Reporting, recording, investigation and monitoring
To instil confidence that allegations of bullying are taken seriously, it is important for schools and other organisations working with children and young people to take a consistent approach to responding to concerns or allegations of bullying behaviour.
Bullying can be a sensitive topic for staff, children and young people and parents and carers, due to the connotations associated with the term. Parents and young people may have concerns about unfounded allegations being on their record. It is therefore important to build understanding among the whole school or organisational community of what will be recorded, in what way and for what purpose.
It is clear that recording concerns or allegations of bullying plays a crucial role in ensuring all those working with children and young people support their wellbeing. All reports made about bullying should therefore be recorded.
Reporting
There are different ways in which a school or organisation may become aware of potential bullying behaviour:
- It may be raised by the young person who believes they are being bullied.
- It could be raised by another young person who has witnessed behaviour they perceive as bullying.
- It could be raised by a parent or carer or other family member.
- It could be observed by a member of staff or adult volunteers/youth leaders.
It is essential that children, young people and family members feel empowered to report allegations of bullying incidents. Their confidence to raise concerns will be informed by a number of factors including their understanding of the routes and methods open to them to report, the transparency of the process for investigating allegations and confidence in the actions that will be taken in response.
There should be clear information within a school or organisation’s anti-bullying policy of the mechanisms through which allegations of bullying should be reported. Given some children, young people and families may be concerned about the potential for escalation of behaviour if they are found to have reported behaviour, consideration should be given to whether it would be appropriate to have mechanisms for safe systems of anonymised reporting, alongside other reporting mechanisms.
Staff who observe bullying should follow their internal procedures for raising concerns about bullying behaviour. All staff should be adequately informed of the details they are expected to provide to the person responsible for recording, which will be related to the content of the recording system.
Recording
Once an incident or concern has been raised, this should be logged on a school’s or organisation’s recording system as soon as possible. For schools, in accordance with the local authority advice on recording and monitoring personal data, this is ideally within three working days.
It is not necessary for an allegation to be substantiated before it is recorded. Details of the reported incident should be recorded, capturing the main information about the behaviour that took place.
An investigation into the incident should follow, as set out in the following section, with the recording system being updated throughout the process on the outcome of this investigation, and any action taken as a result.
What information should be recorded?
It is important that a thorough picture of the bullying incident be recorded. When recording bullying incidents, the following information must be included:
- The children and young people involved, as well as staff or other adults
- What was the nature of the bullying behavior experienced
- Where and when alleged bullying behaviour has taken place
- The type of bullying experienced, e.g. name-calling, rumours, threats etc.
- Is there any potential underlying prejudice(s), including details of any protected characteristics associated with the people involved
- Whether the impact of the incident experienced indicates any personal wellbeing concerns or the need for additional support for those involved
- The outcome, including if the issue was resolved, not resolved or unfounded
- Actions taken, including resolution at an individual or organisational level.
In line with the UNCRC, including Article 12: Children and Young People have the right to an opinion and for it to be listened to and taken seriously, and Article 16: Children and Young People have the right to a private life, where possible, the content of this record should therefore be agreed with the child or young person. In cases where the recording system does not allow for this level of detail and monitoring, schools/organisations may want to review their systems.
Where bullying has an element of discrimination or abuse based on a protected characteristic, this should be recorded as part of the incident report. SEEMiS enables the person entering the data to identify and record multiple types of incidents within the one record. There is also the option to record whether there is a belief that this incident is motivated by racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, or homophobia and whether any protected characteristic has been targeted. This enables schools and local authorities to analyse data to identify intersectionality which may be linked to the behaviour.
It is expected that organisations will use a digital recording system where possible and adhere to Data Protection principles. Schools should refer to their own Data Protection Team within the local authority regarding local procedures for obtaining permission to record personal data. Other organisations supporting children and young people should refer to their own data protection policies.
Depending on the setting, different systems will be available to record bullying incidents.
For local authorities and state schools, the Bullying and Equalities Module within the SEEMiS system has been identified as the most appropriate tool for schools and local authorities to record and monitor bullying incidents.
Where Community Learning and Development (CLD) staff are working within schools and have access to SEEMiS, they should record incidents on the system but only where protocols have been agreed within the local authority and/or the school.
Independent schools are responsible to their own Governing Boards and should have robust recording and monitoring systems in place.
Children and young people’s organisations should have in place robust recording and monitoring system in place that capture the information set out above.
Investigation
Bullying is a combination of behaviour and impact and should be addressed with compassion and professional curiosity when investigating incidents. Although bullying is often persistent, a single incident can have a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of children and young people and instill a fear that it might happen again. Impact on the individual/group’s health and wellbeing and/or learning and school environment can be established through an investigation of alleged, observed or reported bullying incidents. Bullying behaviour, and its potential impact on children and young people, must be addressed as it arises.
The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2023 makes clear that individual agencies are responsible for ensuring that their staff are competent and confident in carrying out their responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting children’s wellbeing. We expect teachers and all those working with children to identify and act on any concerns to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the child or young person concerned.
A helpful approach would be to ask:
- What was the behaviour?
- What impact did it have?
- What does the child or young person want to happen?
- What do I need to do about it – for example, is there a child protection concern?
- What attitudes, prejudices or other factors may have influenced the behaviour?
Once an investigation has concluded, the data system should be updated with the outcome of the investigation. This should include whether the incident was found to be substantiated or unfounded. Where an incident is found to be bullying, schools should record what supports/interventions were put in place for both for individuals/groups affected by the behaviour and those displaying the behaviour.
Monitoring
Accurate recording of bullying incidents serves a number of important purposes:
- It enables monitoring of specific incidents to ensure that an appropriate response has taken place and that the correct support is in place for children and young people.
- It enables monitoring of recurring patterns or trends, thereby encouraging early intervention and making improvements in policy or practice at a local level.
- It enables schools and organisations to assess the effectiveness of their policy and practice, which should be reviewed and updated on a regular basis.
Understanding responsibility to respond
Schools/organisations may investigate any alleged incidents of bullying that occur away from school premises, out of hours or online that have an effect upon the health and wellbeing and learning of children and young people whilst in their care. Staff members investigating the incident must ensure that appropriate support is provided within school or organisation to the child or young person(s) involved.
However, while schools and organisations have a role in outlining appropriate standards of behaviour in their setting, outwith the setting and online it must be clear in any policies that schools are not, by default, the responsible party to investigate pupil to pupil interactions which take place online and outwith the school day. There may, however be a need to support children and young people where their learning or wellbeing has been affected, even when there is no duty to investigate the incident itself.
