Management Information Sheet
Prejudice Related Reporting
Norfolk County Council currently collects school's data in respect of prejudice related incidents and this information has been valuable in informing policy and practice within the LA and providing appropriate support to schools and educational settings.
At the end of the Summer term you will be asked to complete an annual return for the 2020/21 school year, using a form in the MySchool section of the Norfolk Schools website, which will provide us with an overview of incidents within the LA. You will be asked to report on all incidents relating to protected characteristics as detailed in the Equality Act 2010.
The protected characteristics are:
- Race (ethnicity)
- Sex (gender)
- Disability
- Religion or belief
- Sexual orientation
- Gender reassignment
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Marriage*
- Age*
*These refer to staff but not pupils
As we now collect this information annually there is no need to submit individual reports to the LA during the year. However, it is really important that you continue to keep records of incidents in your own setting. This should have details of the incident but also information about how you have successfully responded.
The nature of incidents should be monitored regularly with follow up action evaluated. Your response could include individual or group work with children and young people or you might identify that staff would value training on how to deal with incidents.
Many schools and settings have developed an action plan alongside their equality objectives which sets out exactly how they are promoting this important area. Learning and Inclusion are keen to work with in partnership with you and our commitment to this work was most recently confirmed in the letter from Chris Snudden (MI Sheet 33/21).
The information you share contributes to our planning and ensures that we are focusing on the right areas and we appreciate you completing this return as it means we can direct our resources to the areas you tell us are a priority.
Recording prejudice related incidents
Recording racist incidents was a recommendation of the 1999 MacPherson Report of the inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence. In addition to in-school reporting procedures, sharing the data with the Local Authority allows the identification of patterns and contributes to the monitoring of the effectiveness of countywide strategy and training and the development of models of best practice.
The analysis of this data evidences how schools, settings and the Local Authority:
- Foster good relations
- Advance equality of opportunity
- Eliminate discrimination
These are requirements of the Equality Act.
How to decide if it is a prejudice related incident or bullying
A prejudiced-related incident is any incident which is perceived by the victim, or any other person, to be prejudiced towards an individual, due to one or more of the protected characteristics.
Bullying is behaviour by an individual or group, repeated over time, that intentionally hurts another individual or group either physically or emotionally. Three characteristics of bullying are:
- Deliberately hurtful (including aggression)
- Repeated often over a period of time
- Difficult for the victim to defend themselves against
Bullying may be because of a protected characteristic but this is not always the case.
A prejudice related incident may not be bullying. Bullying related to a protected characteristic would always be a prejudice related incident.