Bullying (School Transport)

Elizabeth Truss Excerpts

Tuesday 5th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Elizabeth Truss)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) on the powerful case she has made concerning bullying on school transport. Bullying in any form and for any reason is totally unacceptable and should never be tolerated. It can instil fear, damage self-esteem and reduce academic attainment. Sadly, it can lead to the most tragic consequences.

I am aware of the case of Ben Vodden—the son of my hon. Friend’s constituent, Mr Paul Vodden—who sadly took his own life following bullying on school transport. I very much admire the fact that, since the tragedy, Mr Vodden has devoted time and energy to looking into this issue with a view to ensuring that no other children and their families suffer in the same way. I know that bullying is very high on the list of parents’ concerns about education and children going to school.

I should like to set out the Government’s approach to tackling bullying in and around school. Children and young people can be bullied in and out of school, and on the way to and from school. To tackle bullying successfully, the whole community and all those who provide services that include children and young people need to work together to change the culture, so that all forms of bullying are unacceptable.

Being victimised restricts a group’s or child’s use of their area’s amenities, such as parks, playgrounds and leisure facilities, and can lead to one group gradually dominating a territory. For example, some children do not play outdoors because they are scared of being bullied. Whether children are in groups, clubs or residential care, on the streets, in parks, or using public or school transport, they should feel safe from victimisation and discrimination.

As my hon. Friend has pointed out, local authorities, local safeguarding children boards, the police, schools and parents all have a role to play by intervening to prevent and to respond to bullying. Local authorities have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children under the Children Act 2004, which includes tackling bullying. Authorities can develop their own approaches to tackling bullying, including by employing dedicated staff such as anti-bullying co-ordinators, or by commissioning support from the voluntary and community sector. It is important to recognise that different solutions may be appropriate in different locations, and that local authorities have a responsibility to deliver those solutions.

When contracting to provide school transport, local authorities can instruct companies to include anti-bullying procedures as part of their tenders. I strongly urge them to do so. No doubt they, like me, will be interested in Mr Vodden’s recommendations in developing their policies. Only by taking collective responsibility will we be able to eradicate poor behaviour in our schools and wider communities.

I recognise that the majority of pupils travel by public transport that is provided by private companies. It is for those companies to determine the training of their staff. Responsible providers of any service, whether a private company, a charity or the state, should take into account its interactions with young people and other vulnerable groups when developing safety policies, and they should act when they encounter bullying. Members of the public not directly involved with schools or services for children have a responsibility to play their part in keeping children safe and reporting poor behaviour, in the wider interests of the community. It is important that we all take responsibility for dealing with this scourge in our society.

Bullying is not a specific criminal offence in the UK, although in some circumstances it can constitute a criminal offence: for example, under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, the Malicious Communications Act 1998, the Communications Act 2003 and the Public Order Act 1986. The Home Office’s Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently working its way through Parliament, contains provisions allowing a range of bodies—including the police, local councils and other agencies—to apply for an injunction to prevent nuisance and annoyance in order to tackle antisocial behaviour. The injunction is designed to stop or prevent behaviour whereby someone has engaged, or threatens to engage, in conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to any person. Bullying is a behaviour that could fall into that category. The injunction could be used to stop emerging antisocial behaviour before it escalates, and to protect victims from bullying in and around schools and colleges and in the community, and from cyber-bullying. For example, the injunction could stop a perpetrator associating with the victim outside of school or college, or from entering named areas in the community.

Schools have a key part to play in preventing and tackling bullying. Behaviour and bullying are closely linked. All schools must have a behaviour policy, with measures to prevent bullying. It is up to them to develop their own strategies, but they are now clearly held to account for their effectiveness in doing so by Ofsted. The number of criteria in the Ofsted inspections framework has been reduced from 27 to four. Of the four that remain, one is behaviour and safety, which requires school inspectors to take into account bullying, harassment and discrimination. We have made that criterion a core part of the inspection regime.

To ensure that teachers have the powers they need to maintain discipline and enforce school rules, the Government have introduced a number of reforms, including stronger powers to search pupils, the removal of the requirement to give parents 24 hours’ written notice of after-school detentions, and a clarification of teachers’ power to use reasonable force. Schools that excel at tackling bullying have created an ethos of good behaviour where pupils treat one another, and school staff, with respect, because they know it is the right way to behave. The best schools develop a more sophisticated approach whereby school staff proactively gather intelligence on issues between pupils before they become a problem: they prevent bullying from occurring in the first place. That might involve talking to pupils about issues of perceived difference in lessons, in dedicated events or projects, and in assemblies.

My hon. Friend made a very good point about the transition from primary school to secondary school, not just with regard to academic attainment, but to confidence and how pupils fit into a new school. That needs to be explored. In general, we are concerned about that transition.

Successful schools involve parents to ensure that they are clear that the school does not tolerate bullying and that they are aware of the procedures to follow if they believe their child is being bullied. They involve pupils, so that pupils understand the school’s approach. They regularly evaluate and update their approach to take into account developments in technology—for example, the role of computers and social media. They implement disciplinary sanctions, so that the consequences of bullying reflect the serious nature of the incident, and they have open discussions about perceived differences before they become problematic. It is important that schools work with the wider community, including the police and children’s services.

We acknowledge that tackling bullying outside school is challenging, but we have been clear that teachers have the power to discipline pupils for poor behaviour, including bullying outside the school gates. Where bullying outside school is reported to school staff, it should be investigated and acted upon. If the misbehaviour could be criminal or poses a serious threat to a child or another member of the public, the police should be informed. The Department has issued advice to help schools prevent and tackle bulling, making it clear that teachers have the power to discipline pupils for bullying incidents on school and public transport and on the journey to and from school, when it is brought to their attention.

I agree completely with my hon. Friend about the excellent organisations working in this area, some of which the Department funds. We are providing four organisations with £4 million over two years from spring 2013. First, we are giving £800,000 to The Diana Award to identify and train 10,000 pupils as anti-bullying ambassadors. I recently met representatives from The Diana Award and year-11 student Henry Doran, an anti-bullying ambassador at the Magna Carta school in Surrey. I was incredibly impressed by what Henry told me about how they had created a much more positive culture within the school and how he enjoyed his role helping the other children. At a recent reception in Downing street celebrating that impressive programme, I was told about the smile and compliment days—I said I thought it would be good for us to have them in Westminster sometimes. It is a really good project. What is nice is that it accentuates the positive—it is the opposite of a bullying culture—creating a positive culture in which people compliment each other and focus on their similarities and strengths, rather than the issues dividing them. That is very good.

Secondly, we are giving just over £250,000 to Kidscape to work in nine of London’s most economically deprived boroughs to train primary school professionals to deliver preventive and remedial strategies. Thirdly, we are giving £1.5 million to Beatbullying to train 3,500 11 to 17-year-olds over two years. Fourthly, we are giving £1.5 million to the National Children’s Bureau consortium to focus on bullied children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities, working with 900 schools and with parents, carers and school staff to reduce the bullying of these children and the impact when it occurs.

As we have heard, bullying can blight the lives of young people and result in tragic consequences. We do not want other children and their families to suffer as Ben Vodden and his family have suffered. We all have a part to play in helping to prevent and tackle bullying wherever it occurs—whether in the school, the wider community or on school transport—to ensure that no children have to suffer mistreatment. My hon. Friend asked if I would meet her and Mr Vodden. I would be happy to do so in order better to understand the issues at a local authority level: what prevents local authorities from using their powers to make changes—she mentioned the survey—and how we can ensure that good programmes, such as the anti-bullying ambassador programme, become more widespread in our schools. That will help us to change the culture in our schools and create a positive environment where learning can take place.

Question put and agreed to.