Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the level of bullying towards neurodiverse students in schools in (a) Yeovil constituency, (b) Somerset, and (c) England.

The department is clear that schools must take a strong stand against all forms of bullying and should tackle bullying at the earliest opportunity to prevent it from escalating. All schools must have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying, including the bullying of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The department does not collect data on specific incidents of bullying in schools. We expect schools to develop their own approaches for monitoring bullying and exercise their own judgement as to what will work best for their pupils.

We monitor young people’s perceptions of bullying at a high level, through surveys, which indicate that a higher level of children and young people with SEND, including neurodivergence, report that they have been bullied, than children without SEND. The latest survey can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6628dd9bdb4b9f0448a7e584/National_behaviour_survey_academic_year_2022_to_2023.pdf.

​The department has published advice to support schools with addressing incidents of bullying, which can be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/625ee64cd3bf7f6004339db8/Preventing_and_tackling_bullying_advice.pdf, as well as a practical tool to help schools, which can be found on the Educate Against Hate website here: https://www.educateagainsthate.com/resources/respectful-school-communities-self-review-signposting-tool-2/.