Legal Update: Legal Q&A - What is an "anti-bullying policy"?

Under Section 89 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006, head teachers are required to draft a written policy on measures to prevent all forms of bullying - an anti-bullying policy. This means every school must have measures to encourage good behaviour and prevent all forms of bullying among pupils. These measures should be part of the school's behaviour policy, which must be communicated to all pupils, school staff and parents. It also gives head teachers the ability to ensure pupils behave when they are not on school premises or under the lawful control of staff.

The Department for Education's Preventing and Tackling Bullying guidance states that schools should have policies to deal with bullying and poor behaviour that are clear to parents, pupils and staff so that, when incidents do occur, they are dealt with quickly. It defines bullying as "behaviour by an individual or group, repeated over time, that intentionally hurts another individual or group physically or emotionally. Bullying can take many forms (for instance cyber-bullying via text or the internet) and is often motivated by prejudice against particular groups, for example on grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or because a child is adopted or has caring responsibilities". It notes that bullying might be motivated by actual differences between children and that emotional bullying can be more damaging than physical bullying.