The man who has the job of clamping down on bullying in York schools says it is on the increase, but there is confusion about who to turn to for help. Education Reporter HAYDN LEWIS investigates.

THE scourge of bullying is on the increase among youngsters in York, but it can be a frustrating process for a parent whose child has suffered it at school when they try to get any answers.

John Stead is the anti-bullying regional co-ordinator, who only last week said there was "absolutely no doubt" that there was an increasing problem with text and email bullying in schools in York and North Yorkshire.

He openly admits that there is a great deal of confusion surrounding who is responsible for bullying policy - the school or the local education authority - and what powers they have.

The Education Act 2002 says every school must have a policy on bullying, but it does not set out what that should include.

This means in reality that a school's anti-bullying policy can be anything from a brief outline based around the fact that bullying is wrong, to a detailed document setting out what the school treats as bullying.

"What we are finding is that a lot of these anti-bullying policies, while well-meaning, don't help you to understand what the school actually does to prevent bullying, and what they do when bullying takes place," said Mr Stead.

"Also, when it comes to keeping records about bullying, a problem arises because the law doesn't state that a school must keep records of bullying."

So, is it time for the Government to rethink the law and come up with a more accountable method of dealing with bullying?

Mr Stead said he believed schools needed more guidance, and incidents should be recorded and made public at monthly governors' meetings.

He said parents often assumed that local education authorities had the power to intervene with schools on their behalf, when their powers were quite limited.

Mr Stead said: "If a school says they are investigating a case there's little more they can do and that's why many parents get angry and frustrated and I understand that."

Last week the Evening Press reported startling new figures showing almost one in five (17 per cent) year seven and eight pupils were the victims of bullying due to their mobile in 2004. This was an increase on the previous year, when the same survey showed 14 per cent were victims of text bullies. Mr Stead, who was appointed last November, said that text bullying was very hard to police and was an issue for the whole community as it did not only happen during school time.

But Huntington School head Chris Bridge said that the last thing schools needed was more red tape, and bullying incidents were best dealt with in-house.

He said he was in favour of keeping the status quo, with City of York Council using periodic questionnaires like the one referred to above to gauge the levels of bullying.

"I think parents do understand that they can see a school's anti-bullying policy at any time and write to the school governors to ask them for changes if they disagree with it.

"Bullying comes in all shapes and sizes and it's not always black and white. It can be anything from a friendship break-up, to people not being able to communicate their feelings, to more serious forms.

"I am very much in favour of schools formulating their own anti-bullying policies to their own circumstances - they are not written in complete isolation and quite often the more simple the document the easier it is to understand and put into practice."

City of York Council is hoping to host an anti-bullying event in November.

Updated: 10:13 Wednesday, June 15, 2005