New guidance focuses on ‘prevention, response and inclusivity’
The Scottish Government has published new guidance to support schools and organisations working with children and young people to develop comprehensive anti-bullying policies and improve behaviour and relationships.
‘Respect for all’ includes updates for staff on how to deal with specific incidents of bullying, including online bullying. The guidance sets out that online bullying should be seen as related to where the bullying occurs, rather than as a different behaviour type – and that online bullying must be responded to with the same level of seriousness as any other form of bullying.
It also highlights the responsibility of schools and organisations to support the wellbeing of children and young people, even when there is not a responsibility to investigate the incident itself.
The definition of bullying on which the guidance is focused has also been strengthened following feedback from children and young people, parents and practitioners. This has a renewed focus on the emotional, social and physical impacts caused by bullying, recognising that not all bullying is an intentional act and that it does not need to be repeated for it to have an impact.
The guidance has been published as Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth visited Cowie Primary School, in Stirling, to learn more about its inclusive approach to tackling bullying during Anti-Bullying Week 2024.
All local authorities, schools and organisations that work with children and young people will now be tasked with developing and implementing anti-bullying policies in line with Respect for All.
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said: “Bullying of any kind is never acceptable and can have a lasting impact on a child or young person’s life. It is vital that incidents of bullying, both online and offline, are addressed promptly and robustly.
“The Scottish Government has worked with schools, organisations and local authorities to introduce a range of measures over the last year to improve behaviour and relationships in schools.
“I am pleased to build on this work with the launch of Respect for All, which focuses on prevention, response and inclusivity. It reflects the pressures facing young people, including the increase in social media use, and we expect all stakeholders in Scotland delivering services for children and young people to develop and implement an anti-bullying policy in line with the new guidance.”
Lorraine Glass, Director of respectme, said: “”respectme welcomes the publication of this vital guidance, perfectly timed to coincide with Anti-Bullying Week 2024. We look forward to working with colleagues across Scotland to further embed the policy and practice necessary for the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people.
“This week, over 700 schools from every Scottish local authority area have engaged with our annual campaign on what ‘respect’ means to them. It’s been a phenomenal response and a testament to the commitment and energy of teachers, parents and youth workers to bring safety and happiness to young lives.”
Respect for All has been developed in conjunction with Scotland’s national anti-bullying service, respectme, local authorities, teaching unions, children’s organisations and a parents’ representative.
New guidance to empower schools to take action on mobile phone use and next steps in ongoing work to improve relationships and behaviour in schools has been published.
The ‘Behaviour and Relationships in Schools’ action plan, and targeted guidance for teachers to manage mobile phone use in schools, set out steps to be deployed at the national, local and school level over the next three years in response to concerns about relationships and behaviour in schools, including:
supporting the effective recording and monitoring of inappropriate behaviour
encouraging schools to reinforce a positive ethos and culture
providing guidance and support to ensure schools can embed relationships and behaviour policies which set clear expectations of relationships and behaviour
The new guidance on mobile phone use makes clear that while it is for individual schools to determine what action to take, head teachers are empowered to take the steps they see fit, including a full ban on mobile phone use in school if that is their judgement.
Aside from impacting behaviour, a growing body of evidence shows mobile phone use also impacts on learning. The Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 data showed that almost a third of 15-year-olds in Scotland and across all Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries reported being distracted using digital devices in most or every maths class – and around a quarter reported being distracted by others using digital devices.
During a visit to Stonelaw High School in Rutherglen, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said: “Since the last action plan on relationships and behaviour in Scotland’s schools was published in 2017, our children and young people have experienced periods of significant challenge, including a global pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis which is causing real difficulty for families across the country. There is no doubt this has had a major impact on their schooling and how they learn.
“Improving relationships, behaviour and attendance in schools is one of my top priorities as Education Secretary. We have been working jointly on this with key partners such as COSLA and SAGRABIS since I was appointed and this new action plan contains a series of steps to be taken which will ensure that both pupils and staff are safe and supported.
“It takes an evidence-based approach to responding to the relationships and behaviour challenges faced in our schools and has been informed by the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR), which heard from nearly 4,000 teachers and support staff, as well as discussions with a wide range of stakeholders including teaching unions at the three behaviour summits.
“While it is clear that the vast majority of pupils in our schools continue to behave well, there are undoubtedly growing behavioural issues associated with mobile phones.
“This new guidance empowers head teachers to take the steps they see fit for their school to limit the use of mobile phones, including a full ban on the school estate if they feel that is required and I would encourage teachers to take all the steps they feel necessary to combat these issues.”
COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People Tony Buchanan said: “Ensuring children and young people feel supported, safe and ready to learn is of vital importance to Local Government, and we need to make sure schools are safe and welcoming places for all.
“We have worked closely with the Scottish Government and our partners across education system to develop the action plan and guidance published today.
“We will continue to work in partnership to enable the provision of the best possible support, in and out of school, so that children and young people to get the most out of their learning.”
Acting Stonelaw High School Headteacher Vicki Rice said: “We were delighted to welcome the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills to our school. The Cabinet Secretary took part in discussion groups with our staff and pupils who were given a valuable opportunity to talk with her about these important issues as part of their work and study on personal and social education.
“We discussed our work earlier this year with our parents and pupils about excessive phone use and the impact that this can have on learning. This work helped inform our plans for this session to protect the learning environment by limiting phone use in certain areas of the school.
“We will continue to work with our pupils and their families to ensure that this remains supported.
“This fits with our wider efforts to create positive relationships and behaviour right across our school. We know that getting this right for our learners means that they feel safer, more included, respected and supported.
“This in turn helps create strong relationships between our learners and staff and helps improve everyone’s wellbeing.”
Commenting on the publication of the National Action Plan on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools and mobile phone guidance by the Scottish Government, Mike Corbett, National Official Scotland for NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, said:“While NASUWT is frustrated with the length of time taken to produce this National Action Plan, we have nevertheless engaged in good faith with the Scottish Government, shared our members’ current experiences on managing pupil behaviour and advocated strongly around how they might be addressed.
“We are encouraged by the recognition that a range of approaches and consequences are required given that restorative approaches to poor behaviour do not work for all pupils and cannot be the only tool available to schools when responding to incidents of abuse and violence.
“We need to see better recording and monitoring of behaviour incidents in schools as an essential part of ensuring consistency and measuring progress and improvements over time.
“We very much welcome that the principle of serious consequences for serious misbehaviour, up to and including exclusion, where necessary, has been accepted.
“The Scottish Government must make it clear that serious misbehaviour will carry serious consequences if any plan is to secure a safe and orderly environment for teachers and students.
“Given the recent riots in other parts of the UK, the acknowledgement that more work is needed to support schools in addressing racism and racist incidents, along with other forms of discrimination such as misogyny, is welcome.
“We know that mobile phones can be used as a tool to bully and harass fellow pupils and teachers, as well as distracting pupils from their learning. We therefore welcome the guidance from the Scottish Government that school leaders can take steps to limit or ban the use of phones in their schools if they see fit. However, to be effective, addressing the use of mobile phones should form part of joined up whole-school strategies on managing pupil behaviour.
“While we are pleased to see that the Action Plan intends that schools will be offered support to adopt the recommendations within it, including suggested approaches and exemplars, it is disappointing that the Scottish Government has not as yet committed any additional funding, time or resources to schools to support this work.
“Teachers and school leaders are already dealing with excessive workloads and constrained budgets. Implementing the recommendations of this action plan is too important a task to be simply added to schools’ already lengthy to do lists. Ring-fenced time and funding is needed.”
Police Scotland has published new guidance for officers responding to hate.
A new standard operating procedure and policy document supercedes interim guidance issued in May and closely aligns with College of Policing guidance.
The new guidance continues to outline a reasonable person and policing purpose test for the recording of Non-Crime Hate Incidents (NCHIs) and emphasises that the details of the other party of a report will not be routinely recorded as part of an NCHI.
It also makes clear Police Scotland’s approach to behaviour motivated by hate is rooted in the principles of integrity, fairness and respect, commitment to upholding human rights.
Both the SOP and policy document were widely consulted on with key stakeholders whose feedback was assessed and used to make amendments to the final products.
Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs said: “Police Scotland is a rights-based organisation, and officers balance the protections people have under human rights legislation against other laws every day, using their discretion and good sense.
“To support implementation of the new hate crime legislation, Police Scotland developed and delivered a programme of training to support our officers, including an e-learning module which has been completed by more than 91% of officers, as well as a series of in-person and online workshops.
“We’ve trained a cadre of around 80 hate crime advisors and 450 hate crime champions to support colleagues while Contact, Command and Control (C3), officers and staff also received tailored training.
“This guidance provides additional clarity, direction, and consistency to our response to reports of hate, including hate crime and non-crime hate incidents and aligns closely with the College of Policing guidance.”
People in health and social care settings will no longer be advised to wear facemasks from Tuesday next week (16 May).
The return to pre-pandemic guidance means that mask use will be based on clinical need based on infection prevention and control advice, meaning staff, patients, service users and visitors will not be routinely asked to wear facemasks in health and social care settings.
It follows a review of the guidance introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic to protect staff, patients, service users and visitors, and recognises that Scotland has entered a calmer phase of the pandemic.
Chief Nursing Officer Alex McMahon said: “Due to the success of vaccines in protecting people, and the availability of treatments, now is the right time to revise the advice on wearing masks in health and social care settings and return to pre-pandemic guidance.
“We recognise that some staff may have concerns around the withdrawal of this guidance and would expect organisations to undertake individual occupational health assessments and risk assessments as appropriate.
“We continue to be vigilant in our response to Covid-19 and encourage everyone to make sure they are up to date with the boosters available to them. We are grateful for the tireless work of health and social care teams during these challenging times and to everyone who has helped them by adhering to the guidance.”
Guidance setting out private rented sector landlords’ responsibilities for ensuring their property meets updated standards has been published.
From 1 March next year, all private rented properties will be required to have central heating, a kitchen with adequate space and facilities to prepare and store food, and common areas that are safe to use and properly maintained.
Properties will also need a circuit breaker device that reduces the risk of electrocution and fire. Existing requirements for safe gas and electrical systems will be extended to other types of fuel. Similar standards are already in place in the social rented sector.
The guidance also covers the action landlords must already take to prevent damp and mould.
Housing Secretary Shona Robison said: “Landlords have one year to meet our updated Repairing Standard, which will improve the condition of private rented property, make homes safer and ensure consistency between the social and private rented sectors.
“The majority of private landlords will already be meeting these standards. The guidance published today will help landlords better understand their responsibilities and ensure those who do need to carry out works can do so in advance of the 1 March 2024 deadline.
“All rented homes are required to meet standards that ensure they are free from damp and mould, and this guidance will help us to ensure this happens in the private rented sector.”
