Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to tackle bullying in schools.

The government has sent a clear message that bullying should never be tolerated and we are committed to supporting schools to tackle it. All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy, with measures to prevent all forms of bullying, and have the freedom to develop their own anti-bulling strategies and monitoring approaches, to best suit their environment.

The department provides advice for schools, which outlines schools’ responsibilities. The advice makes clear that schools should make appropriate provision for a bullied child's social, emotional, and mental health needs. It is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying.

Where bullying is reported to the school, it is important that school staff take prompt action to support the bullied pupil and prevent the bullying from happening again. On 7 June, we announced more than £750,000 for the Diana Award, the Anti-Bullying Alliance and the Anne Frank Trust in order to help hundreds of schools and colleges build relationships between pupils, boost their resilience, and continue to tackle bullying both in person and online. Further information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/extra-mental-health-support-for-pupils-and-teachers.

We are also making sure that all children in England will learn about respectful relationships, in person and online, as part of new mandatory Relationships, Sex and Health Education. This includes content on the different types of bullying, the impact it has, the responsibility of bystanders, and how to get help.

In our drive to tackle behaviour issues and bullying, we have strengthened teachers' power to enforce discipline and promote good behaviour. This includes giving teachers powers to discipline pupils for poor behaviour which takes place outside of the school gates, and extending their searching powers so they can search for, and in certain circumstances delete, inappropriate images (or files) on electronic devices, including mobile phones.

We are investing £10 million through behaviour hubs. Schools with exemplary positive behaviour cultures can work closely with schools that want to turn around their behaviour, alongside a central offer of support and a taskforce of advisers. The aim is to improve their culture and spread good practice across the country. The first hubs are planned to launch in Spring 2021 and will run for an initial period of 3 years.

The hubs programme builds on Tom Bennett’s independent review of behaviour in schools, Creating a Culture: how school leaders can optimise behaviour (2017). In November 2018 we published Respectful School Communities, a self-review and signposting tool to support schools to develop a whole-school approach which promotes respect and discipline. This can combat bullying, harassment and prejudice of any kind, including sexual bullying and sexual harassment. It will help schools to identify the various elements that make up a whole school approach, consider gaps in their current practice and get further support.