CYP Now - Policy & Practice: Policy into practice - Work on the ground is howwe stop bullying

Surveys of children's views consistently put bullying as a number one worry. Thankfully, research shows more children than ever are reporting it and asking for help. However, 69 per cent of children were bullied over the last year and many children and parents believe the response from schools and other services is sometimes inadequate.

The issue of bullying is complex, emotional and ever-changing. At onetime home was a safe haven, but now bullies can reach children throughemail, internet sites and texts.

Our responses to this issue need to change too. Government isintroducing new powers including ones that enable schools to deal withinternet and phone bullying out of school. All local authorities arerequired to create anti-bullying strategies. But eradicating bullyingalso requires innovative work on the ground. And evidence suggests thisis increasing all the time.

There are many projects that we can learn from. The National CoalitionBuilding Institute (NCBI) runs many anti-bullying projects in schools inLeicester. These include Friends Against Bullying where young peoplefrom different schools learn skills to combat bullying. Following thecourse they can support those that have been bullied and train otheryoung people. All the schools involved report that bullying hassignificantly reduced.

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