Since August 2019, all schools and local authorities have been expected to use the Bullying and Equalities Module (BEM) within the SEEMiS System to record and monitor incidents of bullying.  

The review acknowledges that staff in schools use a range of supportive approaches when dealing with children and young people in response to incidents of bullying.  

However, there is a need to improve arrangements for the recording and monitoring of bullying. HM Inspectors set out a number of recommendations as part of the review. These include: 

1. Scottish Government should work with partners to review the functionality of the BEM within the SEEMiS system to make it more practical for schools to record and monitor incidents of bullying.
2. Schools should work in partnership with parents, learners and staff to agree a shared definition of bullying within their school community. This will help to strengthen approaches to recording and support monitoring of alleged incidents of bullying. 
3. Schools should ensure they have suitable arrangements in place to encourage children and young people to report, with confidence, all incidents of alleged bullying. 
4. Schools must regularly record bullying incidents accurately and monitor this information systematically. This will allow them to identify more readily the scope and scale of bullying incidents and make improvements in policy and practice to support learners wellbeing.

Read the report

Approaches to recording and monitoring incidents of bullying in schools provides an independent view of how solutions have been implemented. It includes examples from across primary, secondary and special schools and comments on how schools respond to incidents of bullying.