Bullying

Bullying often starts with trivial events such as teasing and name calling which nevertheless rely on an abuse of power. Such abuses of power, if left unchallenged, can lead to more serious forms of abuse, such as domestic abuse, racial attacks, sexual offences, self-harm or suicide.

While bullying often involves children as both target and child(ren) who bully, it can occur at any age. Practitioners should be just as alert to cases of bullying which might involve an adult perpetrator bullying a child, or a child bullying an adult.

Bullying is defined as ‘behaviour by an individual or group, usually repeated over time, which intentionally hurts another individual or group either physically or emotionally’ (DfE definition). 

A child who bullies is defined as “a person who habitually seeks to harm or intimidate those whom they perceive as vulnerable.” (The Diana Award)

Bullying is not when two people have a disagreement or fall out: it is the “repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power.” (Anti-Bullying Alliance) 

The imbalance of power between the child who has been bullied  and the child who bullies can give the child who bullies control over the relationship and make it difficult for the bullied child to defend themselves. Repeated bullying usually has a significant emotional component, where the anticipation and fear of being bullied seriously affects the behaviour of the target.

Repeated bullying usually has a significant emotional component, where the anticipation and fear of being bullied seriously affects the behaviour of the child who is being bullied.

Four main types of bullying are:

• Physical - hitting, kicking, shoving, theft;
• Verbal - threats, name calling, racist or homophobic remarks;
• Emotional abuse - isolating an individual from activities/games and the social acceptance of their peer group;
• Cyber-bullying/online bullying is defined as ‘the use of Information Communications Technology (ICT), particularly mobile phones and the internet, deliberately to upset someone else’ (DfE definition). It is another form of bullying which can happen at all times of the day, and night, with the potential for a bigger audience and multiple children or adults bullying a child or group of children.

Bullying can take many forms: -

• Nonverbal abuse, threatening body language, hand gestures;
• Silent calls, hoax or abusive calls, text messages or other social media misuse;
• Undermining with constant criticism or rumour spreading;
• Controlling and coercive behaviours;
• Exclusion by ignoring or isolating someone.

Bullying can also be driven by prejudice, intolerance and discrimination, which may include any of the following:

• Race and ethnicity (racist bullying).
• Religion or belief.
• Culture or class.
• Gender (sexist, misogynistic bullying).
• Sexual orientation (homophobic or biphobic bullying).
• Gender identity (transphobic bullying).
• Age.
• Special educational needs or disability (SEND).
• Appearance or health conditions.
• Related to another vulnerable group of people for example children. who have carer responsibilities, are looked after or adopted.

Prejudice related incidents do not just impact on the individual involved but can spread fear and hostility in a community. There can be a cross over between bullying, prejudicial bullying and hate crime. 

Hate crimes can be committed against someone because of their disability,, their gender or sexual orientation, identity, race, religion or belief. A hate crime involves criminal activity such as threatening behaviour, assault, robbery, damage to property, incidents encouraging others to commit hate crime and harassment. 

Sexualised Bullying and Harassment

Sexualised bullying broadly includes any bullying behaviour with a sexual element. It can be both physical and non-physical and it can be carried out to a person’s face, behind their back or using technology.

Sexual bullying might include:

• Sexual comments, taunts, threats and saying things which are not true;
• Inappropriate physical contact that makes the recipient feel uncomfortable or scared (this can include hugging and kissing);
• Distributing sexual material (including pornography), sending photos or videos of a sexual nature;
• Making phone calls and sending texts or messages of a sexual nature;
• ‘Games’ with a sexual element that may make a child or young person feel uncomfortable or scared;
• Pressure to spend time with an adult, child or young person, or a group of people (which may include adults, young people or children), which makes the bullied child feel uncomfortable or scared;
• Pressure to be in a relationship with another person (adult, child or young person), or to engage in a sexual act with another person (adult, child or young person), both inside and outside of school;
• Sexism in all its forms;
• Pressure to conform to gender ‘norms'.

Bullying often starts with trivial events such as teasing and name calling which nevertheless rely on an abuse of power. Such abuses of power, if left unchallenged, can lead to more serious forms of abuse, such as domestic violence and abuse, racial attacks, sexual offences and self-harm or suicide.

Bullying is a type of behaviour which needs to be defined by the impact on the bullied child rather than the intention of the child who bullies.

Bullying which raises  cause for concern related to a child or young person who is at risk of harm or significant harm must be referred to the Children and Families HUB for support.

Immediate risk of harm or where a criminal act has occurred such as in Hate or Sexual bullying, Harassment and where a child or young person presents with Harmful Sexualised Behaviour must be referred to the police. See SPB Jersey Professional Guidance and Core Procedure. 

See also:

• Dealing with bullying at school;
• NSPCC What is Bullying.

The Target 

Using the term “target” as opposed “victim” shows that the child or young person may not be helpless or powerless to change their situation if they and their parents/carers are given the correct advice and support. 

Children and young people are often targeted because of perceived difference or vulnerability. Children living away from home are particularly vulnerable to bullying and abuse by other children, (see SPB Jersey Children Looked After and Children Living Away from Home). 

Any child can be the target of bullying. The damage inflicted by bullying can often be underestimated. It can cause considerable distress to children, to the extent that it affects their health and development, depression and self-harm.

Practitioners must respect the voice of the child, which means having a child centred approach which actively listens to what they are saying and understand they are the experts of their own experience. (see SPB chapter  Respecting and Capturing The Voice of the Child). 

Children are often hold back from telling anyone as they feel powerless and that nothing can change their situation, feel they will not be believed, that they are partly to blame, or they should deal with it themselves. With cyberbullying they may feel their device will be taken away from them. 

Parents, carers and agencies need to be alert to any changes in behaviour such as: -

• Refusing to attend school or a particular place or activity.
• Becoming anxious in public places and crowds.
• Becoming withdrawn and isolated.
• Changing behaviours.
• Evidence of damage to their property.
• Evidence of money going missing.
• Psychosomatic illness such as headaches, stomach aches.
• Increased complaints of physical illness.

The Child who is bullying 

It is unhelpful to label a child as a bully; the focus needs to be on supporting a change in their behaviour and identifying their wider support needs.

Children, who bully, have often been bullied themselves and suffered considerable disruption in their own lives. The bullying behaviour may occur because the child is unhappy, jealous, prejudiced or lacking in confidence. Whilst this does not excuse the behaviour, work with children who bully should be considered in the context of their environment, where they may have significant unaddressed needs. Research indicates this can be linked to previous experience of abuse and/or exposure to domestic abuse or violence. 

The focus should be on the bullying behaviour rather than the child and where possible the reasons for the behaviour should be explored and dealt with. A clear explanation of the extent of the upset the bullying has caused should be given and encouragement to see the bullied child’s points of view. 

The Context 

Practitioners are often in the position of dealing with the target and the child who bullies. 

If incidents of bullying are not identified and addressed by responsible adults, then the normalisation of bullying and violence in specific contexts can occur over time. This can lead to much more complex issues.

Schools are encouraged to complete “Hot Spot Mapping” to assess and establish if there are any areas, in or around the school site, that may attribute to bullying behaviours or incidents. 

The extra-familial threats might arise at school or in other establishments, from within peer groups, or more widely from within the wider community and/or online.

Threats can take a variety of different forms and children can be vulnerable to multiple threats, including: -

• Child Exploitation by criminal and organised crime
• Child trafficking
• Online abuse
• Teenage relationship domestic abuse
• Child Sexual Exploitation
• Extremism leading to radicalisation (see SPB Jersey Recognising Abuse and Neglect, Racism, Child Sexual Exploitation, Gang Activity, Youth Violence and Criminal Exploitation and Children living away from home).

Assessments and Interventions should focus on and addressing these wider environmental factors, which are likely to be a threat to the safety and welfare of several different children who may or may not be known to Practitioners.

Any change in behaviour which indicates fear or anxiety may be a potential indicator of bullying. Children may also choose to avoid locations and events which they had previously enjoyed - changes in attitude towards schools or organised activities are particularly significant.

Behaviour such as:

• Being frightened of walking to and from school and changing their usual route.
• Feeling ill in the mornings.
• Beginning truanting.
• Refusing to talk about what is wrong.
• Beginning to perform poorly in their schoolwork.
• Coming home regularly with damaged stuff for example phone, clothes or books.
• Becoming withdrawn, starting to stammer, lacking confidence, being distressed and anxious and stopping eating.
• Suicidal thoughts or ideation 8 SPB Jersey Bullying 2024
• Crying themselves to sleep, having nightmares.
• Having their possessions go missing.
• Asking for money or starting to steal (to pay the bully) or continually 'losing' their pocket money.
• Having unexplained bruises, cuts, scratches.
• Beginning to bully other children/siblings.
• Becoming aggressive and unreasonable.

Any of the changes above should be taken seriously and the behaviour discussed between parents/carers (where safe to do so) and school.

Bullying may become a safeguarding issue and, particularly in cases of physical, threatening, sexual and transphobic bullying. Schools and other settings must consider whether safeguarding processes need to be followed. This is because of the potential for this form of bullying to be characterised by problematic or Harmful Sexual Behaviour (HSB) and the risk of serious violence (including sexual harm) (see SPB Jersey HSB).

Where a child or young person presents with a health or development need) or where there is a  safeguarding Need  (see Statutory Guidance – Levels of Need) practitioners must:

• Follow the SPB Child Protection Procedures, the SPB Children and Young People Safeguarding Referrals Procedure;
• Refer to the Children and Families Hub;
• Practitioners should use Assessment Tools to support their practice decision making for example The Continuum of Children’s Needs, The CSE Risk Assessment Tool  and the Brook Traffic Light Toolkit (training can be accessed via Gov.Je - Virtual College;
• In parallel (where required) refer an adult or young person with their consent to supportive domestic abuse services; 9 SPB Jersey Bullying 2024
• Where a child may have been physically abused, suffered neglect or sexual abuse consideration must be given to following the Child Protection Medical Pathway and/or the Child Sexual Abuse Pathway;
• Where there is immediate risk of harm, practitioners must call the police on 999.
• The police must be notified if there has been a criminal offence.
• Where sexual exploitation is also related to a vulnerable adult, practitioners must raise a safeguarding concern with referral to the Single Point of Referral for Adults at risk of harm. 

Where a crime has been committed practitioners must inform the police.

Specialist support should be offered to children who have learning disability, neurodiversity or learning difficulties, and advocacy should be considered.

Where English is not their first language interpreters should be sourced in the child’s own language. Consideration should always be given to the existence of any underlying issues in relation to race, gender and sexual orientation. This should be addressed and challenged accordingly.  

Where a child is thought to be exposed to bullying, action should be taken to assess the child’s needs and provide support services. 

A climate of openness should be established in which children are not afraid to address issues and incidents of bullying.

To maintain an effective strategy for dealing with bullying, the traditional ideas about bullying should be challenged, for example:

• It is only a bit of harmless fun.
• It is all part of growing up.
• Children just must put up with it.
• Adults getting involved make it worse.

Children should feel safe and be able to approach any member of staff within the organisation with personal concerns.

Clear messages must be given that bullying is not acceptable and children reassured that significant adults involved in their lives will deal with bullying seriously.

Creating an anti-bullying culture that is conducive to equality of opportunity, co-operation and mutual respect for differences can be achieved for example by:

• Zero tolerance of minor bullying – dealing with incidents at the earliest sign (for example in nurseries, schools and education services).
• Never ignoring victims of bullying, always showing an interest/concern and providing the right support at the right time (See Statutory Guidance).
• Publicly acknowledging the bullied child’s distress.
• Organising quality groups/circles, which allow children to work together to identify their own problems, causes and solutions with sensitive facilitators.

A restorative approach and the use of restorative enquiry and subsequent mediation between those involved can provide an opportunity to meet the needs of all concerned. The child who has been bullied has the chance to say how he or she has been affected. The opportunity is provided for the child doing the bullying to understand the impact of his or her actions and to make amends.

Both the child engaged in bullying behaviour and those who are the target of bullying should be assessed. The times, places and circumstances in which the risk of bullying is greatest should be ascertained and action taken to reduce the risk of recurrence. Both target and the child who bullies benefit from assertiveness training where this is available.

Whatever plan of action is implemented, it must be reviewed with regular intervals to ascertain outcomes, and if the target of the bullying feels safe. 

Consideration should also be given to lessons learned to improve practice.

Where bullying exists in the context of gang behaviour, there should be an institutional, as well as an individual, response to this.

Parents should be provided with information as what they should do if they are worried that their child is being bullied - i.e. where they can obtain advice and support including keeping safe on the internet. Parents should be informed (unless to do so raises risk to the child) and updated on a regular basis. They should also, be involved in supporting programmes devised to challenge bullying behaviour.

All settings in which children are provided with services or are living away from home should have in place anti-bullying strategies and procedures on how to refer to the Children and Families HUB. This includes statutory, voluntary, community and faith groups, for example, sports clubs and youth centres and all other children’s organisations as well as all schools.

Practitioners should have access to regular Internal agency safeguarding supervision. Agencies should also consider multi-agency reflective supervision where cases are complex, stuck or drifting.

Professional challenge should be welcomed and partnership working depends on resolving professional difference and conflict as soon as possible. Where staff experience professional differences, they must follow the SPB Resolving Professional Difference/Escalation Policy.

The Bullying Workbook for Teens

Specialist Organisations:

• Jersey Youth Enquiry Service (YES) – access their website here, where they can provide, information, advice and counselling.
• The Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA): Founded in 2002 by NSPCC and National Children's Bureau, the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) brings together over 100 organisations into one network to develop and share good practice across the full range of bullying issues.
• Kidscape: Charity established to prevent bullying and promote child protection providing advice for young people, Practitioners and parents about distinct types of bullying and how to tackle it. They also offer specialist training and support for school staff, and assertiveness training for young people.
• The Diana Award: Anti-Bullying Ambassadors programme to empower young people to take responsibility for changing the attitudes and behaviour of their peers towards bullying. It will achieve this by identifying, training and supporting school anti-bullying ambassadors.
• The BIG Award: The Bullying Intervention Group (BIG) offer a national scheme and award for schools to tackle bullying effectively.

Cyber/Online Bullying:

• NSPCC - Bullying and Cyberbullying: Advice for parents and carers to help keep children safe from bullying, wherever it happens.
• ChildNet International: Specialist resources for young people to raise awareness of online safety and how to protect themselves.
• iwf.org.uk (for reporting illegal images and content).
• thinkuknow.co.uk (for all children and young people and their parents/carers.

It also links with the CEOP (Child Exploitation and On-Line Protection Centre).

• Advice on Child Internet Safety 1.0: The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) has produced universal guidelines for providers on keeping children safe online.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LBGTQ):

• Jersey Youth Services LBGTQ Youth Project, access their website here, where they can offer information and provide support to any child or young person who is experiencing bullying.
• Education Action Challenging Homophobia (EACH): A training agency for employers and organisations seeking to tackle discrimination on the grounds of gender and sexual orientation.
• Schools Out: Offers practical advice, resources (including lesson plans) and training to schools on LGBT equality in education.
• Stonewall: An LGB equality organisation with considerable expertise in LGB bullying in schools, a dedicated youth site, resources for schools, and specialist training for teachers.

Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND):

• Mencap: Represents people with learning disabilities, with specific advice and information for people who work with children and young people.
• Changing Faces: Provide online resources and training to schools on bullying because of physical difference.

Racism:

• Show Racism the Red Card: Provide resources and workshops for schools to educate young people, often using the high profile of football, about racism.
• Kick it Out: Uses the appeal of football to educate young people about racism and provide education packs for schools.
• Anne Frank Trust: Runs a school’s project to instruct young people about Anne Frank and the Holocaust, the consequences of unchecked prejudice and discrimination, and cultural diversity.

Please note that internal servers may block access to some of these sites. Schools wishing to access these materials may need to adjust their settings.