bullybusters review

-1st SEPT to 18th DEC, 2002 (18 weeks)

Bully Busters received 553 calls in the period from its launch on Sept 1, 2004 to December 18, 2004. And from those the Bully Busters specialist staff made 84 support calls on behalf of callers and 41 formal referrals to the LEAs for investigation.

Additionally there were 50 calls from other areas and 109 from unknown areas.

Following the formal referals Bully Busters has received feedback from the LEAs for each area on the outcome of most of the cases investigated. To date there have been some very positive outcomes although there are some cases which are still being worked on.

The figures clearly indicate that most calls and referrals are within the core circulation areas of the ECHO. With this in mind the weekly newspapers in our group are now going to carry the Bully Busters logo and phone number in all editions.

Additionally Bully Busters screensavers and mouse mats are to be made available to all Merseyside schools to ensure maximum awareness of the hotline across the region.

Bully Busters cards are going out to all 350,000 school pupils on Merseyside and we are launching a Bully Busters website with up to date information for victims or their families who can seek help. The message frorn the hundreds of people who have called the service so far seems to indicate that many victims feel they are bullied and then punished by the system. They say they are the ones who have to stay in at break time or leave 15 minutes early to keep them away from the bullies.

Often the school finds it easier to do this to ensure the victim's safety, but victims are concerned this appears to condone the behaviour of the bullies. It is noticeable that as Bully Busters staff deal with the calls they can often offer some practical advice to parents on procedure, and this seems to have reduced the number of referrals recently.

By suggesting that concerned parents speak to teachers, year heads, head teachers or by writing to the governors the problem can be dealt with without taking matters further. Simple solutions like asking teaching staff to use circle time, or other such time to talk about bullying can help.

The helpline is still receiving the majority of calls from parents and relatives of the victims, but staff will endeavour to speak to the young person if possible to see how they want to proceed.

We are actually receiving more calls from pupils now than at the outset, but they do not always want to identify themselves.

Collette Rice and David Ellis, Local Solutions (Helpline providers)