what is bullybusters?

Bully Busters is a confidential helpline service which victims or their families can use to discuss their problems in total confidence.

It is funded and run by the Bully Busting team - largely consisting of the six local education authorities, the Liverpool ECHO and the Merseyside Trades Union Council. A team of specially trained staff from helpline experts Local Solutions take the calls and log all thedetails through a carefully structured protocol. If neccessary they take decisive action and report the problem to the relevant LEA to take action under their respective anti-bullying policies. Not all calls need to become referrals.

On many occasions the team are able to advise the caller on what action they can take themselves and make them feel more confident about taking that course of action.

Collette Rice, manager for the service, said: "The monitoring helps us examine whether anti-bullying policies are working and we are able to find hot spots that might need more attention.

"We are also able to find if these kids are reporting their problems to schools or the police."

Bully Busters was set up after 18 months of planning and its progress continues to be monitored by monthly meetings off the full Bully Busters team. All calls to the service are free and nothing shows up on the phone bill.

Our anti-bullying team has raised the £120,000 needed to run the Bully Busters pilot scheme for 12 months. The majority of the funding for the first year of the service has come from the local authorities, the TUC and through the Safer Mersey Partnership. Liverpool lawyer Rex Makin has also donated £5,000 through his charitable trust as did the ECHO through its Sunrise Fund.

We fully intend to keep it as a permanent service to our youngsters.