Race Equality

Summary of advice

In the City of Edinburgh’s Guidance on Positively Challenging Bullying, Racism and Discrimination a list is provided to support staff where there are incidents of bullying, racism and discrimination.

Do: 

  • assume racist behaviour/bullying does take place
  • respect confidentially, particularly on sexual identity
  • create a school policy, which encompasses short-term and long-term strategies to deal with victims and perpetrators of discrimination such as:
    • Positive behaviour strategies, eg daily conduct sheet
    • Increased visibility of staff during breaks and in the areas where young people gather
    • Restorative practices
    • Self-esteem and confidence building
    • Establishing mentoring, buddying and peer meditation
    • Involving police in the most serious cases
    • Withdrawal of privileges
    • No-blame approaches
    • Individual, group or class discussions 
  • take complaints and concerns seriously
  • investigate immediately when the complaint is received from a child/young person, parent or carer
  • show fairness and consistency to all parties concerned during the investigation
  • invite the views of the complainant on what action is proposed. Taking the child’s/young person’s (reasonable) views seriously and monitoring the situation is often enough to raise their esteem sufficiently to put an end to the bullying; asking 'What would you like to happen now?' helps a child who may have overcome a great hurdle of fear in coming to you
  • let young people and parents know of support services
  • consider working with children/young people to devise a reporting form that they can complete themselves
  • encourage parents and carers to let you know of any incidents happening in the community that might spill over into the centre or school. 

Don’t:

  • say there is no bullying or discrimination in your establishment
  • assume that all young people, parents and carers are straight/heterosexual
  • make assumptions based on previous incidents or misbehaviour
  • say 'I’m too busy just now'
  • say 'I think you brought this on yourself'
  • assume because the incident is apparently closed, it cannot happen again in varying forms; establish ways of monitoring for this with the children/young people affected and staff/others as appropriate
  • forget to get back to the complainant before you close the matter and let them know it has been dealt with; forgetting this can result in cynicism and a reduced willingness to report further incidents
  • ignore the fact bullying behaviour is evident in the early years and can be checked at this early stage.