Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the prevalence of racist harassment and bullying in schools.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Racism in all its forms is abhorrent and has no place in our society. Schools play a crucial role in helping young people understand the world around them and their place within it. All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying and they have the freedom to develop their own anti-bulling strategies and monitoring approaches to best suit their environment.
Our guidance on preventing and tackling bullying (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying) sets out that schools should develop a consistent approach to monitoring bullying incidents and evaluating the effectiveness of their approaches. It also directs schools to organisations who can provide support with tackling bullying related to race, religion and nationality.
The department asks teachers about the prevalence of different types of bullying in its regular school snapshot surveys. The latest survey is from July 2019: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-snapshot-survey-summer-2019. This survey suggests that, over the previous 12 months, 56% of school leaders and teachers had ‘never’ or ‘rarely’ seen any of the types of bullying mentioned. 18% reported seeing bullying linked to race and ethnicity ‘sometimes’ or more often.
On 7 June, we announced more than £750,000 for the Diana Award, the Anti-Bullying Alliance and the Anne Frank Trust in order to help hundreds of schools and colleges build relationships between pupils and to increase their resilience as well as to continue to tackle bullying both in person and online (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/extra-mental-health-support-for-pupils-and-teachers). The department has also made resources available through the website Educate Against Hate (https://educateagainsthate.com/). This website provides teachers, school leaders and parents with the information, guidance and support that they need to challenge radical views, including racist and discriminatory beliefs.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance his Department provides to schools on handling (i) incidents and (ii) sustained cases of (a) racist, (b) xenophobic, (c) Islamophobic and (d) antisemitic bullying.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The government is clear that all bullying is unacceptable and should be tackled by schools. The department issues guidance to schools on how to prevent and respond to bullying as part of their statutory behaviour policy.
It sets out that bullying is behaviour by an individual or group, repeated over time, that intentionally hurts another individual or group either physically or emotionally. The guidance is clear that some types of harassing or threatening behaviour – or communications – could be a criminal offence. It sets out that if school staff feel that, during an incident, an offence may have been committed they should seek assistance from the police.
The guidance also directs schools to organisations who can provide support with tackling bullying related to race, religion and nationality. The guidance is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying.
On 7 June, we announced more than £750,000 for the Diana Award, the Anti-Bullying Alliance and the Anne Frank Trust. This is to help hundreds of schools and colleges build relationships between pupils, boost their resilience, and continue to tackle bullying both in person and online. More information is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/extra-mental-health-support-for-pupils-and-teachers.
The department has also made resources available through the Educate Against Hate website. This website provides teachers, school leaders and parents with the information, guidance and support they need to challenge radical views, including racist and discriminatory beliefs. The website is available here:
https://educateagainsthate.com/.
In November 2018 we 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 and is available here:
https://educateagainsthate.com/school-leaders/?filter=guidance-and-training-school-leaders.
From September 2020, relationships education will be compulsory for all primary aged pupils, relationships and sex education will be compulsory for all secondary aged pupils and health education will be compulsory in all state-funded schools in England. Under the content for respectful relationships, the guidance sets out that pupils should know about the different types of bullying, the impact it has, the responsibility of bystanders and how to get help, and it is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education/.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the KiVa anti-bullying programme on tackling (a) bullying and (b) racist bullying.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We have not made an assessment of the KiVa anti-bullying programme. All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying. They also have the freedom to develop their own anti-bullying strategies and monitoring approaches to best suit their environment.
Our Preventing and Tackling Bullying guidance sets out that schools should develop a consistent approach to monitoring bullying incidents and evaluating the effectiveness of their approaches. It also directs schools to organisations who can provide support with tackling bullying related to race, religion and nationality. The guidance is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying.
On 7 June, we announced more than £750,000 for the Diana Award, the Anti-Bullying Alliance and the Anne Frank Trust – to help hundreds of schools and colleges build relationships between pupils, boost their resilience, and continue to tackle bullying both in person and online. More information is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/extra-mental-health-support-for-pupils-and-teachers.
The department has also made resources available through the Educate Against Hate website. This website provides teachers, school leaders and parents with the information, guidance and support they need to challenge radical views, including racist and discriminatory beliefs, and is available here:
https://educateagainsthate.com/.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of a potential correlation between (a) reductions in real-terms school budgets, (b) shortages of teaching assistants and (c) pastoral staff and schools' ability to tackle incidents of bullying.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has no plans to require schools to report centrally on incidents of bullying, but the Department included questions in its School Snapshot survey in winter 2017 to obtain information on different types of bullying. The results can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-snapshot-survey-winter-2017.
Similar questions have been included in the summer 2019 survey. The results of this survey will be published next year.
The Government has sent a clear message to schools that all bullying, for whatever reason, is unacceptable. The public sector Equality Duty means that schools must have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and to foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not.
The Department has issued guidance to schools about how to prevent and respond to bullying as part of their overall behaviour policy. It has also published the Respectful Schools Communities tool to support schools to develop a whole school approach which promotes respect amongst all pupils and signposts further sources of advice.
This will be supported by the introduction of compulsory relationships education in all primary and secondary state-funded schools. Statutory guidance for schools sets out that pupils should be taught about different types of bullying, the impact of bullying and how to get help. We are committed to ensuring schools are supported and ready to teach these new subjects to high quality and have announced a budget of £6 million in 2019-20 financial year to develop a programme of support for schools. The Department is establishing an early adopter school programme to support early teaching of the new requirements. It is also working with early adopter schools to support the design of the training programme and to refine supplementary guidance to ensure that the teaching of the subjects is as effective as possible.
The Department is also providing over £2.8 million of funding between September 2016 and March 2020 to four anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes the Anne Frank Trust who have developed the Free to Be debate programme, which encourages pupils to think about the importance of tackling prejudice, discrimination and bullying. It also includes the Anti-Bullying Alliance, whose programme has a particular focus on reducing bullying of those with special educational needs and disabilities. Between 2016-2019 the Government Equalities Office provided £3 million of funding to prevent and tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools. In the LGBT Action Plan published last year, it committed £1million to continue the programme until 2020.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the higher rates of bullying in schools experienced by (a) LGBTQ and (b) ethnic minority pupils.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has no plans to require schools to report centrally on incidents of bullying, but the Department included questions in its School Snapshot survey in winter 2017 to obtain information on different types of bullying. The results can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-snapshot-survey-winter-2017.
Similar questions have been included in the summer 2019 survey. The results of this survey will be published next year.
The Government has sent a clear message to schools that all bullying, for whatever reason, is unacceptable. The public sector Equality Duty means that schools must have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and to foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not.
The Department has issued guidance to schools about how to prevent and respond to bullying as part of their overall behaviour policy. It has also published the Respectful Schools Communities tool to support schools to develop a whole school approach which promotes respect amongst all pupils and signposts further sources of advice.
This will be supported by the introduction of compulsory relationships education in all primary and secondary state-funded schools. Statutory guidance for schools sets out that pupils should be taught about different types of bullying, the impact of bullying and how to get help. We are committed to ensuring schools are supported and ready to teach these new subjects to high quality and have announced a budget of £6 million in 2019-20 financial year to develop a programme of support for schools. The Department is establishing an early adopter school programme to support early teaching of the new requirements. It is also working with early adopter schools to support the design of the training programme and to refine supplementary guidance to ensure that the teaching of the subjects is as effective as possible.
The Department is also providing over £2.8 million of funding between September 2016 and March 2020 to four anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes the Anne Frank Trust who have developed the Free to Be debate programme, which encourages pupils to think about the importance of tackling prejudice, discrimination and bullying. It also includes the Anti-Bullying Alliance, whose programme has a particular focus on reducing bullying of those with special educational needs and disabilities. Between 2016-2019 the Government Equalities Office provided £3 million of funding to prevent and tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools. In the LGBT Action Plan published last year, it committed £1million to continue the programme until 2020.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of reductions in real-term school budgets on schools' ability to support SEND pupils at risk of bullying.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has no plans to require schools to report centrally on incidents of bullying, but the Department included questions in its School Snapshot survey in winter 2017 to obtain information on different types of bullying. The results can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-snapshot-survey-winter-2017.
Similar questions have been included in the summer 2019 survey. The results of this survey will be published next year.
The Government has sent a clear message to schools that all bullying, for whatever reason, is unacceptable. The public sector Equality Duty means that schools must have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and to foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not.
The Department has issued guidance to schools about how to prevent and respond to bullying as part of their overall behaviour policy. It has also published the Respectful Schools Communities tool to support schools to develop a whole school approach which promotes respect amongst all pupils and signposts further sources of advice.
This will be supported by the introduction of compulsory relationships education in all primary and secondary state-funded schools. Statutory guidance for schools sets out that pupils should be taught about different types of bullying, the impact of bullying and how to get help. We are committed to ensuring schools are supported and ready to teach these new subjects to high quality and have announced a budget of £6 million in 2019-20 financial year to develop a programme of support for schools. The Department is establishing an early adopter school programme to support early teaching of the new requirements. It is also working with early adopter schools to support the design of the training programme and to refine supplementary guidance to ensure that the teaching of the subjects is as effective as possible.
The Department is also providing over £2.8 million of funding between September 2016 and March 2020 to four anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes the Anne Frank Trust who have developed the Free to Be debate programme, which encourages pupils to think about the importance of tackling prejudice, discrimination and bullying. It also includes the Anti-Bullying Alliance, whose programme has a particular focus on reducing bullying of those with special educational needs and disabilities. Between 2016-2019 the Government Equalities Office provided £3 million of funding to prevent and tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools. In the LGBT Action Plan published last year, it committed £1million to continue the programme until 2020.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria his Department plans to use to assess the effect of reformed statutory relationships and sex education on the (a) severity and (b) level of bullying in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has no plans to require schools to report centrally on incidents of bullying, but the Department included questions in its School Snapshot survey in winter 2017 to obtain information on different types of bullying. The results can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-snapshot-survey-winter-2017.
Similar questions have been included in the summer 2019 survey. The results of this survey will be published next year.
The Government has sent a clear message to schools that all bullying, for whatever reason, is unacceptable. The public sector Equality Duty means that schools must have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and to foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not.
The Department has issued guidance to schools about how to prevent and respond to bullying as part of their overall behaviour policy. It has also published the Respectful Schools Communities tool to support schools to develop a whole school approach which promotes respect amongst all pupils and signposts further sources of advice.
This will be supported by the introduction of compulsory relationships education in all primary and secondary state-funded schools. Statutory guidance for schools sets out that pupils should be taught about different types of bullying, the impact of bullying and how to get help. We are committed to ensuring schools are supported and ready to teach these new subjects to high quality and have announced a budget of £6 million in 2019-20 financial year to develop a programme of support for schools. The Department is establishing an early adopter school programme to support early teaching of the new requirements. It is also working with early adopter schools to support the design of the training programme and to refine supplementary guidance to ensure that the teaching of the subjects is as effective as possible.
The Department is also providing over £2.8 million of funding between September 2016 and March 2020 to four anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes the Anne Frank Trust who have developed the Free to Be debate programme, which encourages pupils to think about the importance of tackling prejudice, discrimination and bullying. It also includes the Anti-Bullying Alliance, whose programme has a particular focus on reducing bullying of those with special educational needs and disabilities. Between 2016-2019 the Government Equalities Office provided £3 million of funding to prevent and tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools. In the LGBT Action Plan published last year, it committed £1million to continue the programme until 2020.
Asked by: Greg Hands (Conservative - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
What plans he has to strengthen the UK's relations with Pacific Alliance countries.
Answered by Alan Duncan
Latin America is an increasingly important partner to the UK. We have strong and close relationships with all four member states of the Pacific Alliance: Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Trade with the bloc increased by 4.5% from 2017 to 2018. We are strengthening partnerships using tools like the Prosperity Fund, Conflict Stability and Security Fund and International Climate Finance to implement programmes of mutual interest, for example in good governance, green growth, security and justice reform, infrastructure and rural and urban development in order to create the conditions for sustainable economic growth and increased trade.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will list the (a) countries with which UK armed forces will carry out joint exercises in 2019, (b) dates of those exercises and (c) nature of those exercises.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The UK Armed Forces routinely participate in international defence exercises with allies and partners across the globe. In 2019 the UK is currently planned to take part in 23 joint exercises involving over 28 countries.
International defence exercises vary significantly in scale, complexity and the number of contributing nations, but all are focused upon developing interoperability with our allies and partners. The exercises involve a mix of live, synthetic and table top activity.
At the cornerstone of our exercise programme are NATO, the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) Partner Nations and the Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (CJEF) alliance between the UK and France. Discrete bilateral defence activity with nations outside of these alliances also make up part of the international programme and support wider Defence Engagement.
Major NATO exercise activity in 2019 centres on development of the NATO Response Force and the ability of contributing nations to respond quickly to an international crisis. Exercises will take place in the US and across Europe in Land, Maritime and Air domains. Most notably, ARRCADE FUSION in November 2019 will test the ability of the UK led Allied Rapid Reaction Corps to provide a Corps warfighting headquarters for the Alliance. This will be the first time this capability will be held at readiness for NATO.
An annual Baltic Operations Exercise focuses on the ability of NATO forces to work collectively in the protection of nations across the Baltic region. It routinely involves over 5,000 personnel from 17 nations and includes participation by up to 40 warships and submarines and over 60 aircraft. In 2019 the UK will be contributing an Amphibious Task Group based on HMS ALBION supported by aviation and Royal Marines.
The JEF, for which the UK is the framework nation, also exercises throughout the year to develop the ability of partner nations to respond rapidly and work together. Exercise JOINT WARRIOR is the annual major exercise which involves more than 10,000 personnel from seven partner nations and other allies, the next is scheduled for April 2019.
The UK and French CJEF will conduct two major exercises in the 2019 period, in March, and in November.
In addition to the major defence international partnerships, significant bilateral exercise activity is also planned over this period. Joint training with the US makes up a significant proportion of the exercise programme and includes Aircraft Carrier, Fighter Jet and land forces exercises.
Further detailed information on bilateral and multilateral exercises, can only be released after consultation with relevant allies and partners, to avoid damaging security, bilateral relationships or strategic messaging plans.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will take steps to ensure that charities in the Relationships Alliance will be allocated funding from the public purse for existing relationship support contracts until funding allocations have been made under the Reducing Parental Conflict programme.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We are exploring options with respect to the next steps for the current contracts DWP hold with the Relationships Alliance.
We are currently implementing the new Reducing Parental Conflict Programme, which aims to integrate proven help with parental conflict into local services. We will be offering support to all 152 top-tier English local authorities to help them - including making available funding to develop their strategic approach; and for training frontline practitioners.
We have announced £6m of joint funding with the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England, aimed at improving the outcomes of children of alcohol-dependent parents. This programme includes an Innovation Fund, which is seeking up to eight local authority bids, to address parents’ alcohol issues and reduce conflict. The closing dates for bids is 17 July. Funding is also available for the voluntary sector, where we are seeking to build capacity nationally to support children in families where parents are alcohol dependent and experiencing conflict. We expect to make announcements on the allocation of funding for these opportunities in the Autumn.
And we will build the evidence base for what works to reduce parental conflict by commissioning face-to-face support in 30 local authorities across England. We recently published a Prior Information Notice which outlined the timescales for the upcoming procurement of face-to-face interventions. These contracts will be open to all interested parties as an open competition.