Anti Bullying Guidance Response Report – July 2024

The national anti-bullying guidance Respect for All has been in place since 2017. Scottish Government committed to reviewing the guidance every 5 years which meant it was due to be reviewed in 2022 but was delayed due to COVID-19. In March 2023, a working group was established to support the review of Respect for All. More recently, separate sub-groups have been established to consider certain sections of the guidance in more depth. These include prejudice-based bullying, online bullying and recording and monitoring. 

The CLD Standards Council felt it was important that the views of CLD practitioners, alongside children, young people, parents, and carers, inform this guidance review, and submitted a response report to this consultation. The report explores how the CLD profession is often best placed to work with and support vulnerable learners during these difficult situations, highlighting the role and benefit of the CLD profession and the impact it can have on the communities and individuals this guidance aims to support. It was important to highlight the benefits of partnership working across all educators and educational settings. The response report was compiled following consultation with members of the CLD Standards Council. We facilitated a consultation event with members and representative from Scottish Governments Health and Wellbeing in Schools Policy team, as well as gathering members views using an online questionnaire.

The report was submitted to the Scottish Government on the 30^th July 2024 on behalf of the membership.