Council listens to young people’s views on bullying
Warwickshire’s Anti-bullying Partnership has published a new report about young people with disabilities’ experiences of bullying.
Over 200 young people with disabilities and their parents and carers shared their views on bullying through completion of surveys, focus groups and interviews during the summer 2008. The final report ‘Listen’ was completed and made available this month.
This research was undertaken as a response to feedback from Warwickshire County Council’s Every Child Matters Survey in 2007 that revealed that 20 per cent of disabled pupils have been bullied compared to 5 per cent of their non-disabled counterparts.
The study aimed to find out more about perception and occurrence of bullying for young people with disabilities, whether youngsters and their families are getting the help and support they need and where they’d like to see improvements made.
The research told the partnership that name-calling was the most common form of bullying and that most incidents took place at mainstream schools with young people identifying this as the most unsafe place for them. Special schools and leisure centres came out on top as the safest places from bullying.
Young people and their parents highlighted the importance of having someone to talk to who had time to listen to their problems. They felt that more adult intervention from teachers and professionals would be helpful, combined with peer support programmes.
The exercise revealed the need for schools to think about how they can make places safer and to understand more about disabilities. The report findings will be used by the partnership to develop an action plan to improve awareness of how bullying effects young people with disabilities. These include training teachers and police community support officers, developing quality standards for schools and professionals and providing information packs.
Warwickshire County Councillor Izzi Seccombe, Portfolio Holder for Children Young People and Families said: “Evidence from 2007’s Every Child Matters survey provided the stimulus for this research which has produced some interesting results.
“Research outcomes show us that the issues facing young people with disabilities can differ from their non-disabled peers, this will assist the Anti-bullying Partnership in shaping services and the range of support they offer. “
Warwickshire’s Anti-bullying Partnership is a group of organisations including county council services, Warwickshire Police, Relate and Connexions who work together to tackle bullying in Warwickshire.
The group consults with children, young people and families and helps schools and other agencies improve their practice to ensure people can find out about services that can help them to deal with bullying situations. For more information please visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/bullying