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Written Question
Teachers: Safety
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that teachers are protected from physical harm by students at school.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

No teacher should feel unsafe or face violence or abuse in the workplace. The government is clear all school employers, including trusts, have a duty to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their employees. The government has taken decisive action to improve pupils’ behaviour to ensure all schools are calm, safe, and supportive environments where pupils and staff can work in safety and are respected.

The department supports head teachers in taking proportionate and measured steps to ensure good behaviour in schools. To support schools in doing so, the department has strengthened the behaviour in schools guidance, the primary source of help and support for schools on developing and implementing a behaviour policy that can create a school culture which has high expectations of all pupils. This guidance outlines effective strategies that will encourage good behaviour and the sanctions that will be imposed for misbehaviour. The government also backs head teachers to use exclusions when required, as a last resort. This includes using permanent exclusion when allowing the pupil to remain in school would seriously harm the education or welfare of the pupil or others in the school.

The government has no plans to introduce self-defence training for teachers. The National Professional Qualification (NPQ) in Leading Behaviour and Culture is relevant for teachers, leaders and non-teaching staff who want to develop their understanding of contemporary practice and research around promoting and supporting positive behaviour. £184 million has been invested into providing fully-funded NPQs for teaching staff across the country to deliver 150,000 NPQs up until the 2023/24 academic year.

The government is providing £10 million of funding for the Behaviour Hubs programmes to enable schools and multi-academy trusts with exemplary behaviour cultures and practices to work in partnership with those that want to improve their behaviour culture.


Written Question
Teachers: Self Defence
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will provide self defence training to secondary school teachers.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

No teacher should feel unsafe or face violence or abuse in the workplace. The government is clear all school employers, including trusts, have a duty to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their employees. The government has taken decisive action to improve pupils’ behaviour to ensure all schools are calm, safe, and supportive environments where pupils and staff can work in safety and are respected.

The department supports head teachers in taking proportionate and measured steps to ensure good behaviour in schools. To support schools in doing so, the department has strengthened the behaviour in schools guidance, the primary source of help and support for schools on developing and implementing a behaviour policy that can create a school culture which has high expectations of all pupils. This guidance outlines effective strategies that will encourage good behaviour and the sanctions that will be imposed for misbehaviour. The government also backs head teachers to use exclusions when required, as a last resort. This includes using permanent exclusion when allowing the pupil to remain in school would seriously harm the education or welfare of the pupil or others in the school.

The government has no plans to introduce self-defence training for teachers. The National Professional Qualification (NPQ) in Leading Behaviour and Culture is relevant for teachers, leaders and non-teaching staff who want to develop their understanding of contemporary practice and research around promoting and supporting positive behaviour. £184 million has been invested into providing fully-funded NPQs for teaching staff across the country to deliver 150,000 NPQs up until the 2023/24 academic year.

The government is providing £10 million of funding for the Behaviour Hubs programmes to enable schools and multi-academy trusts with exemplary behaviour cultures and practices to work in partnership with those that want to improve their behaviour culture.


Written Question
Schools: Mental Health Services
Wednesday 6th December 2023

Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of (a) mental health and (b) suicide prevention provision in secondary schools.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

​​Schools are best placed to decide what mental health and wellbeing support to offer to pupils. The department does not collect detailed data on suicide prevention provision in schools, but asks questions about schools’ perceptions of mental health support, as part of its regular omnibus surveys, the results of which are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-and-college-panel-omnibus-surveys-for-2022-to-2023.

​The department is supporting effective whole school approaches to mental health through our commitment to offer all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025. This includes training on how to make sure they are including processes for identifying individuals or groups who need additional mental health support. There are 14,400 settings that have claimed a grant up to 31 August 2023, including more than 7 in 10 state-funded secondary schools.

​To expand access to early mental health support, the department is continuing to roll out Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to schools and colleges. As of April 2023, MHSTs covered 47% of pupils in secondary schools in England. The department is extending coverage of MHSTs to an estimated 44% of pupils and learners in all schools and colleges by the end of this financial year and at least 50% by the end of March 2025.

​Suicide prevention is part of school and system wide approaches to mental health and wellbeing, where schools should promote good mental health in children, provide a supportive environment for those experiencing problems, and help secure access to more specialist help for those who need it.

​​Schools can teach older pupils about suicide in an age-appropriate and sensitive way. The Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide carefully and should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative, including websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide.

​​To support schools to deliver this content effectively, the department has produced teacher training modules. The mental wellbeing module contains key knowledge and facts to help teachers understand what they must teach, and is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-mental-wellbeing.

​​The department has started work on the review of the RSHE statutory guidance. Suicide prevention is one of the key subjects that the department will explore as a priority area, and it will work with a range of experts and those with lived experience to do this.

​​


Written Question
Schools: Bullying
Tuesday 28th November 2023

Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)

Question to the Department for Education:

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

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The government has sent a clear message to schools that bullying, for whatever reason, is unacceptable. Bullying can have a devastating effect on individuals, harm their education and have serious and lasting consequences for their mental health.

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 that are appropriate to their environment and are held to account by Ofsted.

The department is providing over £3 million of funding, between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024, to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes projects targeting bullying of particular groups, such as those who are victims of hate-related bullying and homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying.

In November 2018, the department published ‘Educate Against Hate’, 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. ‘Educate Against Hate’ is available at: https://www.educateagainsthate.com/school-leaders/?filter=guidance-and-training-school-leaders.

​The department is 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 (RSHE). These subjects are designed to give pupils the knowledge they need to lead happy, safe and healthy lives, as well as to foster respect for other people and for difference. RSHE also includes teaching about online safety and harms.


Written Question
Self-harm: Children
Thursday 13th July 2023

Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many pupils were involved in self-harm incidents in each of the two years (a) before and (b) after the introduction of relationships, sex and health education in schools.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The requested data is not available as health service datasets in England do not record whether a person is a school pupil.


Written Question
Pupils: Bullying
Thursday 6th July 2023

Asked by: Paul Bristow (Conservative - Peterborough)

Question to the Department for Education:

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

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

The department has sent a clear message to schools that bullying, including cyberbullying, for whatever reason, is unacceptable. It can have a devastating effect on individuals, harm their education, and have serious and lasting consequences for their mental health.

All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying. They have the freedom to develop their own anti-bullying strategies appropriate to their environment and are held to account by Ofsted.

We recognise that bullying of any kind can now just as easily occur online as face-to-face. Cyberbullying can be a means by which face-to face-bullying is extended beyond the school day and by which bullying can start online and follow the child into school.

The department is providing over £3 million of funding between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024 to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes projects targeting bullying of particular groups, such as those who are victims of hate related bullying and homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying.

In November 2018, the department 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. Respectful School Communities is available at: https://www.educateagainsthate.com/resources/respectful-school-communities-self-review-signposting-tool-2/.

​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 (RSHE). These subjects are designed to give pupils the knowledge they need to lead happy, safe, and healthy lives and to foster respect for other people and difference, and to include teaching about online safety and harms.


Written Question
Pupils: Bullying
Thursday 6th July 2023

Asked by: Paul Bristow (Conservative - Peterborough)

Question to the Department for Education:

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

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

The department has sent a clear message to schools that bullying, including cyberbullying, for whatever reason, is unacceptable. It can have a devastating effect on individuals, harm their education, and have serious and lasting consequences for their mental health.

All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying. They have the freedom to develop their own anti-bullying strategies appropriate to their environment and are held to account by Ofsted.

We recognise that bullying of any kind can now just as easily occur online as face-to-face. Cyberbullying can be a means by which face-to face-bullying is extended beyond the school day and by which bullying can start online and follow the child into school.

The department is providing over £3 million of funding between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024 to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes projects targeting bullying of particular groups, such as those who are victims of hate related bullying and homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying.

In November 2018, the department 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. Respectful School Communities is available at: https://www.educateagainsthate.com/resources/respectful-school-communities-self-review-signposting-tool-2/.

​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 (RSHE). These subjects are designed to give pupils the knowledge they need to lead happy, safe, and healthy lives and to foster respect for other people and difference, and to include teaching about online safety and harms.


Written Question
Pupils: Bullying and Suicide
Thursday 9th February 2023

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the extent of (a) bullying and (b) consequent suicide of pupils in schools.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

Every suicide is a tragedy. Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people, including suicide prevention, is a government priority. The department is committed to ensuring schools and colleges are safe, calm and supportive learning environments, where bullying is actively prevented. Schools and colleges should also promote mental wellbeing and provide early, targeted support to prevent the onset and progression of mental health problems.

It is important to recognise that suicide is complex and rarely due to one factor. However, there is strong evidence in the wider academic literature for a causal link between being a victim of bullying, and experiencing negative mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, self-harm, and psychotic experiences in both adolescence and throughout adult life. In February 2022, 15% of secondary pupils (years 7 to 13) self-reported that they had been bullied in the past 12 months.

The analysis of The National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) data on child deaths between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, for which the child death reviews have been completed, shows that of the 91 deaths categorised as ‘Suicide or deliberate self-inflicted harm’ (excluding substance misuse related deaths), at least 21 (23%) had experienced either face to face or cyber bullying.

The department’s ‘Behaviour in Schools’ Guidance states that all schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy which outlines measures to encourage good behaviour and prevent all forms of bullying amongst pupils. This should be communicated to all pupils, school staff and parents. The guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1101597/Behaviour_in_schools_guidance_sept_22.pdf.

The department is providing over £2 million of funding, between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2023, to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes projects targeting bullying of particular groups, such as those who are victims of hate-related bullying.


Written Question
Schools: Suicide
Wednesday 26th October 2022

Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making suicide prevention a compulsory part of the school curriculum.

Answered by Kelly Tolhurst

All pupils in schools are taught about mental health as part of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, which the department made mandatory in 2020 to ensure that all pupils are taught about important topics.

Schools can teach older pupils about suicide in an age-appropriate and sensitive way. The RSHE statutory guidance advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide carefully and should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative. This includes websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide. The guidance is clear that if teachers have concerns about a specific pupil in relation to self-harm or suicidal thoughts, they must follow safeguarding procedures immediately.


Written Question
Sex and Relationship Education: Suicide
Monday 24th October 2022

Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including suicide prevention in the statutory guidelines for the RSHE curriculum.

Answered by Kelly Tolhurst

Pupils in schools are taught about mental health as part of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, which was made mandatory in 2020 for all pupils.

Schools can teach older pupils about suicide in an age-appropriate and sensitive way. The RSHE statutory guidance advises that schools should approach teaching about self-harm and suicide cautiously. Schools should be aware of the risks to pupils from exposure to materials that are instructive rather than preventative, including websites or videos that provide instructions or methods of self-harm or suicide. If teachers have concerns about a specific pupil in relation to self-harm or suicidal thoughts, they must follow safeguarding procedures immediately.