Bullying: Report urges action on school bullying victims

The Education and Skills Committee's final report on bullying, published yesterday (Tuesday), urges the Government to issue fresh guidance to schools as a matter of urgency, making it clear they should not be barring young victims from school.

The report says the Government's guidelines must make it clear that all anti-bullying work should focus on changing the behaviour of bullies, rather than victims. And it calls for local authorities to draw up advice to schools, setting out what services are available for young people whose bullying behaviour cannot be dealt with in school.

The report also says the Government should introduce a requirement for all schools to record all incidents of bullying, and for all schools' anti-bullying policies to mention disability-related, race-related, faith-based and homophobic bullying.

Charity Beatbullying is calling on the Chancellor to invest £4 a year per young person on prevention. Beatbullying chief executive Emma-Jane Cross said: "The Government needs a policy shift from intervention to prevention. What Beatbullying was set up to do should be standardised across the UK."