Beatbullying responds to Staying Safe Action Plan

06.02.2008

Responding to the Government’s Staying Safe Action Plan, published yesterday, Emma-Jane Cross, Chief Executive made the following statement:

“Beatbullying welcomes the Government’s Staying Safe Action Plan, and applauds the Government’s cross-departmental strategy to improve the safety and well being of our young people.

“In particular, Beatbullying is delighted that the Government will introduce processes to review the deaths of all children, and urges the recording of deaths related to bullying as part of this.  It is estimated that one in five severely bullied children will attempt to take their own life, and it is our duty to discover and record any death, whether suicide, murder or accidental, that is linked to bullying, in order to inform future prevention strategies.

“It is promising that the Government recognises the need to address the problem of bullying outside schools, and that no one group or agency should be responsible for tackling the problem.  Bullying is not simply an education issue, but a public health and social issue, and an integrated joined-up approach is essential if we are to successfully tackle and prevent problems faced by young people.    Beatbullying welcomes the cross-Government strategy and looks forward to working with departments across Government in the future.

“Beatbullying is impressed by the inclusion of bullying as the first performance indicator of the new Public Service Agreement. We interpret this as an unprecedented commitment by the Government to reducing bullying. However we remind the Government that Beatbullying has a responsibility to monitor the percentage of young people who have experienced bullying and flag up the Government’s successes and failures.

“Naturally, Beatbullying looks forward to delivering part of the Government’s peer mentoring pilot programme and we hope to continue our peer mentoring successes of reducing bullying by up to 80%. Although we are taking for granted that this pilot is a bridge to a peer mentoring roll out to every child and young person in the UK.”