My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords for their contributions to this debate and assure them that we take this matter very seriously. I thank in particular my noble friend Lady Brinton for bringing her experience and expertise to bear on these issues. I also thank my noble friend for meeting me recently and for helping me to better understand her very legitimate concerns about the impact bullying can have on the lives of children and young people. I know that she is aware that we share those concerns.
Although I am not persuaded that legislation is the right approach, those discussions have proved extremely useful in identifying gaps in our advice to schools and in helping us to understand how we can do more to address these important issues. As a direct result of the debates in this House and discussions outside it—with both my noble friend and other experts, notably the Anti-Bullying Alliance, which has always provided us with helpful and constructive input in the development of our approaches—we are committed to enhancing our advice to schools. I will say a bit more about precisely what we are doing in a moment.
The Government take a zero-tolerance approach to bullying and our advice to schools on this is clear and firm. I acknowledge that there is a place for legislation. All schools are required to have a behaviour policy which contains measures to tackle bullying, and we think that this approach is the right one. The noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, talked about these policies being on shelves but I do not think that, in the modern world, with the kind of pupils and inner-city issues that we have, any school can afford to have any of these policies on shelves. They are right at the forefront of practice and I know that bullying is something that all good schools take very seriously indeed. However, the national strategy that the amendment proposes could focus schools’ attention on complying with it as a tick-box exercise at the expense of allowing teachers
to exercise their professional judgment, creativity and energy to tackle bullying as it presents itself in their particular school.
We had a question earlier today about Islamophobic bullying. Shortly after 9/11, outside Pimlico Academy in Lupus Street, which my wife and I sponsor, there was a fight between 200 non-Muslim and 200 Muslim pupils who just went at each other. It was basically a riot. There were police on horseback and ambulances. It was quite dreadful. Such issues are not easily sorted out by dusting bits of paper off shelves. I am not saying that having a strategy is not important, but that school has worked hard over a long period and I am pleased to say that racism there is a thing of the past. This is essential to all good schools.
However, it is important that schools are held to account for their effectiveness in tackling behaviour and bullying. That is why we reduced the reporting requirements for school inspections in 2011 to focus on the core business of a school: four core areas, of which one is behaviour and safety, instead of the previous 27. In setting out how inspectors should judge this, Ofsted’s inspection handbook includes explicit reference to considering types, rates and patterns of bullying. The noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, also referred earlier to friendship groups. School inspectors must consider how schools prevent and tackle bullying, and where necessary prompt schools to improve. This approach encourages schools really to focus on behaviour and bullying.
I know that concerns were raised in Committee that inspectors do not always see schools as they really are. Since the first Ofsted inspections in 1992, there has been a steady journey towards unannounced visits. Initially schools received more than a year’s notice of inspectors turning up. Over time, this shifted to eight weeks, and from 2005 to around two days. Under this Government, this has been reduced to almost no notice, with inspectors calling head teachers the afternoon before an inspection takes place. In December, launching his annual report, the chief inspector announced that where there were concerns about pupils’ behaviour, including bullying, schools could be subject to visits with no notice at all. I believe that these measures ensure that inspectors see schools as they really are; we no longer hear stories of pupils being sent to the ice rink for the day or asked to stay at home.
Our approach and strategy provide the right balance between requirements in law, flexibility for schools and strict accountability. My noble friend also proposed that a comprehensive definition of bullying be developed. We agree that there is a need to provide clarity for schools, but this is best done through advice rather than legislation. I know that noble Lords expressed concerns in Committee that the advice that we currently outline to schools does not include a reference to the imbalance of power present in many instances of bullying. I confirm that we are working closely with the anti-bullying organisations, and can reassure my noble friend and other noble Lords that we will incorporate an appropriate reference to the imbalance of power in our advice to schools.
In the light of previous debates in this House and subsequent discussions, we have identified how our advice could be further enhanced to address the concerns
raised. We are creating an online fact sheet to inform schools about how they can support bullied children. This will include all the relevant information about and links to what steps can be taken to support children who are severely affected by bullying. It will incorporate information about in-school provision, SEN support and alternative provision for children severely affected by bullying. I hope that practical steps such as this will be welcomed.
I hope that noble Lords will recognise that the Government have done a great deal to address the issues around bullying, but we can go further—by acknowledging more explicitly, for example, that severe bullying can have a clear impact on a child or young person’s mental health. Therefore, I am happy to confirm to my noble friend that we will make it clearer in Special Education Needs: Code of Practice, which is a critical document for schools and other bodies, that bullying is one thing that might lead to a child or young person having special educational needs and that, where it does so, schools must take appropriate action. This can involve support from external agencies, if needed, whether or not a child has an education, health and care plan. In addition, we will make appropriate cross-references between the bullying guidance and the SEN code of practice to ensure that schools are clear about this point.
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My noble friend spoke about children having depression caused by bullying. I believe that children suffering depression will be covered in the health conditions guidance. I shall take this matter away to make sure that that is clear.
In Committee, I highlighted local authorities’ existing duty to arrange suitable education for children of compulsory school age who would not otherwise receive it. I want to reinforce the point that this duty applies to children who are not receiving education for any reason, including as a result of bullying. This existing duty does not require a certain threshold of absence before it is triggered and so does not require a child to miss school for three months, as the amendment would require. Indeed, all schools are already required by law to inform their local authority at agreed regular intervals of the name and address of pupils who have irregular attendance, or who have been absent from school without authorisation for 10 school days or more. We would expect a local authority to take action as soon as it became aware that a child was missing education, whether or not the child was on the roll of a school. Ultimately, the department could intervene if a local authority failed to discharge its duty or did so unreasonably.
Local authorities also have existing duties to support young people to access post-16 education and training. Again, these duties would apply in respect of bullied children, but they are not prescriptive about the barriers to participation that a young person is facing.
The amendment put forward by my noble friend would also require schools to provide Ofsted with an education plan for bullied children who are unable to attend school. Since September 2012, Ofsted has placed much greater focus on the use of alternative provision
for individual pupils. Evidence gathered on how a school is meeting the needs of such pupils through any provision outside the school will feed into relevant judgments about the effectiveness of the school.
I am grateful to my noble friend for her suggestion that we insert actual violence into the definition. I shall take this suggestion away and ask officials to consider how we might reflect this after further discussions with the Anti-Bullying Alliance, which are ongoing.
The noble Baroness, Lady Howe, spoke about good practice. ChildLine has made quite encouraging comments recently about practice in schools. The noble Baroness mentioned mentors. I know that many schools have a practice for when a child has absented themselves, bringing them gradually back into school and integrating them slowly. My noble friend Lady Brinton was right to point out that there are some children for whom that is not practicable and she asked about new provision. We welcome new applications for free schools for bullied children, but they will have to demonstrate the capacity to expand, the effectiveness of their provision, value for money and demand from local authorities.
I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Storey for commenting that bullying is sometimes a cry for help. This is one of the reasons why we do not wish to criminalise it any more than it may be already.
As I said earlier, I do not believe that legislation will effectively address the legitimate concerns that underpin this amendment. However, I am grateful to my noble friend, Lady Brinton, for bringing her expertise to this debate and helping us to articulate and improve our approach to supporting children affected by bullying. I hope that my noble friend recognises that I have sought to address her concerns through developing and enhancing our advice to schools. I therefore urge her to withdraw her amendment.