Bullying is named in Keeping Children Safe in Education as a form of 'peer on-peer abuse'. There is not a law against bullying per se, but when there is 'reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm', a bullying incident should be addressed as a child protection concern under the Children Act 1989.
Follow your safeguarding procedure. Serious incidents of bullying behaviour should be treated as you would any other safeguarding incident. School staff must inform your Designated Safeguarding Lead as soon as possible, and they will then consider whether they need to involve children’s services or the police. It may be that the behaviour is also criminal, in which case the police will need to advise on next steps.
What do we mean by significant harm? There can be shades of grey but serious incidents are likely to either have involved physical and/or sexual assault, threats of harm, and/or have had a profound impact on a child’s mental health (evidence for this could include absence from school, depression and anxiety, self-harm and suicidal thoughts).
