sits within the safeguarding agenda.
9. Filing of all logs
Once the ABL has received all evidence the log / concern will be closed off. The ABL will hand the bullying file to the Deputy Manager Please note that copies of the paperwork should be placed on both the target and perpetrator’s electronic files.
Gov.uk website
The Gov.uk website has advice on reporting bullying and information about the law and definitions of bullying.
- Bullying at school - Gov.uk website.
Children with learning disabilities
The Don't Stick It website helps all children and young people understand that nearly all children with a learning disability are bullied and this is not right.
Free Department for Education resources
Download the department's booklets on bullying.
- Preventing bullying - Gov.uk website.
More information for authorities and parents
- Safer Internet Centre – Information about cyber-bullying;
- eSafe Education;
- Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.
Teenage relationship abuse - Home Office website
The following external websites provide further information and guidance. They are regularly updated.
- www.iwf.org.uk (for reporting illegal images and content);
- www.thinkuknow.co.uk (for all children and young people and their parents/carers. It also links with the CEOP (Child Exploitation and On-Line Protection Centre);
- www.netsmartzkids.org (for ages 5-17);
- www.kidsmart.org.uk (all under 11);
- anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk;
- www.kidscape.org.uk;
- www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/topics/stay-safe (for year 3/4);
- www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education (for adults).
Last Updated: June 10, 2024
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