Management Information Sheet

Annual Reporting of Prejudice Related Incidents

MI Sheet TypeAction
To Be Completed By: 30/09/2022
MI Number:128/22
Publication Date:08/07/2022 12:00:00
LA Contact:Keeley White
Audience:School Leaders, Equality Leads

Annual Reporting of Prejudice Related Incidents

Norfolk County Council currently collects annual 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 2021/22 school year 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. 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 the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. It can happen face to face or online. There are four key elements to this definition:

  • hurtful
  • repetition
  • power imbalance
  • intentional

Further information is available here: What is bullying? (anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk).

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.