21 recommendations made by Bailey Gwynne death inquiry
The independent review into the circumstances surrounding the death of Bailey Gwynne has made 21 recommendations.
The independent review into the circumstances surrounding the death of Bailey Gwynne has made 21 recommendations.
They are:
WEAPONS:
- All parents should receive a letter from school at the beginning of S1, setting out the school rules and the expectations regarding weapons.
- Pupil forums and pupil councils should be encouraged to develop safe processes to enable pupils to share their knowledge of weapons with teachers.
- Police Scotland shall be notified of every incident of weapons possession known to a school.
- Every incident will be recorded by the school immediately following an allegation or an incident and notified to senior managers.
- Aberdeen City Council should work with Police Scotland to establish a "clear and effective" policy on management of offensive weapons in school.
- Under current law, any searches must be made with a pupil's consent. Where no consent is given, the police should be notified if there are grounds to suggest a young person is carrying a weapon.
- A search and confiscation protocol should be developed by Aberdeen City Council as part of their weapons/knife crime strategy.
- Individual risk assessments should be completed on all individuals known or suspected to carry offensive weapons.
- Aberdeen City Council must work with police to develop and deliver training for P7, S1 and S5 pupils to support the knife crime strategy.
- Aberdeen City Council should work with the Ben Kinsella Trust to develop teaching resources and lesson plans.
- The Scottish Government "should improve the resilience of schools to the threat posed by weapons and give consideration to amending the law in relation to searching pupils".
- The Scottish Government "should explore the further legislative controls that can be brought to bear on the purchase of weapons online".
BULLYING:
- Aberdeen City Council's 2009 anti-bullying policy should be replaced with a policy to include the changes following the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.
- School anti-bullying policies should be written in terms of the new policy.
- A senior teacher must be trained to respond to complaints of bullying and agree outcomes with parents.
BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING:
- The rigour of the "business continuity plans for secondary schools" should be tested using a live scenario based on the fatal incident.
MEDIA:
- Regulatory bodies Ofcom and Ipso should consider the imposition of a 24-hour bar on reporting of names involved in a fatal incident to allow for the "proper and respectful" notification to relatives and those intimately affected by the event.
- Aberdeen City Council should develop media training for members and chief officers on the management of communications during adverse events.
GENERAL:
- Aberdeen City Council should review the complaints policy to ensure it is responsive and expeditious.
- A review commissioned from the Good Governance Institute by Aberdeen City Council should defer its conclusion until the Scottish Government Child Protection System Review has reported. Expected by the end of December.
- Aberdeen City chief officers group to develop an implementation plan to deliver these recommendations and keep progress under review.