Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, as part of Anti-Bullying Week, what steps they are taking (1) to collect, record and monitor data on reports of bullying in schools and subsequent responses, and (2) to improve the availability and quality of anti-bullying training and support for teachers

The department collects and monitors data on bullying of children and young people through robust national surveys such as the National Behaviour Survey, the Health Behaviours of School-aged Children Study and the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

Schools should develop their own approaches for monitoring bullying and exercise their own judgement as to what works best for their pupils. All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying. Schools have the freedom to develop their own anti-bullying strategies appropriate to their environment and are held to account by Ofsted.

Decisions relating to teachers’ professional development rests with schools, headteachers and teachers. They are in the best position to judge their requirements and access development.

The department published advice in 2017 to support schools with addressing incidences of bullying. The guidance is clear that schools should make appropriate provision for a bullied child's social, emotional and mental health needs. The guidance is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/625ee64cd3bf7f6004339db8/Preventing_and_tackling_bullying_advice.pdf.

In 2016, the department also published a practical tool to help schools, which can be found on the Educate Against Hate website, here: https://educateagainsthate.com/resources/respectful-school-communities-self-review-signposting-tool-2/.

The department is currently reviewing the impact of these previous programmes and considering next steps to tackle bullying in schools.