Guidelines for Recording Bullying and Racist Incidents in Schools. February Hampshire Anti-Bullying Strategy Group Data Sub-group

Transcription

1 Hampshire IT Guidelines for Recording Bullying and Racist Incidents in Schools February 2010 Hampshire Anti-Bullying Strategy Group Data Sub-group Copyright of this material is held by Hampshire County Council. Schools and other educational institutions are permitted to use the documents for the purposes of anti- bullying policy review and development. Any person or organisation wishing to use the document for other purposes should seek consent from Hampshire County Council and acknowledge its use. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information included in this document is accurate as at the date of publication in March However, Hampshire County Council cannot guarantee its accuracy, nor can it accept liability in respect of the use of the material. This information is available in large print, Braille, audio tape or disk. Please contact the IT Help Desk. All enquiries or queries should be directed to the IT Help Desk: or Hampshire IT, Hampshire County Council Page 1 of 9

2 These guidelines have been developed by Hampshire Anti-bullying Strategy Group Data Sub-group to assist Hampshire schools in recording bullying and racist incidents in a consistent manner across the county. The guidelines consist of the following documents: Guidance notes for completing Hampshire Anti-bullying and Racist Incident Record - which contain guidance for recording either using a paper-based form or SIMS Hampshire Bullying and Racist Incident Record Form - a paper-based form which schools can use for recording incidents SIMS User Guide for Recording Bullying and Racist Incidents in Hampshire Schools - which contain additional guidance for recording incidents in SIMS, to be used alongside the guidance notes If you intend to record bullying and racist incidents on a paper form, please download/copy and use the Hampshire Bullying and Racist Incident Record Form and refer to the guidance in this document. If you intend to record bullying and racist incidents using SIMS, please refer to the guidance in this document and the SIMS User Guide for Recording Bullying and Racist Incidents in Hampshire Schools. The paper form has been designed to be compatible with recording in SIMS as on some occasions schools might wish to create a paper record first and transfer information to SIMS later. These guidelines have been written to be consistent with current Government guidance regarding antibullying work in schools (cf. the Safe to Learn suite of guidance, DFE, 2007). The Government is currently undertaking consultation regarding a statutory duty on schools to record and report bullying and racist incidents, and these guidelines will be revised in the light of any statutory guidance that results from this process. We would recommend this guidance to all schools and would ask for feedback concerning their usefulness. Chris Travell County Strategic Lead for Anti-bullying chris.travell@hants.gov.uk February Hampshire IT, Hampshire County Council Page 2 of 9

3 Guidance notes for completing Hampshire Bullying and Racist Incident Record With the introduction of the new Ofsted inspection framework (September 09), there are increased expectations for the inspection of safeguarding that have implications on school personnel and school leadership. Safeguarding outcomes for children and young people are that children and young people should feel safe and that schools should take steps to ensure that children and young people are safe. Safeguarding is not just about protecting children from deliberate harm, for the purposes of this guidance it also includes issues for schools such as: pupil health and safety bullying racist abuse harassment and discrimination internet safety issues which may be specific to a local area or population, e.g. gang culture school security Safeguarding practice and guidance is underpinned by a duty for schools to cooperate with relevant agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The protection of children is the highest priority for Ofsted across all its inspection remits and is therefore a limiting judgement. The need to keep up-to-date, accurate and comprehensive records of bullying incidents in school therefore falls into this category and should not be taken lightly. The Government has already stated it is good practice for schools to record incidents of bullying and report statistics to the Local Authority, and intends to produce relevant statutory guidance. In addition, schools already have a statutory responsibility to record and report racist incidents. This guidance is intended to facilitate efficient recording and reporting of both bullying and racist incidents. In line with this, the Hampshire Bullying and Racist Incident Record has been produced so that all schools in the county can record such incidents in a consistent way. The form has been designed to be compatible with SIMS, thereby allowing information recorded on the form to be subsequently entered and stored electronically, if desired. The following guidance notes explain the various sections of the record form. Before proceeding, it is necessary to decide who in your school will be responsible for completing the form. This decision should be made at the discretion of individual schools; however, as some of the content necessitates a degree of professional judgement, we would not normally expect this to be a purely administrative task. Good practice suggests that the school s Behaviour and Attendance lead/anti-bullying co-ordinator would be an appropriate candidate. Please also remember that any information recorded on this form (paper version or SIMS) is subject to both the Data Protection Act (1998) and the Freedom of Information Act (2000). The Data Protection Act provides confidentiality for the data subject and gives individuals the right to see the information recorded about them, correct any errors and add alternative views or conclusions. The Freedom of Information Act covers information of a non-personal nature, such as redacted (edited) copies of forms and analysed information from the forms. Schools might also wish to share the forms with other professionals if given consent by the parent/guardian of the child or if there are child protection /safeguarding concerns or they are needed for criminal investigations. It is therefore important to ensure that the information recorded is both accurate and appropriate for external viewing. 1. School detail: This section records general information about when the incident took place, and whether it relates to a bullying incident or a racial incident (or both). This classification should be overseen by senior management. The date of the record should be the date on which the form was completed, not necessarily the date of the incident Hampshire IT, Hampshire County Council Page 3 of 9

4 2. Incident section: 2.1 Type of incident: When completing this part of the form, you may find that more than one of the options could apply. If this is the case, please only select the option that best fits the situation. Please do not tick more than one option; there is space in the summary of incident section should you wish to elaborate on the nature of the incident in more detail. If none of the options apply, please select other and specify the nature of the incident in the summary of incident section. The following definitions may help you to decide which option best describes the incident that took place, and further information regarding specific types of bullying can be found in the DFE Safe to Learn suite of guidance. Related to race, religion or culture: This involves an incident that is racist or faith-based. The incident may for example, involve abuse directed at black and minority ethnic children, children of different faiths and traveller children. Related to Special Educational Needs (SEN) and disabilities: This involves an incident that is based on a child s Special Educational Needs or disability. Related to appearance or health conditions: This involves an incident on the basis of i) health or visible medical conditions, such as eczema, ii) perceived physical limitations, such as size and weight, or other body image issues, or iii) obvious signs of affluence/wealth (or lack of). Related to sexual orientation: This involves a homophobic incident; for example, abuse directed at children and young people who are gay or lesbian (or perceived to be). It is different to sexist or sexual bullying (see below). Related to home circumstances (e.g. young carers or looked-after children): This includes abuse directed at children who i) provide care to someone in their family with an illness, disability, mental health or substance-misuse problem, or ii) are looked after by the local authority. Some incidents at school may arise from trauma or instability at home related to issues of domestic violence or bereavement, or from the experience of being part of a refugee family. Siblings of vulnerable children may themselves be the subject of abuse by association. Such incidences also come under this category. Related to gender or gender identity (sexist, sexual or transphobic): Incidents that are sexist or sexual affect both genders, thus boys may be victims as well as girls and both sexes may be victims of their own sex. Such incidents may be characterised by name-calling, overt looks and comments about appearance, attractiveness and emerging puberty. In addition, uninvited touching, innuendos and propositions, pornographic imagery or graffiti may be used. Pupils identifying as transgender or experiencing gender dysphoria (feeling that they belong to another gender or do not conform with the gender role prescribed to them) can also be targeted. Other: If none of the above applies, please tick other and elaborate on the nature of the incident in the summary of incident section. 2.2 Method: The aim of this section is to record the method used. Some of the categories in this section come from the Racist Incident Recording Form and may therefore already be familiar to you. The reason for including these is to enable information about bullying and racist incidents to be recorded on the same form. When completing this part of the form, you may find that more than one of the options could apply. This is fine; please select all options that relate to the incident. Some of the options, such as verbal and physical, 2010 Hampshire IT, Hampshire County Council Page 4 of 9

5 are quite self-explanatory, but others are less obvious. The following definitions may be helpful when deciding which options apply: Cyberbullying: Cyberbullying relates to bullying via text message, telephone calls, instant-messenger services, social network sites, chat rooms, , and images or videos posted on the internet or spread via mobile phone. It can take the form of any of the previously discussed types of abuse, that is, technology can be used in incidents relating to race, religion, sexuality, disability, etc. Indirect: Indirect methods refer to actions designed to hurt others, but which do not involve physical or verbal aggression directly aimed at the intended target. Instead, less direct action may be used, such as those that are designed to damage a victim s social status or relationships with other people, e.g., through exclusion or rumour spreading. 2.3 Summary of incident: The aim of this section is to provide some context to the incident. The background information section should be used to provide any information about the build-up to the incident, for example, any precipitating factors. The nature of incident section should be used to provide more detail about the incident itself. The frequency and duration section should be used to record the number of times the behaviour has occurred previously. 3. Staff detail This section records information about the staff involved, and the date on which the incident was reported. 4. Pupil detail This section records information about all pupils involved in the incident. In addition to each pupil s name, gender and year group, the following information should be provided: Pupil involvement: Please state the role each pupil played in the incident, choosing from the following descriptions: Aggressor - a pupil who instigates the incident Target - a pupil who is targeted in the incident Participant - a pupil who actively encourages/supports the behaviour in some way Bystander - a pupil who observes the incident but does not intervene Witness - a pupil who take steps to intervene or report what they have seen Ethnicity: Please choose a letter from A to F which best describes the ethnicity of each pupil involved. The key at the bottom of the record form outlines which letters correspond with which ethnic category, and the following table provides more detail on each of these: Ethnic Origin It is important that all information should, where possible be gained from individuals self-definition. It is important that staff do not try to guess or decide themselves the answers, no matter how obvious they think the answers are. Everyone has the right to refuse to answer equality monitoring questions and a proportion of people almost certainly will. In these circumstances, this should be recorded as such, rather than categorised as other. A. White D. Black or Black British British Caribbean Irish African Any other White background (please specify) Any other Black background (please specify) B. Mixed White and Black Caribbean White and Black African White and Asian Any other mixed background (please specify) C. Asian or Asian British Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi Any other Asian background (please specify) E. Chinese or other ethnic group Chinese Any other (please specify) F. White Irish Traveller or Gypsy/Roma 2010 Hampshire IT, Hampshire County Council Page 5 of 9

6 Pupil s description of incident: The form allows each pupil involved to provide a description of the incident. Each description should be recorded on an individual pupil description of incident sheet and appended to the record form. Please indicate in the pupil description of incident box whether a pupil description of incident form has been attached. 5. Action agreed For each pupil, please describe the actions agreed by everyone involved (e.g. the pupil, their parents, staff), including any support that will be provided for the pupil, along with a subsequent review date. Following this review date, the outcome of the review will need to be added to the form. If you wish to share the information on this form with any other agency, please note here that consent has been gained for any pupils whose details will be shared. 6. Outcome satisfaction rating Please use this section to rate the outcome satisfaction for both the target of the incident and the person who reported the incident. 7. Additional information Please use this section to include any other relevant information not covered by other aspects of the form, including the outcome of any other reviews. Additional guidance and information concerning recording racist incidents on the Hampshire Bullying and Racist Incident Record Form Why do we have separate boxes for this? There are indeed similarities between racist incidents that involve bullying and other types of incidents but there are also some key differences. For example: Similarities Pupils who are targeted experience great distress. They may become fearful, depressed and lacking in self-confidence and their progress at school may be severely damaged. The distress is connected with feelings of being excluded and rejected. The distress is because a characteristic is picked out as a justification for the bullying that the person attacked can do nothing about their size, whether they wear glasses, the colour of their hair, the colour of their skin, their religious or cultural background. Since all kinds of bullying cause distress, all are wrong. Those who engage in bullying develop a false pride in their own superiority. Teachers and even parents are sometimes not aware of the miseries that are being inflicted, or of the cruelty that is being perpetrated. When dealing with incidents, staff must attend to (a) the needs, feelings and wishes of pupils who are attacked, (b) the needs, feelings and wishes of their parents and carers, (c) the children and young people principally responsible for the bullying, (d) any supporters they have and (e) any bystanders and witnesses. Differences Racism has a long history affecting millions of people and is a common feature in wider society. People are seriously harmed and injured by it, and sometimes even viciously attacked or murdered. Words such spotty, fatty and four eyes are seldom used by adults and seldom or never used by adults to justify offensive behaviour. Racist words and prejudices, however, are associated with discrimination in employment and the provision of services and with a range of criminal offences Hampshire IT, Hampshire County Council Page 6 of 9

7 The law of the land recognises the seriousness of racism by requiring that courts should impose higher sentences when an offence is aggravated by racist or religious hostility. The distinctive feature of a racist attack or insult is that a person is attacked not as an individual, as in most other offences, but as the representative of a family, community or group. Other members of the same group, family or community are in consequence made to feel threatened and intimidated as well. So it is not just the pupil who is attacked who feels unwelcome or marginalised. When they call me a Paki, explains nine-year-old Serena, it s not just me they're hurting, it s all my family and all other black people too. Racist words and behaviour are experienced as attacks on the values, loyalties and commitments central to a person's sense of identity and self-worth. Often, therefore, they hurt more deeply as well as more widely. They attack me for being an Arab, remarks Ahmed, but I'm an Arab because my father is an Arab, and I love my father. Do they think I should stop loving my father? I couldn't do that, ever. Racist attacks are committed not only against a community but also, in the eyes of offenders themselves, on behalf of a community offenders see themselves as representative of, and supported in their racism by, their friends, family and peer group, and they may well feel it is right and proper to take the law into their own hands. Quite apart from whether those responsible see themselves as representatives of their own community, taking the law into their own hands, this is how they may be seen by those at the receiving end. So a Traveller child, for example, may then fear and distrust all settled people, not just those who engage in bullying. In the case of racist bullying a single one-off incident may have precisely the same impact as a series of incidents over time. This is because it may be experienced by the person at the receiving end as part of a general pattern of racist hostility. It can in consequence be every bit as intimidating, rejecting and hurtful as a series of events over time. Where possible, it is important that pupils/students understand this distinction. What do we mean by racist incident? Adapting slightly a definition first formulated by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report recommended that a racist incident should be defined as follows: A racist incident is any incident, which is perceived to be racist by the victim, or any other person. This is the definition used by most Children Services and other agencies, public and private. There are three important points to stress about this definition. 1. It is for the purposes of initial recording. Just because an incident is alleged or perceived to be racist does not mean that it necessarily is racist, but it does mean that it must be recorded and that an investigation must be carried out. 2. Whether or not the offender intended their behaviour to be racist is irrelevant. Of course, when it comes to dealing with an incident, the offender s intentions are an important consideration, but at the stage of initial recording and investigating, the offender s attitudes, motivation and awareness are not the main issue. 3. A racist insult may refer to issues of culture or religion as well as to colour and appearance. Anti-muslim insults and name-calling, for example, should be seen as racist, and so should name-calling, which targets the Gypsy/Traveller community Hampshire IT, Hampshire County Council Page 7 of 9

8 Another, even fuller definition of racism in schools has been formulated by children and young people in a London authority. Racism is something someone does or says that offends someone else in connection with their colour, background, culture or religion. It is: when a person is teased or called names because of their culture or the colour of their skin, their religion, the country they come from, their language and the way they talk, the food they eat, clothes they wear or their background when people are stereotyped by their colour or religion when a person is rejected or excluded from a group because of their colour or religion when people make fun of a person s family when a person is treated unfairly because of their way of life. A more abstract definition of racist bullying, drawing together the definitions above of racism and bullying, is as follows: The term racist bullying refers to a range of hurtful behaviour, both physical and psychological, that makes a person feel unwelcome, marginalised, excluded, powerless or worthless because of their colour, ethnicity, culture, faith community, national origin or national status. Recording, monitoring and reporting All reported racist incidents should be recorded using the LA recommended form or SIMS module, including the outcome of the investigation. These need to be held separately as they are often required during an Ofsted inspection. Monitoring should take account of pupils involved, location, year groups etc. There will continue to be an annual LA collation of racist incident data from schools. This is on a calendar year basis in January, but is open to review. This requires basic data on numbers and types of incidents. Guidance on how to do this will be sent to schools in December. Features of good practice The school s policy is set within the framework of the UN Convention on the rights of the child. There is shared understanding amongst all staff - including support and administrative staff as well as teachers - of ways in which bullying based on background, colour, religion or heritage is both similar to and different from other kinds of bullying. There is the same shared understanding amongst pupils, parents and governors. There is a shared understanding on how this contributes to community cohesion. These shared understandings include acceptance and use of the definition of racist incident. There is a code of practice that clearly outlines specific procedures to be followed for recording and dealing with racist incidents, as with other kinds of abuse and bullying, on the school premises, and on journeys to and from school. The governors take seriously their responsibility to report regularly to the LEA the number and nature of racist incidents at their school, and they indicate in their reports how the incidents were dealt with. A user-friendly leaflet has been provided for pupils and their parents on what to do if they experience racism against them. Pupils are involved in mediating in disputes, and in making clear that racist remarks and behaviour are unacceptable. They support each other in being assertive, as distinct from aggressive or submissive, when incidents occur. All staff are vigilant with regard to behaviour amongst pupils, and ensures that they are as familiar as possible with pupils experiences of bullying and racist incidents. For example, pupils have opportunities to report racist incidents anonymously, if they wish Hampshire IT, Hampshire County Council Page 8 of 9

9 There are periodic surveys of pupils experiences and perceptions of racism, using questionnaires and discussion groups, and involving people from outside the school if appropriate. Staff accept that they have a responsibility to help ensure that play and leisure areas encourage and promote positive and co-operative behaviour amongst pupils. The general ethos of the school (displays, assemblies, some of the examples across the curriculum) reflects and affirms diversity of language, culture, religion and appearance. The school is involved from time-to-time in national projects such as Kick Racism Out Of Football, One World Week, Black History Month, Islamic Awareness Week and Refugee Week. There is coverage within the curriculum of interpersonal behaviour amongst pupils, including racist name-calling and bullying, and this is linked with wider issues of citizenship and participation in society. There is coverage within the curriculum of key concepts such as colour racism and cultural racism, and institutional and individual racism, and of measures and campaigns to build racial justice. Sources: DfES Aiming High: Understanding the Educational Needs of Minority Ethnic pupils in Mainly White Schools - May 04 - this is a compilation of guidance from a range of local authorities, including Cambridgeshire, Coventry, Derbyshire, Ealing, Lancashire, Leicester, and Windsor and Maidenhead. Racist Bullying 2006 Teachernet Previous Hampshire Guidance 2010 Hampshire IT, Hampshire County Council Page 9 of 9