Carmarthenshire’s new anti-bullying forum has met for the first time.
The forum, coordinated by Carmarthenshire County Council’s Healthy Schools team, has been set up to tackle bullying head-on – working proactively to identify and address bullying through a strengthened partnership approach.
A number of partners have signed up to the scheme, including primary and secondary head teachers, school nurses, the youth offending service, Carmarthenshire Youth Council and the county council.
It aims to create, support, and raise awareness of anti-bullying initiatives, with a particular focus on providing information for parents and children and young people.
It will also work closely with children and young people to gain feedback on bullying issues, one example being a young people’s bullying survey which is currently being undertaken to gather evidence to inform the forum’s future work.
Gareth Morgans, Head of Carmarthenshire County Council’s Education Services, said: “There is already a lot of good work being done across the county amongst the local education authority and partners to tackle bullying, however, we know there are gaps and through the new forum we can start to prioritise areas for action, ensuring that we have a consistent approach across the county and across organisations that provide learning opportunities.”
The council’s membership in the forum links in with the work it does an ‘education champion’ with equality and diversity charity Stonewall Cymru, to tackle homophobia and homophobic bullying in schools.
As well as providing an opportunity to look at the council’s wider responsibility in tackling bullying in our schools, Stonewall’s Education Champions Index allows Carmarthenshire to learn from examples of best practice across other parts of Wales and the UK.
- Are you being bullied, or do you know someone that is? Visit our website for information on bullying and what you can do to help.
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