Dr. Seline Keating:

It is not necessarily that we have failed. The year 2013 was a huge positive step in that every school in Ireland had to have an anti-bullying policy. Where we are struggling is having these policies active and engagement. The role of parents and guardians in supporting schools can never be overestimated. Parents need to know what to do if their child is being bullied or is the bully. They need support. The model that may be in place is parent talks and teacher talks. I do not think talking is enough. School staff and parents need to be involved in an experiential approach whereby they are not being talked at but are actively involved and trained and have acquired a skill set to handle bullying, which is really important.

Perhaps one of the failures, if there is one, is that anti-bullying policies and the oversight management are not being evaluated annually, as recommended in the 2013 guidelines. Much of that is down to curriculum overload, administration overload, not having the time and, most importantly, not knowing how even to approach this element. Having an audit tool will make it feasible for all schools to check in on their anti-bullying policies and see what is working. Most importantly, when we look at what schools are doing, we need to look at the positives as well such that there is a balanced view and that when schools analyse their anti-bullying policies, that audit tool gives them the opportunity to see the areas in which they are succeeding and then the areas that need improvement. This will enhance the self-esteem of school staff as well. Perhaps they will feel that the communication of the school's anti-bullying policy is working really well but that they really need to work more on including the pupils in their school. Perhaps they will suggest that for the next school year they focus directly on that and involve staff, pupils and parents in the ways in which they can do that and then, the following year, check whether they tackled that and devise another action plan such that there is a realistic cycle approach each year.