My Lords, we have had a good, wide-ranging debate on this group, which concerns how schools deal with acts of violence against their staff, pupil behaviour management, and tackling bullying in schools, including incidents that are racist or faith-based.

Violence and bullying in schools are never acceptable. No teacher should feel unsafe or face violence or abuse in the workplace. The department will always support teachers to ensure that they can work in safe and calm classrooms.

All schools must have a behaviour policy to regulate the conduct of pupils, to help ensure that teachers and pupils are protected from disruption and, most importantly, that they have a safe school environment in which to work and learn. When misbehaviour occurs, schools can use sanctions as a measure to improve behaviour; in the most serious cases, exclusion may be necessary to ensure that all pupils are protected from disruption and can benefit from the opportunities provided by education. To provide some assurance to the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, we believe that pupil referral units have an important role to play in this.

To reiterate the importance with which the Government view this, we have recently announced the launch of new RISE attendance and behaviour hubs, focusing on supporting senior leaders to develop safe, supportive school cultures with high expectations for attendance and behaviour. Their role will include using data to identify and address areas of concern. We have now appointed the first 21 lead schools in this programme.

Amendment 459, in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, would require schools to report acts of violence against staff to the police. I want to be completely clear that, as I have already said, all forms of violence against school staff should be taken seriously. It is never acceptable for anyone to be harassed, intimidated or attacked.

The primary duty to take reasonable care for the health and safety of all employees rests with the employer. The employer is responsible for doing what is reasonably practicable to ensure the health, safety and welfare at work of all employees and should take appropriate action where they are aware of any matters that could detract from that. Where violence is involved, schools should take immediate and appropriate action. Should the incident constitute a potential criminal offence, it would be for the school employer to consider involving the police, having followed the advice in WHEN TO CALL THE POLICE Guidance for Schools & Colleges from the National Police Chiefs’ Council, written in partnership with the department and the Home Office. Given those provisions and that guidance, we fear that this amendment would be likely to impose additional burdens on schools without necessarily strengthening protections for staff.

Amendment 464, in the name of my noble friend Lady Whitaker, would place a duty on local authorities to require schools to record and report racist incidents or faith-based bullying, and the action taken. I wholly support the views of noble Lords who have identified how reprehensible these incidents are and how important it is that action is taken within the school to identify and educate students about the significance of that element of bullying.

Under the Equality Act 2010, every school in England has an existing legal obligation to not discriminate unlawfully on the grounds of a protected characteristic. We have confidence in the seriousness with which head teachers take any incidents that breach this requirement, as these would. Further reporting requirements for schools would risk creating a new burden and risk unintended consequences, as some noble Lords have touched on, discouraging children and staff from disclosing to school leaders due to privacy concerns and increasing the threshold at which schools may identify and respond to incidents due to perceived risk of reputational damage. We want children to be as open as possible within the school environment so that head teachers and teachers can determine the appropriate action.

I will take Amendments 501 and 502E together as both aim to address the importance of tackling bullying in schools and recognise the profound impact it can have on children’s lives. Amendment 501, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Storey, seeks to introduce a duty on the department to collect and publish national data related to pupils’ experiences of bullying in schools. The department already monitors young people’s perceptions of bullying through the annual National Behaviour Survey, and I can confirm to the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, that that survey will continue. It enables us to develop our understanding of bullying prevalence and trends.

Amendment 502E, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, seeks to mandate the appointment of an anti-bullying lead in schools to develop an anti-bullying strategy. In my introduction to this group, I referred to the legal requirement for schools to have a behaviour policy. In response to the question from the noble Lord, Lord Storey, the law is clear that a school’s policy should include measures to prevent bullying. Schools are held to account by Ofsted and the Independent Schools Inspectorate on that.

School leaders are, and should be, free to tailor their approach and this can include deploying a lead for anti-bullying. Mandating how schools meet their obligations to prevent bullying, particularly in terms of staffing, does not recognise the need for flexibility in schools to ensure that approaches can be tailored to meet the needs of different settings and cohorts of pupils. This in no way suggests that we do not take this issue seriously and that is why the Department for Education is launching a procurement for an expert- and evidence-led review into best practice on preventing and tackling bullying. The learning from that best practice review will inform the support to be given in the longer term by the new attendance and behaviour hubs that I have already mentioned. This approach has been informed by recent engagement with a range of stakeholders, including teachers, parents, academics, charities and young people, to understand more about the issues around bullying.

Amendment 502N relates to a very important topic and it is right that the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, raises it. The department recognises that the misuse of seclusion in schools can have a significant and long-lasting effect on the pupils, staff members and parents involved, and we are committed to minimising its use in schools. Earlier this year, we held a 12-week public consultation on the draft Use of Reasonable Force and Other Restrictive Interventions in Schools guidance. We have listened to the views of the sector and taken the decision to pursue secondary legislation that mandates the recording and reporting of the use of seclusion in schools to parents. This important work is already under way. It is a significant and positive step forward for pupils and their families, and will support schools to have consistent, transparent policies on the use of reasonable force and restrictive interventions which aim to safeguard everybody within the school community.

Amendments 502YV, 502YW, 502YX, 502YY and 502YYA in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, recognise the importance of behaviour management and staff safety in schools through a series of new statutory duties and presumptions. I am clear that every pupil deserves to learn in a safe, calm classroom, and we will always support our hard-working and dedicated teachers to make this happen.

The statutory suspension and permanent exclusion guidance is clear that head teachers can use exclusion as a disciplinary measure to improve behaviour and maintain environments which are safe for all pupils. In the most serious cases, permanent exclusion may be necessary to help protect pupils from disruption and to restore a safe environment. All decisions to suspend or permanently exclude a pupil must be lawful, reasonable and fair, but within these requirements, schools need to be able to set and enforce behaviour policies that reflect their ethos and the specific challenges that they face.

The department is therefore clear that head teachers should use their professional judgment when implementing a behaviour policy where both staff and pupils can work in safety and are respected. We also trust head teachers to use their professional judgment based on the individual circumstances of the case when considering whether to exclude a pupil, and we will protect their right to do that.

In all cases, we expect school leaders to consider early Intervention strategies and the use of multi-agency assessments to address the underlying causes behind a pupil’s disruptive behaviour before issuing an exclusion. Given all the statutory duties and responsibilities in place, this amendment would be likely to impose additional burdens on schools, risks limited flexibility in complex cases and could disproportionately affect vulnerable pupils.

Finally, Amendment 502YF, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Nash, proposes that local authorities assess the needs of children who are permanently excluded from school. Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 already places a general duty on local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need. Naming specific groups would risk narrowing the cohort of children and limiting local flexibility in providing support.

The statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children makes clear that local authorities and partners should identify emerging problems and unmet needs, including for children facing multiple suspensions or permanent exclusion. Our reforms to family help and multi-agency child protection, supported by over £500 million this year, which we talked about earlier in the Bill, will embed people with education experience within multi-agency teams.

We are also introducing a duty on all safeguarding partners to ensure that education and childcare settings are properly represented at strategic and operational levels. I hope that, following this wide-ranging and important debate, noble Lords will feel reassured that the Government have in place positive measures to address the range of serious and important issues highlighted by this group of amendments and recognise how important it is that our teachers can carry out their jobs safely and that our children can benefit from safe and calm classrooms in which to learn. For the reasons outlined, I urge noble Lords not to press their amendments.