Preventing Bullying

Module 4 – Preventing Bullying Behaviour

This module covers what you can do to prevent bullying behaviour in your organisation.

Taking steps to prevent bullying and challenging unacceptable behaviour when it does occur improves the
confidence and wellbeing of all children and young people; it also provides guidelines and controls for those
whose behaviour is a concern.

One of the key measures to prevent bullying behaviour is an anti-bullying policy that is understood and
adhered to by staff, volunteers, parents and guardians (where applicable) and children and young people.

Your Anti-Bullying Policy

All organisations that provide a service to children and young people should have policies in place to deal
with bullying and poor behaviour which are clear to everyone so that, when incidents do occur, they are
dealt with quickly.

In the UK schools must, by law, have a policy to prevent all forms of bullying amongst pupils because it:

• improves the safety, happiness, performance and attendance of pupils

• shows the school cares, and
• makes it clear that bullying behaviour is unacceptable.

An effective anti-bullying policy acts on two levels.

1. Preventative

• Raises awareness.
• Publicly acknowledges.
• Creates and supports a culture of care and consideration.

2. Reactive (challenges and stops any incidents of bullying)

• Sets out clear procedures.

• Ensures all members of the organisation and its communities are aware of the procedures involved.
• Has built-in monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure the policy is consistently applied.

The information in this course was current in June 2017.

Whilst EduCare Learning Ltd. have made every effort to ensure that the courses and their content have been devised and written by leading experts who have ensured that they reflect best practice
in all aspects, EduCare Learning Ltd. exclude their liability of the consequences of any errors, omission or incorrect statements to the fullest extent permitted by law and EduCare Learning Ltd. make
no warranty or representation as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any statements or other content in the course.

No part of this material may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system
without permission in writing by EduCare Learning Ltd.
Steps to help you develop a new policy or revise an existing one.

1. Assign the role to a senior member of staff.

2. Assess your organisation’s needs and goals.
3. Develop the anti-bullying policy and get feedback.

1. Assign the role

Ensure a named member of staff has responsibility for co-ordinating the work towards producing the policy.
Ideally this should be a senior member of staff that has an ongoing role as the anti-bullying lead. You may
also want to appoint a member of the board to lead on anti-bullying.

2. Assess your organisation’s needs and goals

Consult regularly to measure levels of bullying behaviour, how safe people feel in your community, and
whether there is further action you can take. You may want to develop different questionnaires for different
stakeholders, hold focus groups or encourage anonymous feedback. Query potential trouble spots and
times (eg at the beginning or end of the day or after your setting’s activities), as well as the recipients’
suggestions of what would work to prevent it occurring.

The completed questionnaires should provide a clear analysis of what needs to happen in your
organisation. The issues highlighted and potential solutions should be used to inform the content and
construction of the policy, as well as its overall goals.

3. Develop the anti-bullying policy and get feedback

The anti-bullying co-ordinator should put together a team of people that represent the interests of the whole
organisation. In order to have the greatest chance of success, children and young people must play a
leading role in developing the policy to ensure they feel ownership of it. Use the team to review the current
policy or the one you have developed using the questionnaires and ensure the whole organisation has
input and an opportunity to offer their perspective. Amend your existing policy or the draft of a new one
taking all the feedback into account.

The information in this course was current in June 2017.

Whilst EduCare Learning Ltd. have made every effort to ensure that the courses and their content have been devised and written by leading experts who have ensured that they reflect best practice
in all aspects, EduCare Learning Ltd. exclude their liability of the consequences of any errors, omission or incorrect statements to the fullest extent permitted by law and EduCare Learning Ltd. make
no warranty or representation as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any statements or other content in the course.

No part of this material may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system
without permission in writing by EduCare Learning Ltd.
Practical suggestions

• Re-phrase negative instructions in positive terms (i.e. avoid using ‘don’t’).

• Ensure current advice on cyberbullying is included
• Reference bullying outside of premises and hours.
• Re-evaluate your record-keeping procedures and remember to choose a format that can be used by
the whole organisation.
• Look at strategies that are currently in place to empower children; for example, peer group
mentoring, buddy schemes etc.
• Make it easy for children to report bullying so that they are assured that they will be listened to and
incidents acted on. Children should feel that they can report bullying which may have occurred
outside your setting, including cyberbullying.
• Consider any training required.
• Identify potential problem areas around the building, e.g. changing rooms, toilets, bike sheds,
stairwells and arrange close monitoring of these areas.
• Consider positive changes that can be made, e.g. staff training, more and better supervision, re-
organisation of activities so that they are staggered.
• Set up a whole organisation project to launch the policy, e.g. develop events and activities such as
an annual Anti-Bullying Week or create a “Kindness Week”.
• Review your policy and procedures for dealing with complaints against staff.

Aims to achieve

• State the immediate and longer term aims and objectives of the policy, along with agreed
review processes.
• Make sure there is a clear and agreed definition of bullying that is accessible to all regardless of
development stage or age, giving examples that are relevant to your organisation.
• Make a clear statement that the policy applies to the whole organisation.
• Provide a clear and detailed guide on how bullying will be dealt with by your organisation. Ensure
that rewards and sanctions are properly understood by everyone in the organisation and as part of
this, state clearly that “bystander apathy” is totally unacceptable and will be sanctioned accordingly.
• Develop strategies to encourage children and young people (and other stakeholders) to report
incidents of bullying.
• Develop and agree a consistent way of dealing with complaints without the necessity of making the
vulnerable target confront the bullies.
• Find ways of disseminating information to relevant staff without breaching the trust/confidentiality of
the person who has been bullied.
• Ensure that children are fully involved in the implementation, operation, monitoring and evaluation of
the policy.

The information in this course was current in June 2017.

Whilst EduCare Learning Ltd. have made every effort to ensure that the courses and their content have been devised and written by leading experts who have ensured that they reflect best practice
in all aspects, EduCare Learning Ltd. exclude their liability of the consequences of any errors, omission or incorrect statements to the fullest extent permitted by law and EduCare Learning Ltd. make
no warranty or representation as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any statements or other content in the course.

No part of this material may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system
without permission in writing by EduCare Learning Ltd.
Provide training and support for all staff

An anti-bullying policy will only be effective if all staff and volunteers receive adequate training to enable
them to apply it fairly, consistently and responsibly. This should be in the form of initial training when the
policy is launched with top up training at regular intervals to take account of ongoing cycles of evaluation
and review. When new members join the organisation, full training on the use of the policy must be a key
feature of their induction.

Your individual responsibilities

As an individual there is a lot you can do to contribute to the development of a caring, respectful ethos in
your organisation.

• Supervise carefully.
• Help children to become more assertive.
• Be an effective role model.

Supervise carefully

Whenever you are working with children and young people you are on duty and are fully responsible for
supervising them. This means being aware, noticing children’s behaviour and walking around – bullying is
far more likely to occur in secluded places where staff don’t generally go.

As you supervise, ask yourself if there are:

• children who are alone

• children who seem to be at the centre of a group of others
• children who seem upset or distressed.

Also listen to how the children interact with each other.

• Are they respectful to one another?

• Are they teasing in a way that may be hurtful?
• Are there physical games that children may have been coerced into joining?

If you do see or hear anything that causes you concern, intervene immediately and ask questions to satisfy
yourself that it is not bullying. If you are still concerned, tell them why and that you will be taking further
advice and may need to report it as a bullying incident. Speak privately to the child or children who may be
being bullied and ask them about the situation.

If they reassure you they are not being bullied, maintain a watchful eye on them. If they disclose that they
are being bullied, report the situation immediately according to the procedures in your organisation’s policy.

The information in this course was current in June 2017.

Whilst EduCare Learning Ltd. have made every effort to ensure that the courses and their content have been devised and written by leading experts who have ensured that they reflect best practice
in all aspects, EduCare Learning Ltd. exclude their liability of the consequences of any errors, omission or incorrect statements to the fullest extent permitted by law and EduCare Learning Ltd. make
no warranty or representation as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any statements or other content in the course.

No part of this material may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system
without permission in writing by EduCare Learning Ltd.
Help children to be more assertive

Help children to acquire the confidence and assertiveness skills that will protect them from bullying
behaviour. Confident children are less likely to tolerate bullying and more likely to have the courage and
inner-strength to respond effectively. Children who are assertive know how to respond to a bully in
effective, non-aggressive ways, they are less likely to be targeted by bullies in the first place, and they are
also less likely to bully others to get their way.

Be an effective role model

Children learn how to behave by watching and emulating the adults in their lives. Reflect on how you solve
problems, discipline, control your own anger and disappointment, and stand up for yourself and others
without fighting. If children observe you acting or talking aggressively, they are more likely to show
aggression towards others.

In summary

This concludes your course on ‘Preventing Bullying’. This module has considered what your organisation
and you personally can do to prevent bullying behaviour and stop it when it occurs. We trust you have
found the course helpful and can apply the content in your day-to-day practice.

The information in this course was current in June 2017.

Whilst EduCare Learning Ltd. have made every effort to ensure that the courses and their content have been devised and written by leading experts who have ensured that they reflect best practice
in all aspects, EduCare Learning Ltd. exclude their liability of the consequences of any errors, omission or incorrect statements to the fullest extent permitted by law and EduCare Learning Ltd. make
no warranty or representation as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any statements or other content in the course.

No part of this material may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system
without permission in writing by EduCare Learning Ltd.