Bullying incidents: reporting and recording requirements

Understand your reporting and recording responsibilities when it comes to bullying, and see examples of forms to record incidents.

Last reviewed on 13 September 2022
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 2515
Contents
  1. Your responsibilities 
  2. Examples of bullying incident forms

Your responsibilities 

You must report bullying incidents to the: 

  • Local authority's (LA) children's social care team (and, if appropriate, the police) if you think the incident constitutes a child protection concern – this would be where there's "reasonable cause to suspect a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm"
  • Police if the incident could be a criminal offence or pose a serious threat to a member of the public (this applies whether it occurred on or off the school premises)

These requirements are outlined on page 6 of the DfE's guidance on preventing and tackling bullying.

Check with your LA to see if it has any additional reporting requirements – for example, to report racist incidents.

Recording bullying incidents 

For all other incidents, choose an approach