The Department for Education recently released a research report in February 2023, titled “State of the nation 2022: children and young people’s wellbeing”. This research centres around the impact COVID has had on the wellbeing of children and young people over the past year after schools and colleges have had to return to full time face to face teaching as well as formal examinations.
The findings relevant to the anti-bullying sector are as follows:
The statistics below show the percentage of children and young people in schools that felt safe in schools, and from what is presented, these numbers likely show a plausible link between children and young people feeling safe at schools and an increase in bullying. The findings also showed bullying levels remain high in schools in England and some groups of young people are more likely to be bullied than others.
Below are graphs showing the percentages of primary and secondary children and young people being bullied in the previous 12 months.
The overall percentage show that children and young people having SEN and Free School Meals (FSM) status experience higher levels of bullying than other groups – the statistics show the levels of bullying to be in the 30’s percentile over the past 12 months.
- Less than half of children involved in the study felt safe in school every day - 41% reported that they felt safe at school every day (75% every/most days)
- Children involved in the study felt safer when in year 12 and 13, compared with those in younger years: those in years 7 to 9 (41%) and years 10 & 11 (37%) were less likely to report that they felt safe in school every day compared to those in years 12 & 13 (51%).
- Males are more likely to report feeling safe at school: 48% Males, 35% Females.
- Those eligible for FSM were less likely to report that they felt safe at school (33%) every day, than those not eligible for FSM (43%).
There were no significant differences in the percentage of those who reported that they felt safe at school every day by SEN status or ethnicity – The below charts show how little the difference is.
The research shows that children and young people with mental health issues are more likely to feel lonely
Online bullying/safety:
The research further shows that girls and younger females are more likely to experience bullying online than boys and younger men. It also shows that the boys and younger males were more likely to feel safe online than girls and younger females.
Article written by Vanessa A. Mordi