Start with the Heart

Start with the Heart

Scotland’s ‘respectme reward’ earns global recognition

respectme, Scotland’s Anti-Bullying Service, launched their ‘Start with the Heart’ (Positive practices in anti-bullying) publication today (Thursday 12 June 2025) while attending the fifth World Anti-Bullying Forum held in Stavanger, Norway. Established in 2017, the biannual conference brings together researchers, policymakers and practitioners from across the globe.

respectme gained international recognition and was selected to participate in the prestigious event by staging a workshop. During the session colleagues shared highlights from Scotland’s unique ‘respectme reward’ which supports schools and youth settings to measure the impact of their anti-bullying work across the themes of prevention, response and inclusion. During the presentation, Service Director, Lorraine Glass, welcomed the launch of the report and delivered key insights from an array of positive practices in bullying from across Scotland’s educational settings. 

Lorraine Glass, respectme’s Director, commented: “Bullying is a global problem; studies suggest that a third of the globe’s youth are bullied. This is a very important meeting point in the work and research against bullying so it’s vitally important for us to join others on the global stage to promote Scotland’s anti-bullying approach, as well as highlighting the work taking place in Scotland. 

“Placing the safety, health, wellbeing and happiness of all children and young people at the heart of everything we do is our ultimate purpose. Our work is driven by children’s rights legislation and underpinned by the values of fairness, respect, equality, and inclusion. We developed, designed and piloted our unique respectme reward programme back in 2020. It is a validated self-assessment method, which seeks to test the gap between local policy and practice by examining the impact of anti-bullying work, correlated with measures on how safe children and young people report feeling in their school or youth setting, as well as data from parents/carers and staff/volunteers. 

“A coveted ‘reward’ certificate is presented upon completion, and good practice is shared widely. Gaining a reward does not mean that there is no bullying in that school or setting – instead it shows that the whole school or group community are committed to, and relentlessly persistent, in their anti-bullying ambitions, which start with the heart!” 

Across Scotland, 30 schools have now received their ‘respectme reward ‘, which reflects compelling evidence that their anti-bullying policy and practice is creating inclusive environments where the significant majority of children and young people report feeling safe as a consequence.