House of Commons - Education and Skills

Select Committee on Education and Skills Written Evidence

Memorandum submitted by beatbullying

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Definition:

beatbullying accepts the definition used by the Anti-Bullying Alliance of which we are a leading member.

— Bullying is a subjective experience and can take many forms, making it extremely difficult to define. Children, young people and adults can instigate bullying. The nature of bullying is changing and evolving as technology develops.

Bullying is harmful to all involved, not just the bullied, and can lead to self-doubt, lack of confidence, low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, self-harm and sometimes even suicide. Bullying generally fits into one of two categories: emotionally or physically harmful behaviour. This includes:

— Name-calling; taunting; mocking; making offensive comments; kicking; hitting; pushing; taking belongings; text messaging; emailing, gossiping; excluding people from groups; and spreading hurtful and untruthful rumours.

— Definitions are different and individuals have different experiences; however from the accounts we have heard from children and young people we consider bullying to be:

— repetitive, wilful or persistent;

— intentionally harmful, carried out by an individual or a group; and

— an imbalance of power leaving the victim feeling defenceless.

Extent

— Each week at least 450,000 young children are bullied at school; (beatbullying/YouGov 2006).

— Each week a further 500,000 are bullied outside of school in the community; (beatbullying/YouGov 2006).

— 45% of bullying is perpetrated on the streets and in neighbourhoods; (beatbullying/YouGov 2006).

— 130,000 children are bullied every day in the capital—65,000 on the streets of London. (beatbullying/YouGov 2006).

A universal issue

— Despite claims to the contrary it is critical to highlight that, in beatbullying's opinion, there is absolutely no link between bullying and ethnicity, faith, economic or social status. Our development team has worked with thousands of young people over the last five years who have been bullied or who are bullies. Every last young person has filled in evaluation and monitoring questionnaires and surveys. After independently collating all material we can categorically say that no one socio-economic or ethnic group experiences more or less bullying and no one group bullies more.

What are the obstacles to tackling bullying?

— Children and young people not reporting bullying.

— An inconsistent approach to bullying and poor communication between the people and organisation who have a responsibility for the child's/young person's welfare.

— Reaction without prevention.

Indicators of Bullying

Bullying can be remarkably difficult to detect, particularly if the culture at school is not yet one where it is considered acceptable to talk to adults when bullying occurs. However, there are certain physical, emotional and behavioural indicators that young people who are being bullied or are bullying often display and an awareness of these can help the school to be alert to young people who are experiencing difficulties in this area.

Bullying is a community issue!

beatbullying believes and feels it has more than adequate evidence to suggest that bullying is, in fact, a community issue and not just a schools and/or behavioural issue: In policy and practice terms to successfully combat bullying all aspects of our communities need to engage with the issue. Recent studies, undertaken by beatbullying as part of the Bully Watch London campaign, highlight that 45% of bullying is perpetrated on the streets and in neighbourhoods. In the capital, for example, 130,000 children are bullied every day—65,000 on the streets of London.

Bullying, truancy, exclusion and depressive illness

Bullying consistently figures 1st or 2nd on the list of the most important issues in relation to personal safety, safety at school and safety in the community of young people across the UK by young people and their parents. Critically there is a strong correlation between bullying and truancy, exclusion, and self-exclusion; and a strong predictor of risk in later life to depression, self-harm, tendencies toward suicide and criminality.

There is an inextricable and, in terms of policy and practice, mostly ignored link between bullying and truancy:

— 42% of young people who have been bullied truant; (beatbullying 2006).

— 13% truant on the odd day while they were being bullied; (beatbullying 2006).

— 24% truant regularly—ie they took weeks off at time over a period of months; (beatbullying 2006).

— 6% truant once or twice a week while they were being bullied. (beatbullying 2006).

There is an inextricable, proven and, in terms of policy and practice, link between bullying, truancy and youth crime.

— 23% of young offenders sentenced in court have engaged in truancy to a significant degree.

— 45% of young people who have committed an offence have truanted.

— 64% of young people who committed their first offence aged 11 or below played truant for the first time aged 11 or below.

Tackling bullying is in beatbullying's opinion only satisfactorily achieved when we seek to prevent and not merely intervene:

Racist and inter-faith bullying

— 17% of young people report experiencing incidents of racist bullying.

— 14% of young people report experiencing incidents of inter-faith bullying.

— 45% of young people report witnessing incidents of racist or interfaith bullying (beatbullying 2006).

There are thousands of crimes related to bullying against young people going unreported

During beatbullying's experience of working with thousands of young people we have collated considerable information concerning unreported crimes against young people by young people. Initially the team received information in an unstructured and anecdotal fashion. Once we clarified the pattern beatbullying's policy unit began to measure unreported crime perpetrated by bullies against other young people: In the last 24 months, beatbullying has collated information concerning 2,163 unreported crimes in London alone (ranging from actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm, sexual assault, rape, mugging, blackmail, stalking, theft and even home invasion perpetrated against children as young as nine-years-old).

Prevention, prevention, prevention!

There are, beatbullying regrets, numerous resources, programmes and intervention models which are introduced into schools that have absolutely no proven track record of success or impact. Hundreds of thousands of pounds are paid to charities and limited companies by schools. Prevention models must be independently reviewed and analysed to ensure that the resource and intervention is rigorous, provides value for money and is proven to work.

Indicators of bullying

Racist bullying and inter-faith bullying

A sample of 2,592 young people aged between 10-16 were surveyed.

Field dates January 2006 through July 2006:

Report findings

17% of young people report experiencing incidents of racist bullying.

14% of young people report experiencing incidents of inter-faith bullying.

45% of young people report witnessing incidents of racist or inter-faith bullying.

Why are some young people bullied?

In beatbullying's opinion and experience there is no proven reason, notable trait or difference which explains why some young people are bullied. No pattern, no particular personality trait, no specific body image, ethnicity, sexuality, age or ability can be identified. Crucially, the notion sometimes forwarded in the press by commentators or other voluntary organisations that youngsters that have been bullied have a victim complex or a limited or weak personality is abjectly preposterous and without evidence or merit. Such a view is overwhelmingly deconstructed and rejected by the thousands of young people, and indeed adults, who have experienced bullying. If we agree that one million young people are experiencing bullying every week are we seriously saying that all have a victim complex! It's nonsense.

Why do some people bully?

beatbullying acknowledges that this may be a controversial statement, but in six years experience of actually working with hundreds of young people that bully and not publicly procrastinating or making assumptions about behaviours. beatbullying's staff have never ever met a young person who was bullying his or her peers that were not or had not been bullied themselves. We hope that any reader will place that statement in the context of a staff team who actually works on the ground, day in day out, with young people that bully. Over time we have explored, discussed, worked with, intervened and prevented young bullies from continuing their behaviour. This is not a statement that is made without evidence or professional experience of working with young bullies. beatbullying suggests that to make assumptions about the nature, experience or behaviour of young people that bully without direct experience of working with young people who are bullies is both unhelpful and misguided in terms of policy and practice.

Tackling the problem

Tackling bullying is, in beatbullying's opinion, only satisfactorily achieved when we seek to prevent and not merely intervene. There are, beatbullying regrets, numerous resources, programmes and intervention models which are introduced into schools that have absolutely no proven track record of success or impact. Hundreds of thousands of pounds are paid to charities and limited companies by schools. Prevention models must be independently reviewed and analysed to ensure that the resource and intervention is rigorous, value for money and is proven to work.

Government policy

Most importantly; central government needs a set of stand-alone policies to tackle bullying, drawn up in coalition with the sector. Incredibly, central government really has no policies which seek to prevent bullying—which is a scandal, considering bullying is consistently named by young people and their parents in survey after survey as the issue they are most worried about and affected by.

In addition:

— Adults need to realise that young people know how to beatbullying: we have the solutions, we can mentor, campaign, support and assist our peers, we can be assertive, we can change the culture.

— All adults working with children, wherever they are in our community, to be trained in providing young people with anti-bullying help, support and strategies.

— All adults studying to be teachers or youth workers to have proper anti-bullying training before they enter our schools or youth clubs to teach or work with us.

— Strategies to deal with bullying to be taught as part of the curriculum, perhaps as part of personal, social and health education.

— Borough councils to have anti-bullying strategies which deal with bullying as a community issue, and that these policies are open for public comment and review.

— Government to design a national anti-bullying strategy in consultation with young people, the statutory and voluntary sector.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance

beatbullying is a member and has just taken up a seat on the national steering committee. We are proud to be part of a coalition of organisations who are all, at the very least, attempting to prevent millions of young people laying in bed at night terrified of going to school in the morning. beatbullying does however have serious concerns about the Anti-Bullying Alliance and feels it is not at times fit for purpose.

Effects persisting into adulthood

A comprehensive listing of all of the consequences of all forms of bullying (physical, emotional, sexual) and abuse that are well documented in the vast literature on bullying and its effects into adulthood, would include, but in no way be limited to, the following: showing anxiety and low self-esteem; being distrustful, fearful or angry; feeling guilty or responsible; having negative self-attributes; feeling unworthy, helpless or hopeless; suffering sleep disturbances such as insomnia or nightmares; presenting symptoms of depression or suicidal behaviours; demonstrating phobic avoidance, psychosis, paranoia or amnesia; having self-destructive behaviours such as self-mutilation or eating disorders; running away from home; abusing alcohol or drugs; being violent or aggressive; having criminal and delinquent behaviours including truancy; becoming socially withdrawn; displaying maladaptive interpersonal patterns; having difficulty forming stable, secure relationships; post-traumatic stress disorder; experiencing developmental delays, neurological impairment, cognitive and intellectual deficits, language deficits, poor academic achievement, reduced initiative and motivation, poor school performance or decreased likelihood of graduating from high-school and revealing high levels of re-victimisation. This is a daunting list of potential problems that can clearly have very negative consequences both for the individual who suffered the maltreatment and the wider society.

Parents and bullying

Parents merely need to be delivered accessible, easily applicable and simple information by schools, Local or national government: beatbullying has trained 4,000+ parents, guardians and foster carers across the UK in the last five years delivering very effective information. The information assists parents whose child is being bullied and parents whose child is/or suspected of bullying. Every survey beatbullying undertakes with parents highlights two critical elements: firstly it is their No 1 priority and fear for their children and secondly, when they are furnished with appropriate and accessible information, their fear decreases and they successfully intervene with their children and very often get involved in drawing the issue to the attention of their school and other parents.

Support and guidance the DfES provides to schools and to those affected by bullying and how effective they are

Excellent resources insofar as they are mostly intervention orientated and broadly do not encourage prevention work. beatbullying acknowledges that, rightly or wrongly as it stands, it is for the anti-bullying sector to deliver high quality prevention programmes. Where the DfES provides guidance to the prevention sector it is very good. Representatives from the schools sector are obviously best placed to comment upon effectiveness.

The role of other organisations, such as non-governmental groups providing support

beatbullying would suggest that it is the charitable and NGO sector that is most capable of successfully intervening and preventing bullying. Upon analysis of current research into proven models of prevention across the western world it is the voluntary sector who have most successfully prevention programmes that actually seek to affect a "culture" on the aground across communities.

The extent to which support services are joined-up across different government departments

Joined-up government around bullying is unfortunately very limited, only because there is not mandated template of response. beatbullying would further argue that central government is not really grasping the nettle—or indeed acknowledging that bullying is actually a community issue and not just an issue for schools and the DfES. All the most up-to-date research suggests 45%+ of all bullying goes on outside of school.

To what extent schools can be responsible for bullying that takes place off their premises and how can they deal with it

beatbullying believes quite strongly that schools are not responsible for bullying that takes place off their premises. In our experience, of working with and training thousands of teachers, making schools responsible for all bullying across a community is self-defeating. This adds to a sense of unfairness many teachers feel—considering the vast majority have not received even rudimentary training on how to combat bullying let alone having to try and make an impact across their neighbourhood.

Whether particular strategies need to be used to tackle homophobic and racist bullying? Inter-faith and Racist bullying

As a response beatbullying has developed and successfully piloted "BB Inter-faith" which, to our knowledge, is the only fully modelled response to inter-faith and racist bullying. The project's aims and objectives are outlined below:

Homophobic bullying

beatbullying is currently piloting a homophobic bullying prevention programme. As our results have not yet been evaluated we feel unable to comment as this time.

MAIN BODY OF WRITTEN EVIDENCE

How bullying should be defined

1. beatbullying accepts the definition used by the Anti-Bullying Alliance of which we are a leading member.

2. Bullying is harmful to all involved, not just the bullied, and can lead to self-doubt, lack of confidence, low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, self-harm and sometimes even suicide. Bullying generally fits into one of two categories: emotionally or physically harmful behaviour. This includes: Name-calling; taunting; mocking; making offensive comments; kicking; hitting; pushing; taking belongings; text messaging; emailing, gossiping; excluding people from groups; and spreading hurtful and untruthful rumours.

3. — Definitions are different and individuals have different experiences; however from the accounts we have heard from children and young people we consider bullying to be:

— Repetitive, wilful or persistent.

— Intentionally harmful, carried out by an individual or a group.

— An imbalance of power leaving the victim feeling defenceless.

4. The extent and nature of the problem

Bullying—The Facts:

1. Each week at least 450,000 young children are bullied at school; (beatbullying/YouGov 2006).

2. Each week a further 500,000 are bullied outside of school in the community; (beatbullying/YouGov 2006).

3. Every year 40,000 young people telephone helplines about bullying; (ChildLine 2006).

4. More than one in five severely bullied children will attempt to take their own life, (Insitute of Education 2003).

5. 1 in every 2 school exclusions and 46% of school non-attendance is in some way related to bullying; (Institute of Education 2004).

6. 1 in 3 adults living in the UK have witnessed bullying on the streets; (beatbullying/YouGov 2006).

7. 42% of young people admit to truanting due to being bullied; (beatbullying online survey 2005).

8. An MSN/YouGov survey of 500 teenagers shows that 11% of 12-15-year-olds have been bullied via the Internet; (MSN/YouGov March 2006).

9. More than 130,000 young Londoners are bullied each and every day; (beatbullying survey 2005).

10. More than 65,000 young Londoners are bullied out on the streets every day; (beatbullying survey 2005).

11. beatbullying (2005) research polling 3,000+ young people reports that:

(a) 47% have suffered some form of text, photo text ,video text, email, chat-room, web pages or online bullying; (beatbullying/Carphone Warehouse survey 2006).

(b) 29% of 11-19-year-olds had been threatened or harassed using mobile phones; (beatbullying/Carphone Warehouse survey 2006).

(d) 79% of teachers are worried about text bullying;

(e) 29% of those surveyed said they'd told no one about being bullied;

(f) 11% admitted sending a bullying message to someone else;

(g) 73% of young people who had received a bullying text knew the bully, 26% said it was a stranger;.

(h) 56% have suffered some form of text/mobile phone bullying;.

(i) 6% of young people report they have been a victim of "happy slapping"; (beatbullying online survey 2006).

(j) 35% of young people report witnessing an incident of "happy slapping"; (beatbullying online survey 2006).

5. Bullying and primary aged, 5-11-year-old, children

In 2005 beatbullying surveyed 1,492 young people aged between 8-11 from primary schools across the UK:

— 54% report they had been bullied.

— 51% report it made them feel "depressed/sad or alone".

— 32% reported that it affected their sleep.

— 62% of children report that it made them not want to go to school.

— 19% reported that they had stayed off school because they were being bullied.

6. Bullying a community issue!

7. A beatbullying/YouGov 2006 poll hopefully further demonstrates that bullying is close to epidemic proportions out on the streets and in our neighbourhoods and not just in our schools. 38% of adults in England and Wales report that they have witnessed incidences of bullying on the streets and out in their communities in the last year. 38% of adults witness bullying on the streets because beatbullying would argue some parts of government and the media are failing to recognise that nearly 50% of all bullying of young people goes on outside of schools on the streets and in neighbourhoods.

Internet Questionnaire: Location of bullying by bullied status for 12 - 16s

Source: beatbullying questionnaires—sample 1,586 (research December 2005—April 2006)

8. As we go on to outline in this report we hope to demonstrate bullying is an issue for all agencies and departments that work with, assist or indeed come in contact with young people. beatbullying's services are sought out by schools (of course) and also organisations working with young offenders, young carers, young refugees and asylum seekers; faith groups; police authorities, LAs and children's services; LGBT groups, refuges, prisons, pupil referral units, organisations working with young people who are long-term self-excluders or runaways; the Army; the NHS; youth clubs/groups; football clubs; groups working with young people who have mental health problems, are self-harming or who have eating disorders—the list goes on and on and our capacity runs at 50:1. For every one organisation we can work with 50 others are seeking intervention. Critically, in practice terms for beatbullying, it's the community that continues to tell us that bullying is a community issue.

9. Bullying, ethnicity, faith and socio-economic status

Despite claims to the contrary beatbullying feels it is critical to highlight that, in our opinion, there is absolutely no link between bullying and ethnicity, faith, economic or social status. Our development team has worked with thousands of young people over the last five years who have been bullied or who are bullies. Every last young person has filled in evaluation and monitoring questionnaires and surveys. After independently collating all material we can categorically say that no one socio-economic or ethnic group experiences more or less bullying and no one group bullies more.

10. What are the obstacles to tackling bullying?

1. Children and young people not reporting bullying

Children and young people often don't report bullying when it happens. The reason for this is often bad experiences of reporting that they or their friends may have had in the past, where adults have not listened to, respected or responded to their fears, concerns and experiences of bullying (including where adults have failed to take any action to stop the bullying or taken insensitive action that makes the problem worse for the young person). In beatbullying's pilot research project 87% of the 11-16-year-olds interviewed felt that adults did not listen to them about the issue of bullying.

11. Parents or carers have an extremely important role to play in enabling any child in their care to report bullying if it happens to him/her, or if he/she sees it happening to another child. Firstly, they can build a child's trust that adults will listen to them and respond to what they are saying without simply taking matters into their own hands by doing it themselves. Secondly, they can help a child to access help from other adults such as teachers and youth workers and to ensure that they listen to that child and respond appropriately as well. Here are some ways that parents or carers can help to make it more likely that a child in their care will report bullying:

12. Show that they think his/her opinion is important by actively asking for it on a regular basis; particularly about matters which affect him/her.

13. When he/she expresses an opinion they should listen. They may not agree with it, it may even be offensive to them, but they should try to respond calmly and in a way that proves they have really listened to what she/he said.

14. They should never suggest to a child that kids who get bullied are weak, that bullying is "part of growing up", "a harmless bit of fun" or "nothing serious". If they hear a child in their care or one of his/her friends saying something like this, they should challenge them and talk to them about the reasons that bullying happens and the consequences for kids who get bullied (there's much more information about causes and consequences in the rest of the toolkit). They should try to get the child to discuss it with them. This works better than just talking at them.

15. If a child in their care is being bullied or bullying, they need to make sure that they deal with the situation in a fair way, that he/she understands the reasons behind any action that is being taken and that he/she is involved in the planning and carrying out of that action wherever possible.

16. If they are responsible for the care of more than one child, it is very important to ensure that all of their opinions are asked for and that they are seen to treat them all in an even-handed way so that they feel equally valued and learn to value each other as equal.

17. An inconsistent approach to bullying and poor communication between the people and organisations that have a responsibility for the child's/young person's welfare.

Children and young people usually have contact with lots of different groups and organisations in the community—for example schools, Pupil Referral Units (PRUs), youth clubs, GPs and social services.

18. Even if these groups and organisations have anti-bullying policies and initiatives (schools and PRUs have to have an anti-bullying policy by law), staff are often not properly trained on what the policy involves and so they do not all handle bullying in the same way. The anti-bullying policies and initiatives used by many groups and organisations are often written without talking to the children and young people that the organisation works with and who the policies and initiatives are designed to help. Also, most organisations don't tell anybody who matters anything that matters about their anti-bullying policy and initiatives so that staff, children and young people and parents and carers might know that a policy and initiatives exist, but nobody knows what this really means or what rights and responsibilities the policy and initiatives give them.

19. If a child is at school or at a PRU, they should have been told about its anti-bullying policy. All schools and PRUs have to have one and it is very important that parents/carers are told about it. The information that is given to parents/carers should include how to go about reporting bullying to the school if it happens to a child in their care. If the parents/carers haven't been given access to this information it is a good idea to ask their child's teacher or Head of Year if they could let them have a copy of the policy.

20. Because bullying is not just a school problem, but something that can happen in lots of different settings where children and young people take part in activities together, not to mention on the street and on their way to and from leisure and school activities, it is essential that schools, PRUs and other organisations working with children and young people in a particular area talk to each other. As we've already seen, children and young people say that bullying also happens in settings where there is no adult who is directly responsible for stopping it for example on public transport, in local parks, around local shops. For this reason it is a good idea for schools, PRUs, youth groups and Police Community Safety officers/Schools Liaison officers to link up with local shopkeepers and transport companies to try and prevent bullying that happens on the streets and deal with it properly if it does happen. Parents and carers also have something important to contribute to these groups because they are the adults who are responsible for a child's care in the hours when he/she is not in education or at clubs, etc. For this reason, parents and carers should have a representative on any anti-bullying community group. If parents or carers would like to see a group set up or would be interested in setting one up themselves, they should try bringing the subject up at a PTA meeting at their child's school or with the head teacher at their child's PRU.

21. Reaction without prevention Anti-bullying policies and initiatives have tended to be reactive—designed to stop bullying behaviour when it happens within an adult-supervised setting and to punish the person/people doing the bullying. Policies like this are not very effective at tackling the problem of bullying as a whole because they only ever deal with individual incidents of bullying. In order to deal with bullying effectively, it is essential to work on preventing it happening in the first place as well as reacting to it when it does happen.

22. Bullying has lots of things in common with other types of violent, abusive and anti-social behaviour and it is very closely linked to the problem of social exclusion. It is important that professionals (teachers, youth workers, etc.) and parents and carers work with young people to help them understand the links between bullying and other types of behaviour that they may find easier to admit are harmful.

23. Because bullying happens so often in situations where children and young people are alone together without adult supervision it is important that all adults who have an input into young people's education and welfare, particularly parents and carers, try to help young people understand the causes and consequences of bullying and to show/help them to find alternatives to bullying and responses to being bullied that are tried and tested that they can use in situations where they don't have access to adult help or intervention.

24. Anti-bullying policies and initiatives that are only reactive reinforce the belief that bullying is an unavoidable part of growing up and a problem that is so deeply rooted in our society that any attempt to reduce it is doomed to failure. This is not true and is very damaging for children and young people to hear—it will make children and young people who are being bullied feel even more hopeless and convinced that no one can help them, it will allow young people who are bullying to excuse their behaviour as just part of the normal scheme of things and it will discourage all other children and young people from questioning bullying when they witness it.

25. Indicators of Bullying

Bullying can be remarkably difficult to detect, particularly if the culture at the school is not yet one where it is considered acceptable to talk to adults when bullying occurs. However, there are certain physical, emotional and behavioural indicators that young people who are being bullied or are bullying often display and an awareness of these can help adults to be alert to young people who are experiencing difficulties in this area.

26. Indicators displayed by young people who are being bullied

Physical

Physical injuries that the young person cannot or will not give a convincing explanation for (for example, cuts and bruises, pain in arms and legs), particularly if the young person is often injured. The young person may have been uninjured at the start of the school day but sustain an injury since arriving at school. Cuts, bruises, bite marks and cigarette burns can also be the result of self-harming as a response to bullying or child abuse.

27. Torn or damaged clothing (for example, clothing that has been soiled or graffitied on). Again, the young person may be unable/unwilling to explain how the clothes were damaged.

28. General physical ill-health is often a sign of emotional and psychological stress. Pupils who are being bullied may spend a lot of time off school due to vague illnesses (for example, tummy aches, headaches, feeling sick, colds etc). They may also make regular requests to be excused from lessons or to be sent home due to such illnesses.

29. Emotional signs

1. Mood swings or apparent changes in personality. Obviously everybody experiences mood swings, particularly during adolescence, but regular contact with specific pupils will throw up any extreme mood swings or personality changes.

2. Constant anxiety/nervousness.

3. Depression—pupils may seem depressed or complain of feeling depressed.

4. Tearfulness for no apparent reason.

5. Lack of confidence and negative self-image. Pupils who are being bullied often put themselves down and devalue their own abilities.

6. Hostility and defensiveness. Young people who are being bullied may complain of feeling or seem to feel picked on.

30. Behavioural signs

The experience of being bullied often causes pupils to have very confused feelings. Pupils who are being bullied sometimes respond by withdrawing into themselves and sometimes by lashing out. Many pupils who are bullied manifest both these behaviours.

1. Withdrawal and self-abuse.

2. Being generally withdrawn (including withdrawal from physical contact with other pupils, avoiding eye contact, general nervousness and reluctance to communicate).

3. Less active and effective participation in lessons and after-school activities and/or frequent unexplained absences. Pupils who are being bullied may find it increasingly difficult to focus on both class and homework. They may seem to have opted out.

4. An inability to concentrate. The increased anxiety experienced by pupils who are bullied can result in their seeming distracted.

5. Eating disorders. For example, a pupil may comfort eat or denying himself/herself food; their eating habits may change; or they may suddenly gain or lose a significant amount of weight.

6. Alcohol and/or drug use (this can sometimes be a coping mechanism or a result of peer pressure). Of course alcohol or drug use is unacceptable at school, and are listed by the DfEE on the National standard list of reasons for exclusion and have to be dealt with seriously. However, it is important to be sensitive to the reasons that a pupil may be using alcohol or drugs to ensure that they are not simply being penalising for this and contributing to his/her feelings of exclusion and isolation.

7. Self-harming.

8. Lashing out and abuse of others.

9. Behaving in a disruptive and challenging way during school time.

10. Behaving or starting to behave in a bullying way towards other pupils and/or staff.

31. General

1. The young person may frequently "lose" money, possessions, items of clothing and equipment.

2. The young person appears tired and lethargic and may complain of sleep disturbance/insomnia; or alternatively may seem hyperactive with too much energy.

3. Young people who are experiencing bullying on their way to and from school may go out of their way to avoid other pupils at the beginning and end of the school day. For example, they may start arriving to take part in activities much earlier or later than other pupils, and leaving before or significantly after others, to avoid meeting the pupils who are bullying them.

4. A pupil who shows one or more of these indicators is not necessarily being bullied, but these signs are a good indication that something is causing that young person difficulty and distress. You and the school have a responsibility to find out what is bothering that pupil and to support them in accessing help.

5. Many of the indicators listed above are also common to young people experiencing abuse at the hands of an adult. If, for any reason, it is suspected that a pupil is a victim of abuse as a result of following up on indicators that have been observed, or if the pupil discloses abuse then it must be acted upon in accordance with the school's Child Protection Policy. If a child discloses abuse to you or a member of staff, ensure that you/the staff member receives adequate support as well as the pupil.

32. Indicators displayed by pupils who are bullying

Physical

1. Using physical strength/physical presence to intimidate, influence and impress other pupils.

Emotional

2. Refusal/inability to empathise with others.

3. Desire to be in control. Pupils who bully often display a need to be in charge of events and an inability to share leadership or work co-operatively with others. They may be able to work with others, but only on their terms.

4. Inability/refusal to accept responsibility for actions. In a bullying situation, they often express the opinion that the responsibility for bullying lies with the victim, that it is his/her fault for being weak or not standing up for him or herself.

5. A tendency to relate to others in a negative way, for example persistently making negative comments about other people's appearance, intelligence, ability, family, behaviour etc.

33. Behavioural

1. Professing an exaggeratedly high self-opinion. Many young people who bully have low self-esteem and bully in order to exert their will over others and give themselves a sense of power and superiority. They often brag about their exploits and abilities to cover a low sense of self-worth.

2. Professing indifference for areas and activities in which they do not excel. This may involve ridiculing other children and young people who have strengths in these areas.

3. Once again, a pupil who shows one or more of these indicators is not necessarily bullying but they are displaying and supporting behaviours and attitudes that impact on other pupils and themselves in a negative way. It is important that individual teaching staff and the school community as a whole challenge these behaviours and attitudes, both directly (through conversations with the pupil in question) and indirectly (through teaching practice and the content of lessons).

34. The extent of homophobic and racist bullying

beatbullying has undertaken considerable work around the issues of racist and inter-faith bullying.

Racist bullying and inter-faith bullying:

A sample of 2,592 young people aged between 10-16 were surveyed.

Field dates January 2006 through July 2006:

Report findings

17% of young people report experiencing incidents of racist bullying.

14% of young people report experiencing incidents of inter-faith bullying.

45% of young people report witnessing incidents of racist or inter-faith bullying.

35. As a response, beatbullying has developed and successfully piloted "BB Inter-faith". To our knowledge this is the only fully modelled response to inter-faith and racist bullying. The project's aims and objectives are outlined below:

36. A BBC/YouGov report published in November 2005 reported that faith-based bullying had risen by some 600% post 9/11. During 2005 beatbullying surveyed 5,000 young people, of whom 45% reported that they had been involved in faith-based/racist bullying.

37. The BB Inter-faith approach is one that recognises and celebrates differences and suggests that all faiths should be positively endorsed. BB Inter-faith aims to encourage young people from different backgrounds to work together for the common good and to recognise that behind different backgrounds there is a common humanity and civic identity. In doing this, BB Inter-faith hopes to build bridges between people of different backgrounds with a view to overcoming inter-faith bullying, bigotry, sectarianism and intolerance. To build harmony and a world where inter-faith bullying is unacceptable it is necessary to examine the sources of bullying and disharmony, understand what is to be examined, then create an approach which, while recognising the value of diversity, assists young people, schools, youth groups and their communities to work together to avoid sectarianism, inter-faith conflict and bullying through key learnings and issues addressed via this project.

38. BB Inter-Faith

— Understanding what the opportunities and challenges are for young people living in a multi-faith society.

— How BB Inter-faith can build better understanding between young people with different beliefs, so disagreement and diversity can be discussed without conflict, anger or violence.

— Challenge young people to discuss and explore different beliefs and value systems and how they impact young people in relation to living and being schooled together.

— Finding out what the experience of young people is in relation to inter-faith bullying; what are their experiences of assimilation, exclusion, sanitization, or normativism, of bias and tokenism, and what about these experiences may lead to inter-faith bullying.

— As with all our intervention/prevention programmes, BB Inter-faith will explore issues around inter-faith and sectarian bullying and create awareness programmes using a variety of innovative mediums including art, drama, creative writing, music and new media. beatbullying development workers will provide expert support and advice. Once working policy, educational material and solutions will be developed by each individual panel, education awareness programmes will be rolled out to the wider community groups, organisations and schools where peer mentoring, peer listening and the beatbullying prevention model and literature is delivered to thousands of young people.

39. Project Outputs:

— Establish six borough-based Peer led anti inter-faith bullying forums/six borough-based sets of resources and solutions to be cascaded across each borough, by young people for young people.

— 600 Peer leaders/ambassadors graduating with the assistance and support of beatbullying staff will then cascade learning out to a minimum of 6,000 of their peers in schools and youth organisations providing them with significant/proven anti inter-faith bullying solutions.

— Working in partnership to provide inter-faith anti-bullying solutions with a minimum of 270 partner agencies.

40. Project Outcomes:

— Increase in the reporting of inter-faith bullying by young people and a decrease in inter-faith bullying.

— Decrease in inter-faith bullying by the young people who are trained and mentored by the beatbullying inter-faith leaders.

— Young people have ownership and responsibility for making changes to inter-faith bullying situations that affect them and have greatly improved knowledge of inter-faith bullying by young people and the professionals working with them.

— Children and young people have increased self-confidence and increased ability to deal with significant life changes and challenges, an increased sense of team work, an ability to manage their anger more effectively to resolve conflict without violence or bullying.

41. Homophobic bullying:

Childline's excellent work on homophobic bullying is very much in line with beatbullying's findings:

Why some people are bullied and why some people are bullies?

Why are some young people bullied?

In beatbullying's opinion and experience there is no proven reason, notable trait or difference which explains why some young people are bullied. No pattern, no particular personality trait, no specific body image, ethnicity, sexuality, age or ability. Crucially the notion sometimes forwarded in the press, by commentators or other voluntary organisations that youngsters that have been bullied have a victim complex or a limited or weak personality is abjectly preposterous and without evidence or merit. Such a view is overwhelmingly deconstructed and rejected by the thousands of young people, and indeed adults, who have experienced bullying. If we agree that 1 million young people are experiencing bullying every week are we seriously saying that all have a victim complex?

42. Why do some people bully?

beatbullying acknowledges that this may be a controversial statement, but in 6 years experience of actually working with hundreds of young people that bully and not publicly procrastinating or making assumptions about behaviours. beatbullying's staff have never ever met a young person who was bullying his or her peers that were not or had not been bullied themselves. We hope that any reader will place that statement in the context of a staff team who actually works on the ground, day in day out, with young people that bully. Over time we have explored, discussed, worked with, intervened and prevented young bullies from continuing their behaviour. This is not a statement that is made without evidence or professional experience of working with young bullies. beatbullying suggests that to make assumption about the nature, experience or behaviour of young people that bully without direct experience of working with young people that bully is both unhelpful and misguided in terms of policy and practice.

43. beatbullying has comprehensive evidence (which will be published in early 2007) which shows that young people bully mostly because they have experienced bullying from parents, siblings, peers or other adults. Their role models are inadequate—they view physical or emotional manipulation as the norm. Young bullies from all social, ethnic and economic sections of our society are mostly attention deficient, suffering from inadequate parenting, failed role modelling and a lack of moral parameters or direction at home or in school. Many have been left to design their own sense of self, define their own code of ethics without adequate assistance or direction. Unfortunately many young bullies also observe "bullying" behaviour being tacitly or overtly sanctioned at home, at school, by their peers, in the media and out on the streets and in their neighbourhoods. Such tacit approval only bolsters their sense that when you bully, you get the attention you crave, the sense of identity they are very often confused about and very often the "respect" they seek from peers and other young people. The phrase "any attention is better than no attention" is, in beatbullying's view, critical to the way society, government and other policymakers view the reasons why some young people bully.

44. That said, beatbullying also rejects completely the notion that young bullies do not have individual responsibility or the ability to change their behaviour. In the last six years we have successfully prevented hundreds of young bullies continuing their behaviour and have reshaped their attitudes. This has happened because during our prevention programmes we have demanded they take personal responsibility for the way they behave and their inability to manage their anger or navigate conflict. Notable, in most cases, is that young people want to change their behaviour and be offered a chance. That is why beatbullying focuses on working with very vulnerable young people. In practice terms we view vulnerable in terms of a young person whose parents have died of an Aids related illness, a young person in foster care, or a young person whose father is in prison. But we also view a young person who sits in their bedroom alone with limited or no contact with parents (including absent parents), a mother who has been on anti-depressants for years or a middle-class family blighted by domestic violence as vulnerable because as many young bullies are socialised by the latter as they are by the former.

45. Lastly, in relation to young people that bully, in our experience approximately 5-7% of young bullies are unreachable—so out of control that any programme of prevention is doomed to failure. Many have significant mental health issues and anger management issues which need to be dealt with by mental health professionals and not in schools or the community.

46. The effects on academic achievement; physical, mental, social and emotional wellbeing:

Research indicates that both young people who bully and/or are bullied on a regular basis are far more likely to become socially excluded than their peers. They are at increased risk of dropping out of education, more likely to become involved in crime and more likely to be involved in physically and/or emotionally abusive relationships as adults (Cowie, 2000, 2003,).

47. A multi-agency, community-wide approach to bullying has been shown to be very effective in Sweden (whole school/community approach—Dan Olweus), Canada (Canadian Government, national strategy "a collective stand in schools an communities [against bullying]", the Child and Youth Friendly Ottawa and Bullying Awareness Network) and New Zealand (Kia Kaha project). Young people have contact with many different groups during the course of their day-to-day activities and it is important that these groups share best practice and information around bullying so that children and young people receive fundamentally consistent anti-bullying messages and information to therefore allow young people who are already socially excluded or at risk of social exclusion to not fall through the net.

48. Bullying is inextricably linked to social exclusion. It often results from social exclusion, takes the form of socially excluding the young person being bullied, and results in further social exclusion—exclusion from school which in turn tends to lead to young people becoming even more isolated from society, despite the best efforts of many Pupil Referral Units.

49. As a problem of social exclusion, it is essential that bullying is addressed by a socially inclusive, community-wide effort. All of us—children, young people and adults alike—play a part in many different communities. It is necessary that all of us are aware of the fact that we are a valued part of these communities and that being part of a community gives us certain responsibilities.

50. "From the NFER Excellence in Cities (EiC) Attendance Analysis, we know that once pupil, school and background characteristics are taken into account, there is an association between absence rates and pupil attainment. The research shows that higher than average absence levels were associated with reduced GCSE attainment (especially for boys) and KS3 English attainment."

51. The Youth Justice Board's Annual Youth Crime Survey, completed by MORI, shows that excluded young people are more than twice as likely to commit an offence than children in mainstream school. In the latest survey 26% of young people in mainstream school say they have committed an offence in the last 12 months, while 60% of excluded young people say they have committed an offence over the same period.

52. Bullying consistently figures 1st or 2nd on the list of the most important issues in relation to personal safety, safety at school and safety in the community of young people across the UK by young people and their parents. Critically there is a strong correlation between bullying and truancy, exclusion, and self-exclusion, a strong predictor of risk in later life to depression, self-harm, tendencies toward suicide and criminality.

Statistics show us for example that:

1. Young people suffer a million incidents of bullying a week.

2. Bullying behaviour is linked with all sorts of anti-social behaviour such as alcohol and drug abuse, vandalism, shoplifting, truancy and self-exclusion (Olweus 1999, 2001, 2003). 60% of young male bullies, for example, are convicted of at least one crime as adults as opposed to 23% of young males who did not bully.

3. At least 35% of all young people who self-exclude from school do so because they are being bullied (beatbullying/H & F).

4. Depending on the study, 10-20% of days lost to truancy are bullying related; ie if we agree that 50,000 young people are absent without permission every day in the UK then it is likely that 5-10,000 absenteeism's are bullying related.

5. Academic attainment is also severely effected. 80% of youngsters being bullied report low concentration, 51% report disturbed sleep and 54% report low self-esteem. In a beatbullying survey 72%+ of young people that are being bullied report that their studies have suffered. (beatbullying 2005).

53. Bullying and truancy

beatbullying's policy and research department has undertaken the most recent, and to the best of our knowledge, the only UK based survey exploring the relationship between bullying and truancy.

A sample of 2,592 young people aged between 10-16 were surveyed.

Field dates Jan 2006 through July 2006:

Report findings:

— 42% of young people who have been bullied truanted.

— 13% truanted on the odd day while they were being bullied.

— 24% truanted regularly—ie took weeks off at time over a period of months.

— 6% truanted one or twice a week while they were being bullied.

— Children rate bullying as the No 1 reason they truant.

— DfES figures show that there are 6,987,260 children of school age in the UK.

— Our figures show that 55.5% of all young people are bullied, or 3,877,929 children per year.

— 42% of these truant, or 1,628,730 children.

54. Figures linking truancy and crime:

— Studies have shown that two-thirds of male juveniles arrested while truant tested positive for drug use.

— During a recent sample period in Miami more than 71% of 13-16 year olds prosecuted for criminal violations had been truant.

— In Minneapolis, daytime crime dropped 68% after police began citing truant students.

55. The central element of this groundbreaking report suggested that, "As truants, all children are potential victims of others. They are unable to seek the support of those who would normally care for them and are liable to be abused by those who would do them harm". The findings further reveled:

— About 35% of all juveniles arrested in this period committed the offences during school hours (3,752 out of 10,691).

— About 16% of the offenders arrested throughout this period were juveniles (10,691 out of 63,467).

— The number of young offenders arrested for committing offences during school hours equates to nearly 6% of the total number of offenders of all ages arrested in London during this period.

— Offences committed during school hours, in order of frequency, include theft, handling stolen goods, burglary, criminal damage, assault and robbery.

56. In the Misspent Youth Report (1996), the Audit Commission states that 23% of young offenders sentenced in court had engaged in truancy to a significant degree. Further evidence as reported in The Youth Survey 2004 reports that:

— 45% of young people who have committed an offence have truanted.

— 64% of young people who committed their first offence aged 11 or below played truant for the first time aged 11 or below.

57. Anecdotal evidence: why young people that are being bullied truant:

— "when someone says they will see you after school"

— "To be able to feel safe, and with them not being around it felt as though I could breath again"

— "Because everyone at school is making fun of me and I never have anyone to sit with or hang round with because everyone thinks I'm a freak"

— "getting a kicking and a kicking and a kicking. What would you do?"

— "I was frightened"

— "Because when your at school everyone calls you names but you can escape from it when you leave"

— "would you go to work [...] if you knew you would get a kicking? Right! Course you wouldn't"

58. beatbullying would like to suggest that perhaps, at last, there is credible evidence linking bullying to truancy. If, as it is mostly agreed, that there is a link between truancy and criminality, then considering children rate bullying as the No 1 reason that they truant in policy and practice terms it may be appropriate that government looks closely at this link and includes anti-bullying strategies within the respect agenda and behaviour toolkits.

59. Bullying as a crime against a young victim:

During beatbullying's experience of working with thousands of young people we have collated considerable information concerning unreported crimes against young people by young people. Initially, the team received information in an unstructured and anecdotal fashion. Once we clarified the pattern beatbullying's policy unit began to measure unreported crime perpetrated by bullies against other young people. In the last 24 months, beatbullying has collated information concerning 2,163 unreported crimes in London alone ranging from actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm, sexual assault, rape, mugging, blackmail, stalking, theft and even home invasion perpetrated against children as young as nine years old.

60. Effects persisting into adulthood

A comprehensive listing of all of the consequences of all forms of bullying (physical, emotional, sexual) and abuse that are well documented in the vast literature on bullying and its effects into adulthood would include, but in no way be limited to, the following: showing anxiety and low self-esteem; being distrustful, fearful or angry; feeling guilty or responsible; having negative self-attributes; feeling unworthy, helpless or hopeless; suffering sleep disturbances such as insomnia or nightmares; presenting symptoms of depression or suicidal behaviours; demonstrating phobic avoidance, psychosis, paranoia or amnesia; having self-destructive behaviours such as self-mutilation or eating disorders; running away from home; abusing alcohol or drugs; being violent or aggressive; having criminal and delinquent behaviours including truancy; becoming socially withdrawn; displaying maladaptive interpersonal patterns; having difficulty forming stable, secure relationships; post-traumatic stress disorder; experiencing developmental delays, neurological impairment, cognitive and intellectual deficits, language deficits, poor academic achievement, reduced initiative and motivation, poor school performance or decreased likelihood of graduating from high-school and revealing high levels of re-victimisation. This is a daunting list of potential problems that can clearly have very negative consequences both for the individual who suffered the maltreatment and the wider society.

61. In addition to all these consequences of bullying there are health concerns. A groundbreaking Canadian study highlights the fact that bullied children appear to end up with long-term recurring health conditions in adulthood. Significant long-term psychological health consequences of bullying include depression, anxiety and drug dependencies. Risk of suicide or suicidal behaviours are measured more highly among abused adolescents and survivors than the non-abused population. This has implications for increased costs to the healthcare system.

62. Furthermore, whether in school or as dropouts, studies show that abused adolescents often use drugs and alcohol to cope. It may be that their distress motivates them to engage in behaviour that reduces their negative emotions and dulls the pain. They may have feelings of low self-esteem and also use substances to cope with negative feelings about themselves. They may feel isolated, which results in them looking toward other marginalized groups for acceptance. These groups tend to engage in more delinquent behaviour, including use of alcohol and drugs. One study showed that bullying increased the adolescent rate of alcohol, marijuana and hard drug use or dependence by a factor of two. Additionally, bullied children started the use of these substances earlier than the control group. The authors concluded that "adolescent substance abuse appears to be exceptionally resistant to change and is accompanied by a host of medical and mental health problems."

63. The effects of bullying on those that bully

Bullies too have demonstrated poor psychosocial patterns. This problem behavior stems from their home environment and the child's relationship with his/her parents and siblings. Children who grow up in environments where their parents and siblings are both physically and emotionally aggressive and who lack compassion are more likely than others to grow up as bullies (Duncan, 1999). Bullies display aggressive behaviors against "weaker" peers in order to create a sense of stability in their lives. This stability is in the form of power and also higher status amongst peers. These children grow up experiencing the same feelings as young people that are being bullied of:

— worthlessness;

— depression;

— tension;

— low self-confidence.

64. It is, however, important to remember that no real research has been conducted into the long-term effects of bullying on those that bully.

65. Tackling the problem

Tackling bullying is, in beatbullying's opinion, only satisfactorily achieved when we seek to prevent and not merely intervene. There are, beatbullying regrets, numerous resources, programmes and intervention models which are introduced to schools that have absolutely no proven track record of success or impact. Hundreds of thousands of pounds are paid to charities and limited companies by schools. Prevention models must be independently reviewed and analysed to ensure that the resource and intervention is rigorous, value for money and is proven to work. Some of the best advisory work in undertaken over the internet by charities like bullying online, yet the power of net to re-educate and support is still not sufficiently acknowledged or funded.

66. Independent evaluation of beatbullying's prevention model by New Philanthropy Capital:

"Recommendation:

beat

beatbullying was founded on a weight of research evidence into the need and continues to see research into its effects as an important part of its work. It has an impressive performance management system, developed by post graduates at the London School of Economics, which allows it to closely monitor progress.

67. beatbullying would like to suggest that our prevention programme works (fully and rigorously evaluated by funders and other independent bodies).

68. Here are some of our results:

After becoming involved with beatbullying schools, youth groups and community organisations report that incidents of bullying are down by up to 39% and the reporting of bullying by young people is up by more than 60% (reported by schools, youth clubs, community orgs);

— 94% of young people we work with stated that our approach helps them to beatbullying.

— 45% of young people who said they were being bullied when they started working with beatbullying said that beatbullying has helped them to stop being bullied.

— 32% of young people who had worked with beatbullying said they had told someone for the first time that they were being bullied.

— 47% of young people who said they were being bullied when they started working with beatbullying said that beatbullying gave them an outlet to express their anger, fear and frustration.

— 61% of young people who said they were being bullied when they started working with beatbullying said that beatbullying made them more confident.

— 84% of participants, who admitted to having been a bully, would work hard not to bully again.

69. Other results of note:

— 15,000+ young people have progressed through the beatbullying bullying prevention schemes in the last three years;

— beatbullying has worked with 2,150+ agencies providing them with bespoke mentoring, peer listening, Listening Ear, beatbullying club information, beatbullying surgery outlines and formats, literature, access to training, online information, toolkits, conferences and seminars in the last three years;

— 600,000 children have been provided with a variety of beatbullying resources designed by young people for young people in the last three years including leaflets, info cards, access to posters and toolkits; and

— beatbullying online bullying prevention portal www.bbclic.com and suite of websites have received 750,000 unique users in the last year.

70. Other prevention programmes currently being progressed by beatbullying:

— BB MasterKlass prevention using football as an intervention tool.

— BB Grooves prevention using music as an intervention tool.

— BB Curator prevention using art and design as an intervention tool.

— BBclic prevention using online tools.

— BB Inter-Faith prevention work—working to train young leaders.

— BB Out working with young lesbian and gay people.

— "M8Z" (c) prevention programme for primary aged young people.

— BB Junior prevention programme for primary age citizenship.

71. You can see some of the posters and information cards designed by the young people we have worked with so far by logging onto the beatbullying website www.bbclic.com or www.antibullyingweek.org

beatbullying also works on big national campaigns to help raise awareness of bullying and recently worked with The Carphone Warehouse, 20th Century Fox on www.takeastand.org and Warner Bros Pictures on the recent summer hit The Ant Bully.

INCIDENT FORM

Age:

Class or Year Group:

Name *:

Name of Peer Listener:

1. Please describe what happened/is happening.

2. Where did it happen?

3. When did it happen?

4. Who was being bullied?

5. Who was doing the bullying?

6. Did anyone else see it happen, and if so, who?

7. Was the bullying a one-off incident or part of a bigger problem?

8. How did the bullying make you feel?

9. Was the person being bullied physically hurt?

10. Did you/he/she need medical help?

11. Have you told anyone else about the bullying?

Friend - Teacher -

Brother/sister - Youth worker -

Parent/carer - Doctor/nurse -

Other family member - School nurse/chaplain -

Other (please tell us who)

12. If you haven't told anybody else, what has stopped you?

13. If you are the person experiencing the bullying, what sort of help would you like to stop it (eg someone to speak to the people who are bullying you and keep an eye on the situation to make sure it doesn't get worse)?

14. Do you have any worries now that you have reported the bullying?

— You don't have to give any of the information marked with a * if you don't want to, but if you do give it you will make it easier for us to help you stop the bullying. We promise that any information you give us will be treated responsibly and we will talk to you (if you have given us your name and contact details) before we take any action.

72. Creating a Safety plan

As a Peer Listener you can create a Safety Plan together with your team of Peer Listeners. You might want to use it as a way of helping people when they come to you. It might also prove useful just for you, in case you are experiencing bullying.

73. If you have experienced or are experiencing bullying, this is a plan to help you stop the bullying and be safe again or help others to be safe again. It will give you ideas about who can help and how to get help, and practical things that can be done which may help you and others to avoid being bullied. When putting together your safety plan, think about the people that will be using it. They might need specific advice or support and the safety plan could help them by giving them all the information they need.

74. Tell somebody

If you are being bullied it is really important that you tell someone. If you have already managed this and are working on this safety plan with the person that you have told, well done! But keep reading for ideas about who else can help you and how they can help you if you let them know what is happening.

75. The following are things that can be part of a safety plan:

— Never give up. No matter how hard things are, they can change.

— In an emergency don't be afraid to call 999. The police are there to HELP YOU if you are in danger.

— Use a helpline like ChildLine on 0800 11 11.

— Many websites have information including www.bbclic.com; www.kidscape.org.uk for example.

— Try and avoid being on your own in places that are known to be unsafe.

— Keep—a DIARY of all the things that are happening to you, so that people can help you based on the information you have given them.

— TALK—to your parents, teachers, youth workers, community wardens, friends or Connexions advisors.

— It is not part of life and not part of growing up, it can be STOPPED!.

— Try and remember that you're not actually on your own, even though it might feel like that sometimes. There are thousands of other young people who are going through similar experiences. Ignore the people that have a problem with you, you don't need them.

— Tell someone quick—don't keep it in.

— Don't let bullies put you down.

— Speak out against bullying.

— Stay safe!

— Help other people that are being bullied!

— Working together, things can change!

— Why should you care about what they think?

— You're not alone there is always someone who can help.

— Be true to yourself.

— Please don't put up with bullying!

— Please don't bully other people!

— Bullying damages confidence and causes pain!

— Don't standby—get help for those that need it.

76. Things that might stop people telling

You might be scared that the bullying will get worse if the people doing it find out that you have told someone. This doesn't have to be true. Nobody needs to know that it was you who reported the bullying and if you don't tell anyone about it, it is likely to get worse because the person or people bullying you will think that they can get away with it.

77. Maybe you reckon that nobody can do anything to help? This isn't true either, and you have a right to get help to put a stop to the bullying.

78. Where can you get more information and advice?

beatbullying

www.bbclic.com—beatbullying's website for children and young people: including case studies, games, the art gallery and the beatbullying Surgery. New content is always being added. If you have any artwork or video and audio diaries, photography and stories and would like to share them with other young people, use the submission forms and send them in.

www.beatbullying.org—this is our site for teachers, parents and other professionals working with young people.

www.antibullyingweek.org—here you will find loads of information that can help you plan activities, find advice or play games and download useful information

79. Here are some websites where you can find out more about bullying and ways to deal with it and get some advice:

ChildLine 0800 11 11

(Free to call, you can speak to a counsellor about anything that is worrying you, including bullying, at any time of day or night, every day of the year.)

www.childline.org.uk

www.anti-bullyingalliance.org—The Anti-Bullying Alliance home page has links and information on a number of organisations and resources.

80. Other models of note:

CHIPS (ChildLine In Partnership with Schools)CHIPS is ChildLine's schools' initiative. It was started in 1998 and since then over 1,000 secondary schools have become involved in the project. CHIPS is based on the idea that kids and young people have the ability to help each other can help make changes that can improve their lives and the lives of others Have a right to be listened to and respected.

How does CHIPS work?

As the name suggests, CHIPS is mostly based in schools (secondary schools) and works by building up a relationship with young people and the schools that they go to. CHIPS deals with all sorts of issues including bullying. Here are the services that they provide schools with: Information about issues that affect them (eg government legislation, schools' statutory responsibilities to their pupils).

Resources (leaflets, information, lesson plans on different issues including bullying). ChildLine staff visiting schools and working directly with pupils and staff (eg doing workshops on different issues including bullying). Conferences, reports and published articles in local, national and specialist papers that give young people the opportunity to get their opinions heard and acted upon. Support and guidance in setting up a peer support scheme in the school to help deal with bullying and other problems that children and young people may face. Schools that join the CHIPS scheme become part of a national network, where individual schools can share the good ideas and the methods that they find are good for combating bullying with each other. Schools that are part of CHIPS get a regular newsletter and mailings about relevant conferences and events. What is a peer support scheme? A peer support scheme is a system where children and young people provide support for those of a similar age. There are different types of peer support schemes: peer education (where young people share information and ideas for dealing with bullying with others at their schools/youth groups), peer mediation (where young people, with the support of teachers or other adults such as counsellors or behavioural support workers, act as moderators where there is a grievance between pupils) and peer listening (where young people are trained in listening skills, so that others at their schools/youth groups can come and talk to them if they have a problem). For more information about the types of peer support schemes that are up and running around the country, go to www.mentalhealth.org.uk/peer/forum.htm.

81. No Blame

The Avon No Blame approach to bullying was developed by George Robinson and Barbara Maines in the West of England in 1994 and is very similar to another strategy to deal with bullying called Shared Concern developed by a man called Anatol Pikas in Sweden. Basically, both No Blame and Shared Concern make it their priority to stop bullying behaviour by improving relationships between those who are bullying and those being bullied, instead of blaming and punishing the bullies. No Blame is based on the idea that unless staff working with young people encourage them to understand what it is like to bullied their behaviour and the culture of bullying will never really change, no matter how severe the punishments for bullying are, how well-policed the school/PRU/youth group environment is, or how much those experiencing bullying are encouraged to be assertive. There are seven steps to the No Blame approach: Interview with the young person who has been bullies. Once the teacher finds out that bullying has happened he or she talks to the girl or boy who has been bullied to find out how she/he feels about it. The teacher won't ask for any details about the type of bullying that took place, but will ask for names of the other girls and boys who were involved. Meeting with the other students involved The teacher will arrange a meeting between him or her and the other boys and girls that the victim of the bullying has named. These will be the person/people who were directly doing the bullying, as well as anyone who was standing around and egging them on, or just watching it happen. No Blame reckons that six or eight people is a good number to have at this meeting. Explain the problem The teacher will explain to the other boys and girls involved about how the victim of the bullying is feeling (maybe using a poem, story or piece of art to help express this). The teacher does not discuss details of the bullying that took place or blame any or the entire group for the behaviour. Share responsibility: Without blaming the group the teacher states that he or she knows that the group are responsible and can do something about the situation. Ask the group for ideas. The teacher encourages every member of the group to come up with a way that the young person who has. been bullied could be made to feel happier. The teacher will give positive responses to ideas, but does not make the group promise to abide by them. Leave it up to the young people. The teacher will arrange to meet the young people individually in about a week's time for an update on the situation. He or she will close the meeting by giving the young people the responsibility to solve the problem. Review meeting. The teacher meets up with the boy or girl who was being bullied and each member of the group individually to discuss how things are going and whether anything has changed. The idea behind this is for the teacher to monitor the bullying and to keep the young people involved in the process. There are a lot of strong opinions as to whether the No Blame approach is effective or not, eg Kidscape are very publicly against use (www.kidscape.org.uk/info/noblame.shtml). There seems to be a general feeling that it may have some value but should not be relied on exclusively and that it is most effective when used with younger children.

82. Restorative justice

The idea behind restorative justice is to make both young people who bully and young people who are bullied feel part of their communities again, with a voice that will be listened to and rights and responsibilities. In theory, restorative justice programs hold young people who bully to account and negotiate penalties for their behaviour whilst avoiding excluding them from their communities (school, youth groups, family and friends and their local communities). It also offers young people who are bullied a chance for their voice to be heard and to express their feelings about being bullied in a supportive environment. One of the ways that restorative justice can work is through a "community accountability conference". This is a meeting that takes place between the young person/people who have used bullying behaviour and the young person/people who have been bullied. The meeting is chaired by a teacher/youth worker from the school/PRU/community group that the two young people go to. Each of the young people involved is supported at the meeting by the people who care about them, whether family/carers/close (adult) friends. At the meeting, all parties will be given an opportunity to express their feelings. It is made clear that bullying behaviour is not condoned under any circumstances and a penalty is negotiated and given to the young person or young people who were taking part in the bullying behaviour. Just like the peer mentoring programs that CHIPS supports and the No Blame approach, people who believe in restorative justice say that it works best if everyone in the community involved understands the idea of restorative justice for all. It is important that the school, PRU or youth group encourages and teaches all its members (including staff) how to build a community based on respect, consideration and participation. This doesn't mean that everybody has to love or even like each other—it's just about respect. If restorative justice is an approach that an organisation chooses to take then it's very important to actively work on bullying prevention as well—giving young people skills in understanding conflict, how to avoid it and how to sort it out when it happens.

83. Government policy

Most importantly, central government needs a set of stand-alone policies to tackle bullying drawn up in coalition with the sector. Incredibly central government have no ant-bullying national strategy: A scandal, considering bullying is consistently named by young people and their parents in survey after survey as the most the issue they are most worried about and effected by.

beatbullying has, over the last years, consulted thousands of young people, professionals and parents to understand how they think central government should tackle bullying. A series of pointers/policy recommendations have organically evolved out of this process which young people and professionals have worked up. A petition based on parts of this consultation is due to be published and presented to government during Anti-Bullying Week 2006. It has already received 25,000+ signatures from across the UK.

— Adults to realise that young people know how to beatbullying. We have the solutions, we can mentor, campaign, support and assist our peers, we can be assertive, we can change the culture.

— All adults working with children, wherever they are in our community, to be trained in providing young people with anti-bullying help, support and strategies.

— All adults studying to be teachers or youth workers to have proper anti-bullying training before they enter our schools or youth clubs to teach or work with us.

— Strategies to deal with bullying to be taught as part of the curriculum—perhaps as part of personal, social and health education.

— Borough councils to have anti-bullying strategies which deal with bullying as a community issue, and that these policies are open for public comment and review.

— The DfES should mandate LAs and schools to sign-up and implement the DfES Charter for Action and not just make it voluntary.

— Government need to design a national anti-bullying strategy in consultation with young people, the statutory and voluntary sector.

— Incidents of bullying are sometimes criminal offences and need to be treated as such. Thousands of criminal incidents go unreported by young people because society views it as bullying or, worse, part of growing up.

— There is an inextricable link between bullying and truancy. Consequently if government leads on preventing bullying then truancy rates will inevitably be reduced.

— Schools and Pupil Referral Units may need to be encouraged or mandated to ring-fence part of their budget so independently reviewed prevention programmes can be delivered in all schools.

— Government agencies such as the Police, social services, children's services and youth services should all be involved in delivering anti-bullying programmes. Delivery should just be left to schools and the DfES.

84. The Anti-Bullying Alliance:

Obviously the Government's most public policy initiative has been to fund the Anti-Bullying Alliance over the last three years.

85. beatbullying is a member and has just taken up a seat on the national steering committee. We are proud to be part of a coalition of organisations who are all, at the very least, attempting to prevent millions of young people from lying in bed at night terrified of going to school in the morning. beatbullying does, however, have serious concerns about the Anti-Bullying Alliance and feels it is not at times fit for purpose.

86. Although brilliantly assisted by the DfES, and not in our opinion over managed by the DfES, ABA has over the last year been badly lead operationally, sought at times to contain the views of members and non-members and failed to encourage a professional debate on different models of prevention. Critically it has consistently failed to communicate the brilliant work being undertaken by members and non-members in the sector because it will not come out and justify its own existence and seeks to merely contain difference. A recent example of this is ABA requesting, in writing, copies of any written evidence offered to the select committee by member organisations prior to submission.

87. In beatbullying's opinion therefore we feel that the Anti-Bullying Alliance should, with the guidance of the DfES, undertake a root and review of primary purpose, its democratic structures, how excellent work and prevention models should be communicated to young people and professionals and how best member organisations can justify the hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money being spent.

88. How parents can help their children (bullied and bullying)

Parents merely need to be delivered accessible, easily applicable and simple information by schools and local or national government. beatbullying has trained 4,000+ parents, guardians and foster carers in the last five years across the UK delivering very effective information. The information assists parents whose child is being bullied and parents whose child is or suspected of bullying. Every survey beatbullying undertakes with parents highlights two critical elements. Firstly it is their No 1 priority and fear for their children and secondly, when they are furnished with appropriate and accessible information, their fear decreases and they successfully intervene with their children and very often get involved in drawing the issue to the attention of their school and other parents.

89. Support and guidance the DfES provides to schools and to those affected by bullying and how effective they are.

Excellent resources insofar as they are mostly intervention orientated and broadly do not encourage prevention work. beatbullying acknowledges that, rightly or wrongly, as it stands it is for the anti-bullying sector to deliver high quality prevention programmes. Where the DfES provides guidance to the prevention sector it is very good. Representatives from the schools sector are obviously best placed to comment upon effectiveness.

90. The role of other organisations, such as non-governmental groups providing support:

beatbullying would suggest that it is the charitable and NGO sector that is most capable of successfully intervening and preventing bullying. Upon analysis of current research into proven models of prevention across the western world it is the voluntary sector who has most successfully prevention programmes that actually seek to affect a "culture" on the aground across communities.

91. Critically, there is considerable evidence that when quality programmes are introduced by outside agencies outputs and outcomes are increased as young people will often work with people and share sometimes very personal details of their lives with people that are not figures of authority.

92. The extent to which support services are joined up across different government departments

93. beatbullying's services are sought out by schools (of course) and also organisations working with young offenders, young carers, young refugees and asylum seekers; faith groups; police authorities, LAs and children's services; LGBT groups, refuges, prisons, pupil referral units, organisations working with young people who are long-term self-excluders or runaways; the Army; the NHS; youth clubs/groups; football clubs; groups working with young people who have mental health problems, are self-harming or who have eating disorders—the list goes on and on and our capacity runs at 50:1. For every one organisation we can work with 50 others are seeking intervention. Critically, in practice terms for beatbullying, it's the community that continues to tell us that bullying is a community issue.

94. There are some outstanding examples of borough and county councils that are considering bullying as an inter-agency issue such as Durham, Merton, Enfield, Havering, Islington, Essex and Leeds.

95. "bullying can often = behavioural problems = non attendance =exclusion = crime = substance abuse". (Head Teacher, Newham 2003)

96. beatbullying's over-arching aim is to intervene in, prevent and reduce incidents of bullying within a community setting. Due to the nature of bullying this cuts across and is inter-linked with a variety of other issues and social phenomena facing both young people and children. Therefore bullying is not only a stand-alone issue but also cuts across other problems faced by young people, for example, substance abuse, underachieving (47% of young people that are bullied or are bullies are underachieving, Cowie, H 1999), behavioural problems, mental illness, vulnerability to violence and social, cultural and personal exclusion.

97. An example of "joined up" policy and practice.

beatbullying conceived of, designed and wrote the initial project brief and business plan. beatbullying successfully lobbied the Mayor, GLA and Transport for London; all of whom agreed to become involved in-kind. beatbullying also bought the 33 London Boroughs, Tequila/London (an advertising/marketing agency) and 450 schools, youth agencies and community organisations to the partnership; all of whom made financial or in-kind contributions. This very successful campaign melded the government, charitable and private sectors—all working together in policy and practice terms to assist all Londoners to beatbullying. It had massive hearts and minds impact, 400 pieces of press and is merely the foundations of a programme that will carry on for some years.

98. Bully Watch London—May 2006 (please see attached appendices for outline)

Bully Watch London aims: to raise awareness of bullying to all Londoners and encourage adults and young people who are aware or observe bullying to safely take action and contact people in authority to deal with the problem. Audience: All Londoners. Campaign concept: the introduction of Bully Watch London loosely based on the neighbourhood watch idea. The campaign encourages civic responsibility: Message: "Bully Watch London. If you spot it, you can stop it".

99. Campaign placement demographics

1,400 poster sites across all TfL sites, 4,000 bus circuit sites, 250,000 bully watch stickers, 250,000 A4 posters, 250,000 leaflets, 250,000 Badges, Website, Sticker/poster/badge distributed in BWL goody bag to 20,000 Big Issue readers and workshops and town hall style meeting for parents and young people. Bully Watch London packs were distributed to thousands of schools, youth organisations, community organisations, news agents, shops, sports and leisure facilities, offices, shopping centres, stations, bus sites and homes.

100. The campaign used the strapline—"If you can spot it, you can stop it"—to highlight the practical steps that every Londoner—young and old—can take to stop bullying.

101. Bully Watch London had a simple aim to increase the confidence of adults in understanding how to spot, intervene and report bullying and increase the confidence of children that adults will do something about it. The campaign is a joint initiative between the Mayor of London, beatbullying, Association of London Government and Transport for London, Chelsea Football Club and Tequila/London (an advertising/marketing agency).

102. Results

(The project as not been fully evaluated as yet, as a series of town hall style meetings and trainings are being undertaken with parents form across the Capital).

103. Bully Watch London Helpline

A total of 1,751 calls were made to the Bully Watch London helpline since launch.

Number %

Parents, carers or guardians 876 50.03%

Young people aged 11-18 191 10.91%

Young people aged 5-11 45 2.57%

Traders and businesses 89 5.08%

Schools 105 6.00%

Community Organisations 92 5.25%

Professionals 263 15.02%

Others 90 5.14%

104. Enquiries and information: Call topics

876 London parents, carers or guardians were advised and supported by beatbullying staff on issues relating to the following areas: truancy, school failing to engage with family of bullied young person, victim being excluded from school, happy slapping, text bullying, hate websites, homophobic bullying, inter-faith bullying, worries about knife crime, local harassment issues, child currently out of school needing advice, seeking more literature, young people being bullied by a teacher and 1 attempted suicide. Many parents/carers have been placed on an email data base and will be invited to the parents' seminar.

105. www.bullywatchlondon.org

26,436 unique users to www.bullywatchlondon.org

Received 126 emails to info@bullywatchlondon.org seeking advice or comment

106. Information campaign:

Distributed 295,000 pieces of literature to 4,500+ organisations.

107. To what extent schools can be responsible for bullying that takes place off their premises and how can they deal with it?

beatbullying believes quite strongly that schools are not responsible for bullying that takes place off their premises. In our experience of working with and training thousands of teachers, making schools responsible for all bullying across a community is self-defeating and just adds to a sense of unfairness many teachers feel considering the vast majority have not received even rudimentary training on how to combat bullying let alone have to try and make an impact across their neighbourhood.

108. Whether particular strategies need to be used to tackle homophobic and racist bullying?

Inter-faith and Racist bullying

As a response beatbullying has developed and successfully piloted "BB Inter-faith", to our knowledge this is the only fully modelled response to inter-faith and racist bullying. The project's aims and objectives are outlined below:

109. A BBC/YouGov report published in November 2005 reported that faith-based bullying had risen by some 600% post 9/11. During 2005 beatbullying surveyed 5,000 young people, of whom 45% reported that they had been involved in faith-based/racist bullying.

110. The BB Inter-faith approach is one that recognises and celebrates differences and suggests that all faiths should be positively endorsed. BB Inter-faith aims to encourage young people from different backgrounds to work together for the common good and to recognise that behind different backgrounds there is a common humanity and civic identity. In doing this, BB Inter-faith hopes to build bridges between people of different backgrounds with a view to overcoming inter-faith bullying, bigotry, sectarianism and intolerance. To build harmony and a world where inter-faith bullying is unacceptable it is necessary to examine the sources of bullying and disharmony, understand what is to be examined, then create an approach which, while recognising the value of diversity, assists young people, schools, youth groups and their communities to work together to avoid sectarianism, inter-faith conflict and bullying through key learnings and issues addressed via this project.

111. BB inter-faith over view

— Understanding what the opportunities and challenges are for young people living in a multi-faith society.

— How BB Inter-faith can build better understanding between young people with different beliefs, so disagreement and diversity can be discussed without conflict, anger or violence.

— Challenge young people to discuss and explore different beliefs and value systems and how they impact young people in relation to living and being schooled together.

112. Project Outputs:

— Establish 6 borough-based Peer led anti inter-faith bullying forums/six borough-based sets of resources and solutions to be cascaded across each borough, by young people for young people.

— Working in partnership to provide inter-faith anti-bullying solutions with a minimum of 270 partner agencies.

113. Project Outcomes:

— Increase in the reporting of inter-faith bullying by young people and a decrease in inter-faith bullying.

— Decrease in inter-faith bullying by the young people who trained and mentored by the beatbullying inter-faith leaders.

114. Homophobic bullying:

— 80% of secondary school teachers say that they are aware of homophobic bullying.

— 25% of secondary school teachers are aware of physical homophobic bullying.

— 90% of schools have a general anti-bullying policy whereas only 6% of schools have a policy which proactively deals with homophobic bullying.

— Young LGBT people are more likely to leave school at 16 despite achieving grades that merit them continuing education.

— 40% of young LGBT pupils fear that homophobic bullying will continue if they stay on at school after 16.

— 75% of bullied LGBT young people feign illness or truant from school to escape the impact of homophobic bullying.

115. The effects of homophobic bullying are not limited to young LGBT people. An education culture where homophobic bullying exists can affect anyone singled-out as different. A culture where any sort of bullying exists makes our communities unsafe for everyone.

116. BB Out is different. Different as our work is 100% youth-led and 100% youth-authored.

This means that young LGBT people themselves decide on how the campaign is run, what information the campaign contains, and how the campaign is marketed. In this way, we can be sure that the campaign content, design and implementation is by young people for young people.

BB Outputs

— Increases in the reporting of homophobic bullying by young LGBT people.

— Measurable decreases in bullying of young LGBT people in London due to the delivery of education and prevention programmes.

— Greatly improved knowledge of homophobic bullying and anti-bullying strategies by young people, professionals, parents and carers through the panel work, film creation (ActOUTbb), website and media.

— Increased confidence and self-esteem of young people affected by homophobic bullying and empowering often socially excluded young people to develop solutions to homophobic bullying based upon their experiences and needs.

— Standardisation of response to homophobic bullying within and across sectors, boroughs, pan-London and eventually nationally.

117. Appendices:

About beatbullying

Multi-award winning beatbullying empowers young people to lead anti-bullying campaigns in their schools and local communities and builds the capacity of local communities to sustain the work. beatbullying has directly and indirectly worked with 500,000+ young people over the last 3 years assisting and supporting young people that are being bullied, re-educating and changing the behaviour of young people that bully and preventing bullying in schools and communities across the UK. The team has worked with 2,500+ agencies locally, regionally and nationally in the last three years.

118. Outputs

— Establishment of 200 borough-based inter-community youth panels.

— A minimum of 5 million children provided with a variety of beatbullying resources designed by young people for young people.

— Providing boroughs and localities with best practice anti-bullying models agreed by and co-designed by local schools, youth groups and community organisations.

— Providing anti-bullying training and toolkits to the professionals working in a minimum of 15,000 agencies.

— Developing the beatbullying internet portal and e-learning suite. Providing youths, professionals, carers and parents with accessible anti-bullying resources which are accreditable via the e-mentoring scheme.

119. Outcomes

— Increases in the reporting of bullying by young people.

— Measurable decrease in bullying of young people in the UK due to the delivery of education and prevention programmes across all sectors of the community.

— Greatly improved knowledge of bullying and anti-bullying strategies by young people, professionals, parents and carers through the panel work and the dissemination of literature and use of the website.

— Increased the confidence and self-esteem of young people affected by bullying and empowering often socially excluded young people to develop solutions to bullying, based upon their experiences and needs.

— Standardisation of response to bullying within and across sectors, localities, boroughs, regions and nationally.

120. Partnership/Collaboration

beatbullying will be working in 45 boroughs by 2006. beatbullying is proud to have recruited in excess of 450 partner organisations in boroughs across the UK and is working with 2,000+ agencies (all of whom have made constructive and important contributions to beatbullying). Partner agencies include a variety of diverse organisations including schools, youth groups, youth clubs, community groups, Connexions, faith groups, Pupil Referral Units, racial equality councils, groups working with young people from black and minority ethnic heritage, groups working with refugees and asylum seekers, groups and organisations working with young people from travelling communities and groups and organisations working with young offenders.

121. The beatbullying prevention model in action—services and activities

The BB community response model has five distinct phases, working with three distinct groups over a period of 12-15 months.

122. Phase 1—Inter-agency partnership

Individual borough inter-agency panels are established. Young people self-select or are selected by their school, youth group or community organisation to represent their borough on the BB panel. Quite intentionally, the majority of young people contributing to the programme are considered highly vulnerable or are socially, economically or culturally excluded.

123. They are young people who bully, perceived as bullies, those at risk of being bullied, young people who are bullied, those at risk of undertaking criminal activity and those who are at risk or have been excluded from mainstream education. In particular we aim to actively involve young people, many of whom are traditionally silenced and excluded. This includes physically disabled young people, those from black and minority ethnic communities, faith groups, asylum seekers, young people from travelling communities, lesbian, gay and bisexual young people, and/or young people who are questioning their sexuality and those from deprived communities.

124. All aspects (types) of bullying are responded to including racial, genderised, religious, homophobic, inter-faith, psychological, physical and emotional bullying.

125. The young BB ambassadors, as they have become known, then go through an eight month programme of intense creative and intellectual workshops formulating anti-bullying policy, practice, responses, toolkits and solutions authored by young people for young people. Aided by skilled anti-bullying advocates (adults) creative activities including art, drama and creative writing are used to develop an agreed borough-wide campaign. The young people also produce literature which includes posters, leaflets, information cards, poems, stories, songs, websites, plays and videos that demonstrate the types of bullying they are experiencing and how they feel this should be dealt with using the following creative methods and model:

126. Art/Design/Print

Our BB panels explore bullying, its impact and the consequences of bullying and the effect it has on the quality of their lives and the lives of their peers, using as many visual devices as possible. Our aim is to create from their ideas a versatile, insightful and far-reaching campaign. It is also about creating campaigns that look not just at the victim, but at the bully themselves. All our ambassadors can paint, draw, collage and graffiti their ideas. These ideas can then be translated into poster material, information cards and also standalone works of "community art". Through the use of art as a medium to express themselves they can build and broadcast a formidable anti-bullying statement.

127. Creative Writing

At the BB panels the young people are given the opportunity to use creative writing to explore the many issues surrounding bullying. By introducing a diverse range of fun exercises, the young people are encouraged to express their thoughts, feelings and opinions in writing. With the support of a creative writer they are then able to develop their ideas into a form which appeals to them. This can be anything from short stories to MC lyrics—the choice is theirs!

128. DramaIn the drama sessions the young people work with professional actors on developing bullying scenarios that affect them through scripting a scene to acting it out. The work includes playlets, role-plays and monologues all with a clear message. This work is filmed to be able to show other young people how to deal with situations, offering different outcomes and forming part of an important teaching resource.

129. IT

In the IT sessions the young people work with professional graphic designers, web designers and new media specialists to construct a 6-10 page anti-bullying borough website. The sites include artwork, policy, downloads, help seeking information, links and bullying issues of local importance.

130. Once all information and the campaign has been developed, this information is then distributed free of charge borough-wide to schools, youth groups, Community Safety Teams and other youth organisations whose young people have been involved in the panels. Each borough has a minimum of 8,000 youth authored pieces of literature for young people. The borough campaign is presented and agreed upon by all partner agencies and is then published locally and presented to the LA and to councillors.

131. Phase 2—roll out to young people across each borough

beatbullying cascades the programme/campaign out to participating agencies, schools and organisations. Working closely with the BB ambassadors who have gone through intense training, the BB team then goes back into all partner schools, organisations and agencies and run similar workshops with as many young people from each organisation or school as are nominated.

132. Using a "whole" schools, youth groups and community organisations approach a BB day is run in each organisation/school. The team led by the young people then disseminates solutions/practice and literature to inter-agency partners. For example, after close consultation with teachers or youth workers, beatbullying may organise a miniature anti-bullying campaign for the young people, we may set up a mentoring/buddying scheme. What beatbullying always does is listen to the young people about what works for them and always facilitates evaluated schemes and practice.

133. Phase 3—inter-agency training of professionals

In addition to working with the young people, free of charge training is provided for staff on how to deal with bullying as beatbullying cascades the results of the inter-agency panels. Training is provided to members of staff nominated by our partner agencies and facilitated in an inter-agency environment. This ensures that best practice is translated around the borough, anti-bullying networks are established and staff from a variety of disciplines and sectors can, all things being equal, respond to bullying in a standardised way.

134. During the training professionals are also invited to work up a "professional's campaign" using many of the same mediums as young people do. Over time this will also be distributed free of charge to partner agencies.

135. Professionals (and partner agencies/organisations) also receive, free of charge, a comprehensive beatbullying toolkit available in paper copy or downloadable format at www. beatbullying.org. Bespoke toolkits are available to teachers, head teachers, teaching assistants, behavioural support workers, youth offending team members, personal advisers (Connexions), governors, mentors, parents, youth workers, community workers, school nurses, dinner ladies, social workers, health care professionals and local bus drivers etc. Toolkits for a variety of other professionals, including prison officers, are being made available all the time.

136. Phase 4—sub-regional inter-agency co-operation.

As the roll-outs of individual borough campaigns are planned in clusters a sub-regional initiative is then delivered cross-borough. For example, Lewisham, Lambeth and Southwark unite, as do Croydon, Merton and Sutton etc. All results, campaigns, information and solutions are exchanged by the young people for the young people. A sub-regional statement of policy expectation is constructed, resources are refined and press work is undertaken to gain local publicity. Forward planning is critical to this co-operation and crucial to ensuring that the young people of each borough continue to own the programme.

137. Phase 5—Peer mentoring, peer listening and peer activism

Young people who become BB ambassadors go on to become mentors if they so choose. Full training is undertaken with the young people and they work with beatbullying staff as volunteer mentors, guiding and using their experience of the process to assist and mentor other young people who have joined beatbullying.

Note: after Phase 4 the cycle begins again in each borough.

136. The beatbullying prevention programme actually works!

"There are examples of organisations that innovate, that adapt to new needs and opportunities, that tackle seemingly insoluble problems. Take beatbullying, the current Charity of the Year—it empowers young people to lead anti-bullying campaigns in their schools and local communities, and builds the capacity of local communities to sustain the work" (David Milliband MP, Minister for Local Government, at the time of speech).

139. Case-studies of beatbullying's work with young people

Craig Age 15 Living in Southwark

Bio: Excluded from school because of non-attendance after being bullied for 2 + years, because of his weight and height. Craig refused to talk about the bullying. Now attending a pupil referral unit. Considered introverted and lacking self-esteem and confidence by teachers and parents. Craig had very few friends and no ambitions and made limited contributions to his school environment. On arriving at BB workshops, he would not talk to staff or peers, very uncomfortable with speaking out loud to the group. Limited eye contact, did not say anything during the first meeting. In time flourished within the environment, showed particular flare for the art and design, (this is not something that had been noticed in Craig prior to joining BB). Related well to male members of staff and began to discuss and explore coping mechanisms and ways to stop the bullying.

Over time, began to lead within the workshops. Began to make friends and confidence levels rose. Craig now feels much more confident about dealing with his bullies; he reports incidents and discusses the bullying with his family. Consequently the incidents are being reduced.

Currently discussing making an application to college to study art with parents, BB and his PRU. Craig's mum considers "[...] happy, confident and taken seriously for the first time". Craig's father "my boy is happy for the first time in years". Craig has volunteered to become a BB mentor.

140. Adam Age 15 Living in Merton

Bio: Excluded from school due to non-attendance because of bullying. Adam was physically and emotional bullied for most of his secondary school life. Prior to working with BB, we understand from Adam's parents that he spent the "last two years in his room".

On arriving at BB workshops, Adam separated himself from the group, spoke to know one and had no eye contact with any member of the team or his peers. Initial work with Adam concentrated on what courage it took to leave his room and volunteer to join BB.

Although still very introverted, Adam during the drama workshops "exploded" (staff member) with confidence. Soon he was acting and working behind the camera and began even to direct scenes. Adam attended the BB film week and made an excellent contribution and was a key actor in a scene that will appear on the educational video.

During the summer holidays, Adam suffered a particularly nasty bullying incident. For the first time Adam walked away and came home and discussed it with his mum. He also allowed her to inform his PRU. Although Adam did retreat to his room for a time, he resumed involvement with BB and became involved in the IT sessions. Adam's mum reports that after the drama workshop "she heard her son laugh for the first time in six months". Adam now often talks through his feelings about the bullying with his mum and now sits on BB kid's web site advisory committee. Adam is also now attending a youth club and is acting as an advocate for BB and together we are planning a workshop where Adam will be a trainer.

Note: During the bullying incident during the summer, the group of young people that were bullying Adam potentially included a young person BB had been working with. Mark, who is perceived/is a bully did not became involved in the incident and walked away. Adam and Mark have discussed the incident and are beginning to develop a friendship.

141. Frank Age 14 Living in Southwark

Bio: Frank self-excluded from school because of bullying. Frank's father physically abused both Frank his siblings and their mother. Frank was bullied because of his weight and he was very shy. Unfortunately the young people who bullied Frank found out about the abuse he had suffered and used it to taunt and bully him. Frank is also young carer, he and his siblings look after their mother 24/7 as she is disabled. Frank does not go to school. Prior to BB's intervention Frank's best friend is 9 years old and he had no other friends and he rarely spoke to adults.

On arrival at the workshops, Frank sat in a corner of the room, failed to maintain eye contact and was frightened of speaking to other young people.

Although Frank said absolutely nothing during the first workshop, he insisted afterwards that his mum called to ensure he could attend the next workshop and to clarify the date and time.

As staff worked with BB, Franks talents and confidence grew exponentially. He showed considerable talent for drama and began to direct other young people. This was a real break through as Frank usually spoke to no one.

Frank began to hold conversations with staff, other adults and other young people involved with BB. He also began to communicate to other students at his youth club (Southwark young carers). Soon Frank was presenting his work to the group and became an anti-bullying advocate. Prior to becoming involved with BB, Frank wasn't very interested in his young carers group all though he did attend. He had never gone on a club trip or participated in group outings. After much discussion with BB his mentor and his mum Frank went away for a week end trip with his carers group for the first time. He enjoyed it immensely. Frank wants to become a BB ambassador/mentor and "help others". Frank has been discussing the possibility of going back to school with BB staff, his parents and youth workers and as this report is being written he has decided to return to school and is awaiting the outcome from his chosen school.

142. Caroline Age 15 Living in Merton

Bio: Caroline was excluded from school because she was a bully and was bullied. According to Caroline she was excluded because she was too frightened to go to school. The bullying was emotional and physical and often about her appearance. She now attends a PRU.

Upon initially becoming involved with BB, Caroline would not engage at all, with staff or her peers. She had no eye contact with staff and resented having to attend.

The drama was the most effective way of working with Caroline; she was soon acting, writing play lets and appearing on camera for the educational video. Caroline has stayed involved and according to her teachers is considerably more confident since getting involved with BB. She is now going onto college.

143. Rakhesh Age 15 Living in Newham

Bio: Rakhesh was considered very shy by his teachers and parents and although not at risk of exclusion was withdrawn and introverted at school and made no real contribution to the pastoral or cultural life of the school. In summary Rakhesh is very bright but lacked confidence. Much of his low self-esteem is related to a series of mugging/bullying he has experienced by a group of young people at his school. For reasons perfectly rational to Rakhesh, he decided not to report the muggings.

Upon volunteering for BB, Rakhesh developed in the most extraordinary way. Considerable effort means that he has written anti-bullying scripts and plays for BB and his school. He leads at many of the workshops; he has been interviewed by BBC Asian Network twice about BB. The network was so impressed he is already scheduled in to be interviewed when BB launches their kid's web site. Rakhesh also volunteered to interview Joan Ruddock MP on camera for the educational web site. He is organising with BB workshops at his school and planning assemblies. According to Rakhesh his "main aim is to become a BB ambassador". As a result of his new confidence Rakhesh has just been asked to become a prefect at his school and wants to become a member of the youth parliament.

During the second month of Rakhesh attending the BB cycle, he was mugged by the same boys at his school. Empowered by the BB process and armed with the tools to cope with the incident, Rakhesh spoke to other young people who were also being mugged by this gang. Together they spoke to their teachers and reported the behaviour, consequently and to their credit the school has dealt with the issue promptly and fairly. Not only is Rakhesh not being mugged and bullied anymore, nor are his peers. According to Rakhesh he "gets BB, it's a group thing".

Note: Rakhesh's parents are so proud they bought him a new suit so he looks smart for his burgeoning media career!

144. Josh and Claire Age 14 and 15 Living in Croydon

Bios: Josh and Claire are "an item"; they have been for two years. Claire is bullied by the same group of girls every day of her life, at school, on the bus, in the park and "down the town". Luke is beaten up or harassed occasionally, mostly as he protects Claire. Claire is profoundly unhappy and frightened of her bullies she often contemplates suicide and has self-harmed. Despite all this she is doing OK at school. The thought of tackling her bullies was for Claire ridiculous.

When they together joined the BB programme, Claire especially was introverted and suspicious; she had heard it "all before". Over the months Claire and Josh have played a crucial role in developing the Croydon campaign, many of their ideas and art work have been used for the literature.

With a new found confidence, Claire is "ready" to become an advocate and will be leading with Josh in a few weeks when the campaign is rolled out to her school. Claire now ignores her bullies, reports them (even though she knows nothing will be done about it) and "holds her head up". Claire reports that her bullies are beginning to leave her alone.

145. Darren and Bobby Age 11 and 12 Living in Southwark.

Bios: Darren and Bobby are brothers. They were adopted after being sexually abused by their biological Father. Bobby is bullied because he is partially sighted, Darren because he has a growth disability. Both are at risk of exclusion as they have concentration and aggression problems. To add to the brothers issues concerning bullying, their brother Michael, is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after a particularly vicious bullying incident. Unfortunately Michael was recently sectioned, so the brothers are very fragile around the whole issue of bullying.

During the first session of the BB programme, each had different issues. Darren was hyper withdrawn and failed to communicate with anyone but his brother. Bobby has issues with self-control and inappropriate intervention with very loud and challenging behaviour.

As they are progressing through the programme both have excelled during the drama sessions, showing real talent and commitment. Darren is less withdrawn and beginning to make friends and very much more confident. Bobby is quiet and concentrates when he is invited to make a contribution and put his mind to something.

The brothers' mum is exceptionally pleased with their progress, according to mum they are measurably more confident, very committed to BB and are now using what they have learnt to look out for each other. They are talking about bullying as a family and trying as a family to come to terms with the issues facing their older brother Michael. Both importantly say they want to make a difference.

146. Fummi and Charity Age 15 and 16 Living in Lambeth

Bios: Fummi and Charity are sisters and asylum seekers. Both have experienced bullying since they arrived in the UK two years ago. In and out of school, they have suffered verbal, racist, cultural and physical bullying. They have also been systematically harassed about their sexuality as there community is culturally opposed to girls and boys mixing before the age of enfranchisement. The bullying culminated in bricks being thrown through their window at home.

Although mediation had taken place at the school they attend, according to Fummi and Charity this has not worked because they were never believed. Although BB have no independent verification of this, as with all young people who say they have been bullied we start by saying we believe them.

Unfortunately during the first month of the sister's involvement with BB, Fummi was excluded for violent behaviour. There is much debate about what actually led to Fummi's violent outburst. Fummi and her parents believe it was a final frustrated reaction to two years of bullying and her exclusion was profoundly unfair.

Following the incident, the school felt that Fummi could no longer attend the BB programme. BB disagreed and agreed that Fummi could remain a member of the panel.

Fummi feels that BB "are the only people to give her chance" and "the only people that believed her [and her sister]". This according to Fummi and Charity is the central problem with anti-bullying policies and programmes, so often young people are not believed.

Both sisters have continued to be very involved with BB, and both sit on the Web Site advisory committee. Unprompted sisters and some friends meet once a week to discuss the design of the BB kid's web site and are responsible for crucial decisions about the direction and content of the site.

Fummi is currently applying to go to college so she can take her GCSEs and A Levels she was unable to sit this year. BB will provide her with a reference.



© Parliamentary copyright 2007	Prepared 27 March 2007