7.1 Special Educational Needs and / or disability

Rating description:

Fully met: We collect data about whether this group is more at-risk of being bullied / bullying others (or if this type of bullying is an issue in school), and this data shows us they are not more at-risk than their peers (or the type of bullying isn’t a concern within school). We also actively work to prevent and respond to any bullying targeted at these pupils.
Partially met: We collect data about whether this group is more at-risk of being bullied / bullying others (or if this type of bullying is an issue in school), and this data highlights that this group is more at-risk (or this type of bullying is an issue in school), therefore we are actively working to prevent and respond to this type of bullying.
Not yet met: We do not collect data about whether this group is more at-risk of being bullied / bullying others (or if this type of bullying is an issue in school).

Disabled young people and those with SEN (SEND), are significantly more likely to experience bullying - including online bullying - than their peers. Children who have learning disabilities and autism are particularly at risk.

The Equality Act 2010 introduced a public sector equality duty. All schools must have due regard to the need to:

eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited under the Act
advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it
foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

This duty covers the ‘protected characteristics’ which includes disability. Under the public sector equality duty, schools must act if they are aware of the use of discriminatory language or language which targets pupils or school staff because of their protected characteristics.

You can find out more via the Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance.

We have a range of information and resources to help you tackle bullying of children and young people with SEND. We will continue to add more tools, resources and case studies from participating schools throughout the programme so do check back.

We will be asking you to submit supporting evidence of your work on this area in the final audit, along with sections 1-6.

You might want to start by watching this video we made with disabled young people

Tips:

Ensure that children and young people with SEND are supported to take the lead in anti-bullying initiatives. Consult with them about their experiences of disablism and bullying in school and online. Come up with your strategy with their input.
Encourage staff to take our free CPD anti-bullying e-learning which includes a course on Bullying and SEND and Reducing Disablist Bullying: Disabilities, the Equality Act and Schools Duties.
It is important that the Equality Act is referenced in your anti-bullying policy and specifically mentions SEND.
The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) - requires public bodies (including all schools) to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between different people when carrying out their activities. Under this duty, schools must challenge and prevent discriminatory language from being used in their school. You can find out more about this in our new online course on Reducing Disablist Bullying.
Disabled young people tell us that they often hear casual use of disablist language. It is vital to challenge all forms of disablist language when it takes place. We worked with World of Inclusion to develop some resources to help you do this.
We believe strongly in taking a person centred and social model of disability focused approach to reducing disablist bullying in school.