Scottish Anti-Bullying Steering Group ( SABS)
A national approach to anti-bullying for Scotland's children and young people has been developed by the Scottish Anti-Bullying Steering Group ( SABS). SABS includes representatives from the Scottish Government; Convention of Scottish Local Authorities; Association of Directors of Education Scotland; Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People; HM Inspectorate of Education; Care Commission; Equality and Human Rights Commission Scotland; Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland; Learning and Teaching Scotland; Community Learning and Development Managers Scotland; respectme, Scotland's Anti-Bullying Service; CHILDREN 1 st, Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care, LGBT Youth Scotland, Scottish Association for Mental Health; Children's Parliament and Youth Scotland. SABS is independently chaired by Alison Davies, former Director of Save the Children Scotland.
The aim of SABS is to steer, co-ordinate and promote developments in anti-bullying work with children and young people in order to make sure Scotland's approach to anti-bullying, wherever and however it occurs, is comprehensive, effective and cohesive.
The Scottish Anti-Bullying Steering Group ( SABS) represents key stakeholders which individually support and contribute to:
- policy development, implementation and evaluation
- service improvement, inspection and regulation
- networking
- training
- resources, information and advice
- campaigning and awareness raising
National, core services are represented in SABS that are dedicated to preventing and dealing with bullying of children and young people including respectme, Scotland's Anti-Bullying Service, and the Bullying helpline, managed by ChildLine. respectme supports all agencies working with children and young people to develop and implement anti-bullying policies and practices including training, guidance and information. respectme also provides information for parents and carers, children and young people and campaigns nationally. ChildLine provides children and young people with an opportunity to talk confidentially with a councillor about problems they may face. Recognising the widespread nature of bullying, ChildLine operates a helpline for children and young people affected by bullying and promotes the number nationally to all children and young people.
However, many sectors and organisations prevent and deal with bullying as part of wider policy and service development, delivery and regulation. For example, HMIE and the Care Commission identify and respond to issues of bullying as part of their regulatory and service development remit; other organisations such as the Scottish Institute for Residential Childcare and LGBT Youth Scotland address bullying within their wider context and remits of training, information, support and services for young people. This significantly builds the resources, capacity and integration of work on anti-bullying nationally. Everyone can contribute to an anti-bullying approach in Scotland as outlined in the range of roles identified in annex A.
The remit of the Scottish Anti-Bullying Steering Group is to:
- promote the national approach and contribute to its implementation
- contribute knowledge, information and experience
- share best practice and resources between organisations and sectors
- invite contributions from organisations or sectors
- comment on, and contribute to, quality assurance of new developments, materials and research
- identify gaps and overlaps
- identify opportunities for further development and joint working
- steer the future direction of policy and development work