Keeping children safe from bullying conference
An important conference last week initiated by government to help identify ways forward.
Ann-Marie Hayes (ED Early Years & Child Develoment) opened the conference, 960 delegates 1st day, 2nd day designed to take out input from the 1st days important sessions. Around 60 people attended with 30 facilitators to capture that input.
A lot of good well-meaning people – loads of input, added to Helen Connolly’s (Commissioner for Children & Young People’s) additional and separate findings though other forms of feedback. More and more information!
I work in the field of anti-bullying and recently added in DV to my scope. There seems to be so much repetitive conversation – the same people at all the workshops, conversation with the same bias and self fulfilling prophecies. The audience, mainly teaches working in the reality of overloaded schedules and curriculum – too many silos of information not shared.
And then to top it off, not enough focus on the cause of these effects, lack of leadership from parents – not bad people, just lacking strategies for themselves, let alone their children.
Government will never solve this alone. Feed in and out depts have to come together and share budgets to gain the critical mass.
None of this is to decry the efforts of the thousands, but to alert to the miseries of repetitive conversations.
- Bullying is on the increase – fact
- Domestic violence is on the increase – fact
- Youth suicide is on the increase – fact
So we need to find new ways – have new thoughts, push past what can’t be done, look at things that have been done and seemed not to work – we MUST NOT just keep talking, staying with the same solutions -they are not working enough.
As long as substantial work is not done with parents and carers, the problem can only get worse – more lives lost, more money wasted, more time lost!
Rex Buckingham, Principal, LeadershipThinking.Academy