County Council already working towards Government
plans
Worcestershire County Council is already
committed to Government plans to impose a duty on schools to record
and report instances of bullying to their local authorities.
The Government is currently consulting on the
proposals, an exercise which started last month (December) and is
anticipated to last a total of 12 weeks.
The duty, which was first announced in
September 2008, will cover serious or recurring incidents of
bullying and racism between pupils, and abuse or bullying of school
staff. It is envisaged it will come into force in September this
year.
The County Council has recently developed The
Next Steps Case Management Tool, in anticipation of the duty. It is
Worcestershire's new, secure web-based recording system for
bullying incidents. The County Council is also one of the first
local authorities in the country to create a dedicated
anti-bullying website – entitled Next Steps - that enables users to
report incidents online.
Councillor Marcus Hart, Worcestershire
County Council's lead Cabinet Member for Children and Young People,
said: "We are already committed to addressing bullying in
all its forms, to be open about issues and proactive in our
approach to tackling them.
"We believe that bullying affects the whole
community and that the whole community should know where to turn
and how to take action around such situations.
"Our commitment is demonstrated by the recent
launch of our specialised case management tool, which enables
people working with children and young people to electronically
record bullying incidents. This is complimented by our brand new
anti-bullying website, for children of all ages and their parents
or carers, to report any incidents of bullying.
Accessed via EduLink, The Next Steps Case
Management Tool, enables people working with children and young
people to:
· Keep concise,
consistent and confidential records of bullying incidents in one
place, including uploading evidence;
· Inform and
involve other professionals/agencies as necessary;
· Analyse their own
data to evaluate successful interventions and inform preventative
practice.
The Next Steps anti-bullying website - which
can be found at www.worcestershire.gov.uk/nextsteps
- also contains a wealth of advice and guidance about handling
bullying issues and signposts to further sources of support and
links to all relevant policies, including the County Council's
anti-bullying policy.
