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Policies for the Protection of Children
Regulation 34(3)
The Positive Relationships Standard
Regulation 11
This chapter was amended in May 2022 to reflect Keeping Children Safe in Education Statutory Guidance, the outcome of Ofsted’s thematic report, Review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges and the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. See Section 2, Definition of Bullying and Peer Abuse and Section 3, Responding to Bullying.
All children and young people in our care have a right to feel confident that the home will provide a safe and supportive environment. To this end, children’s home staff should take every step to make sure that individual children and young people are not subject to discrimination, marginalisation or bullying from their peers by virtue of their gender, religion, ethnicity, cultural and linguistic background, sexual identity, mental health, disability or for any other reason.
The registered person has a responsibility to ensure that procedures for dealing with allegations of bullying are in place and staff working in the home have the skills required to intervene, protect and address bullying behaviours effectively.
Bullying is defined in the Quality Standards as:
"behaviour by an individual or group, repeated over time, that intentionally hurts another individual or group either physically or emotionally. Bullying can be in many forms and...references to bullying cover bullying of any kind or description".
Peer abuse can include, but is not limited to, bullying (including cyberbullying), gender based violence/sexual assaults and sexting ( Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE)).
Bullying behaviour can take the following forms:
An Ofsted thematic review (Review of Sexual Abuse in Schools and Colleges (Ofsted)) identified substantial levels of sexual harassment for both girls (90%) and boys (nearly 50%) and that in a number of schools this went unreported as a result of the school's 'culture' – a part of which appeared to be that staff were not aware; did not countenance that this could happen, and because once it was discussed (the children) feared the process would be out of their control.
Sexual harassment and sexual violence exist on a continuum and may overlap. Where the latter occurs, there could be a criminal offence committed.
Bullying often starts with apparently trivial events such as teasing and name calling. Bullying is a type of behaviour which needs to be defined by the impact on the child being bullied rather than by the intention of the perpetrator.
The registered person must ensure that procedures for dealing with allegations of bullying are in place and that staff are able to recognise and address different types of abuse such as peer abuse, cyber-bullying and bullying in day to day relationships in the home.
Staff must be alert to the risk of bullying and should take all reasonable steps to prevent such behaviour. This includes:
Staff should respond promptly and effectively to issues of bullying. A part of this must be to recognise where an offence has taken place. Sexual assaults (including rape) are clear examples of this together with the fact that legally a 13 year old child cannot 'consent' to intercourse. Additionally, creating or sharing explicit images of a child is illegal, even if the person doing it is a child. A young person is breaking the law if they:
However, if a young person is found creating or sharing images, the police can choose to record that a crime has been committed but that taking formal action is not in the public interest.
With effect from 29 June 2021, section 69 Domestic Abuse Act 2021 expanded so-called 'revenge porn' to include threats to disclose private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress.
Everyone working in the home shares responsibility for countering bullying and for creating a culture which positively encourages acceptable behaviour and reduces or prevents the likelihood of bullying. Where children attend the same schools, staff should work together with educational establishments where bullying occurs between children they both have responsibility for.
The registered person must prepare and implement a policy for the prevention of bullying in the home; this must include the procedure for dealing with any allegations of bullying.
The Children's Guide should also contain information and advice on countering bullying.
As part of the placement planning process, the child’s social worker must ensure that a risk assessment is conducted to ascertain whether the child has bee bullied or is likely to engage in bullying behaviour.
If there is any risk, it should be addressed in the child's Placement Plan with details of the strategies that must be adopted to prevent or reduce the bullying or bullying behaviour.In order to maintain an effective strategy for dealing with bullying, traditional ideas about bullying should be challenged by everyone working in the home, e.g. by emphasising.
Clear messages must be given that bullying is not acceptable and children must be reassured that significant adults involved in their lives are dealing with bullying seriously. Some acts of bullying could be a criminal offence.
A climate of openness should be established in which children are not afraid to address issues and incidents of bullying. Children should feel able to approach any member of staff with any concerns.
Consideration should always be given to the existence of any underlying issues in relation to race, gender and sexual orientation. This should be addressed and challenged accordingly. Support should be offered to children for whom English is not their first language to communicate needs and concerns.
Where a child is thought to be exposed to bullying, action should be taken to assess the child’s needs and provide support services.
If the bullying involves a physical assault, as well as seeking medical attention where necessary, consideration should be given to whether there are any child protection or safeguarding issues to consider.
Creating an anti-bullying climate can be achieved by:
Staff in the home may have to deal with the perpetrators as well as the victims of bullying. It should be borne in mind that bullying behaviour may in itself be an indication of previous abuse or exposure to violence. The focus should be on the bullying behaviour rather than the child and, where possible, the reasons for the behaviour should be explored and dealt with. A clear explanation of the extent of the upset the bullying has caused should be given to the young person who perpetrated the bullying behaviour and they should be encouraged to see the bullied child’s points of view.
A restorative approach and the use of restorative enquiry and subsequent mediation between those involved can provide an opportunity to meet the needs of all concerned. The child who has been bullied has the chance to say how he or she has been affected. The opportunity is provided for the child doing the bullying to understand the impact of their actions and to make amends.
Both the child engaged in bullying behaviour and those who are the target of bullying should then be closely monitored. The times, places and circumstances in which the risk of bullying is greatest should be ascertained and action taken to reduce the risk of recurrence.
Whatever plan of action is implemented, it must be reviewed at regular intervals to ascertain whether interventions by staff have been successful.
Where bullying exists in the context of gang behaviour, there should be an institutional, as well as an individual, response to this.
Where bullying is not persistent or not serious it should be notified to the home’s manager at the first opportunity; the manager will decide whether to inform the child’s social worker and what further actions to take.
Serious or persistent bullying must be notified immediately to the home's manager and the relevant social worker notified within 1 working day. Consideration should be given as to whether a Child Protection Referral is required, if so, see Safeguarding Children and Young People and Referring Safeguarding Concerns Procedure.
All incidents must be recorded in the Home's Daily Log and the relevant child's Daily Record.
An Incident Report must also be completed (where it is possible the specific category of bullying e.g. verbal/physical/cyberbullying should be identified and highlighted in the incident report so that different incidents of bullying can be monitored as required).
The child's Placement Plan should be reviewed with a view to incorporating strategies to reduce or prevent future incidents.
See also: Advice for Parents and Carers on Cyberbullying (Department for Education, 2015).
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