9.4.3 Countering Bullying |
Contents
1. Context
The Children Act 1989 made it explicit that the welfare of the child is paramount and implicit within this is the duty to protect children and young people from the damaging effects of bullying. The Care Standards Act 2000, and the National Minimum Standards for Children’s Homes takes this further and names bullying explicitly as a form of abusive behaviour that children and young people should be protected from. There is therefore, a legal requirement, as part of the overall arrangements for the protection of children, to address and counter bullying behaviour. The procedure is therefore consistent with the legal requirement and the departmental policy on Countering Bullying.
2. Scope
The scope of the procedure includes any situation or context that a young person experiences bullying within. For instance, if a young person is believed to be experiencing bullying within their school, the residential unit must address this in partnership with colleagues working within Education.
Additionally, the definition of bullying includes harassment, perpetrated by anyone and this includes staff, on the grounds of race, ethnicity, religion, culture, gender, disability and sexual orientation.
This procedure should be read in conjunction with the Countering Bullying and Harassment Policy and Procedure for Looked After Children and The West Yorkshire Child Protection Procedures Chapter, Bullying.
3. Procedure
| 1.0 | All staff and young people should be familiar with the Looked After Children: Countering Bullying and Harassment Policy and Procedure for Looked After Children. |
| 1.1 | Staff and young people, as provided by Departmental policy, should understand the definition of bullying. |
| 1.2 | All staff should receive training on the awareness and the development of effective strategies to counter bullying. |
| 1.3 | The effectiveness of the procedure should be frequently reviewed and evaluated within each home. This process should also include young people whenever possible. |
| 1.4 | Overall monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of the countering bullying strategy throughout the whole residential child care section, is an important part of having a strategy in place. The Inspection process- both Regulation 33 and National Care Standards- provide some of the monitoring systems. Additionally, staff should be recording on each young person’s Daily living File within the SS4 recordings and also within the Placement Plan any issue regarding bullying behaviour. Children’s Homes Managers should monitoring the situation via case file management and staff supervision and feeding back the progress on countering bullying to the Service Manager. The monitoring and evaluation process should allow for the necessary steps to be taken to develop, change and adapt practice in order to ensure maximum effectiveness. |
| 1.5 | Bullying behaviour should never be tolerated and young people who are bullied should be supported. |
| 1.6 | Young people, who engage in bullying behaviour, should receive a clear message that it is the behaviour and not the person that is unacceptable. And they should receive support and guidance to help change their bullying behaviour. |
End