Foreword
Colleagues, supporters and friends of respectme,
It is with a warm heart, and sincere gratitude to all participants, that I present this delightful progress report on the ‘respectme reward’ programme.
respectme, Scotland’s Anti-Bullying Service, is wholly funded by the Scottish Government to provide policy support and guidance, professional learning/training for adults, Anti-Bullying Week annual campaigns and a suite of high-quality resources for use across education and youth work services.
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. Bullying is never acceptable and is not a normal, or inevitable, part of growing-up.
In response to requests from our stakeholders, I developed, designed and piloted the unique, innovative reward programme. 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.
Open-hearted colleagues from Dumfries and Galloway Council area worked closely with me to trust and test the system, which evaluated positively and was later scaled for national roll-out across Scotland.
We gather data on the anti-bullying prevention, response and inclusive practices in place which combine to create safer cultures, rooted in strong, shared values. Policy feedback and suggestions for practice are offered in return to participants for future implementation, with improved outcomes for children and young people firmly at the heart of the process.
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!
Lorraine Glass
Director, respectme
