Training Materials – Smile, No Bullying

 Smile, No Bullying
 Positive Futures, £75
 Order from ltj@alphagraphics.co.uk
 
 STAR RATING: 3/5 

I think that it is very good that this guide attempts to encourage staff to work together to stop bullying, as the guide shows that bullying is not acceptable within a service, writes Daniel Hardy.

It helps everyone to understand that bullying is wrong, so staff will be more likely to report any bullying that they witness. However, the guide is too focused on people with learning difficulties bullying each other. The forms of bullying outlined (punching and kicking, name calling, swearing and threatening, ignoring and excluding) would mainly be done by people with learning difficulties (knowingly or not).

But as staff members can exert power over users of a service and as users are more vulnerable than staff, this guide does not outline the tactics that may be used by staff to bully users.
If the staff are bullying then they will not report bullying. Also, the definitions of bullying were not very clear to me or my support worker, as the guide used words such as “hurtful”, “humiliation” and “nit picking”, without examples of what these words mean in the context of bullying.

However, the communication boards in the guide which explain what bullying is would be very useful, as they seem to be straightforward for staff and other people to be able to use.

Daniel Hardy is equal access to justice project worker, Voice UK, a national learning difficulties charity