The government has been challenged to introduce legislation requiring schools to report any use of threats or violence against staff to police.
The change was set out in an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, and debated at scrutiny committee stages yesterday.
Shadow education minister Neil O’Brien told MPs: “It is time to ensure that all acts and threats of violence against teachers are reported to the police.
“We want those who would lift their hands to a teacher and engage in an act of violence, intimidation or threat to know that it will absolutely be reported to the police.”
He continued: “It is sometimes good to make a credible pre-commitment to things, and people need to know it is never acceptable to do those things.”
However, schools minister Catherine McKinnell argued the amendment was unnecessary and could add to schools’ administrative burdens.
She said she agreed with the sentiments behind the clause - that any form of violence in school is “completely and utterly unacceptable and should not be tolerated”.
But she said that the law already requires schools to have a behaviour policy that, in the most serious cases, allows for “suspensions and permanent exclusion” to ensure that teachers and pupils are “protected from disruption”.
‘Additional burdens’
Ms McKinnell said schools or trusts, as employers, already have a statutory duty under health and safety at work regulations, and other guidelines, to protect school staff at work “so the new clause is likely to impose an additional administrative burden on school leaders”.
She said that, where violence takes place on school premises, “schools should take immediate and appropriate action”.
Should the incident constitute a potential criminal offence, it is for the school as an employer to consider involving the police, having followed advice contained in guidance, she added.
She referred specifically to the for schools and colleges, written by the National Police Chiefs’ Council in partnership with the Department for Education and the Home Office.
During the debate, Mr O’Brien pointed out that, in Scotland, members of the NASUWT teaching union are taking industrial action because of the failure of authorities to create discipline, and that unions say teachers “report being told at debriefing meetings that their lessons are ‘not fun or engaging enough’, [which] is absolutely extraordinary”.
In drafting the amendment to the bill, he said: “We are not looking to criminalise children, but we should not expect teachers to suck up abuse that we would never expect other professionals to”.
He added: “If we log what is going on, we have a chance of avoiding things that can escalate over time.”
The amendment was defeated by six votes to 10.
Anti-bullying leads
Earlier in the debate, Mr O’Brien introduced amendments requiring all schools to appoint an anti-bullying lead and for the eduation secretary to produce an annual report on behaviour in schools.
Education minister Stephen Morgan responded that the DfE’s annual National Behaviour Survey (NBS) findings “already allow us to build up a national picture over time, and act as a signpost to what schools need”.
“My department will continue to use data from the NBS to inform future strategy and policy improvements on behaviour in schools,” he said. The amendments were withdrawn.
