Meeting of the Parliament 14 November 2017
I am aware of the work that has been done by that committee, which is helpful in shining a light on some of the issues around bullying. We are clear, as a Government, that we must take bullying seriously, and we expect our local authorities to ensure that they have appropriate measures in place in education to address those issues quickly when they arise. Early intervention is the key to preventing bullying from escalating. We expect all our local authorities to have anti-bullying strategies in place, and for those strategies to be effectively implemented in order to prevent that type of behaviour from developing.
The challenge is that the nature of bullying is changing, and the purpose for which some bullying is taking place is changing, as well. It is not just the bullying such as may traditionally have taken place in the playground or the school line, when I was at school. Bullying can now take place online, while the person is at home on their phone or on a computer. Part of the work that we are taking forward with the national action plan is to tackle such issues by equipping young people with the skills to manage and deal with them online.
It is important that we are also helping to educate parents, teachers and support staff to recognise that cyberspace can be an environment in which children are even more susceptible to bullying, and to learn what can be done to ensure that young people know that they need to report bullying as early as possible.
I have no doubt that the expert group will want to give some consideration to the existing arrangements that we have in place to deal with those issues, and to how those can be improved and developed.