HANNAH Cridford took up her post as Worcestershire’s antibullying co-ordinator earlier this year. It was the first time such a role had been created in the county, and was in response to national efforts to tackle bullying.

Now Miss Cridford is the main link between national and local strategies being implemented and the people on the ground dealing with the day to day effects of the problem.

Miss Cridford, aged 29, said: “There are two anti-bullying groups in Worcestershire – the strategic group which develops the policies and the operational group which puts those policies into practice. I am the link between the two.

“I also work closely with other authorities and anti-bullying groups nationally to share good practice, to look at what’s working, what’s not, and what the issues are that we are facing.”

In Worcestershire, a group of councillors has been conducting a scrutiny exercise into the extent of bullying in the county’s primary and secondary schools, and what practices and procedures are currently in place. The task group will present its findings to members of the full council on Thursday, November 27.

“I haven’t been directly involved in the scrutiny exercise, although the group has spoken to me and I have sat in on their meetings,” said Miss Cridford, who has worked for the county council for almost three years, including with the domestic abuse prevention team, before taking on the anti-bullying role.

“It has been very useful to me in getting a rounded view of what’s happening, although my remit is much wider than that of the task group’s. I work with the wider community, as well as schools, to tackle bullying in all sorts of areas.”

She said: “The data that we have suggests that there is no more, or no less of a problem in Worcestershire as in the rest of the country.

“In part, there may always be bullying, the need to feel powerful is part of human nature, but bullying isn’t acceptable behaviour and what we need to look at is how we work preventatively and how to respond to situations effectively when they arise."”

As part of National Anti-Bullying Week young people from across Worcestershire joined forces to create a CD to raise awareness of the issue.

Sixteen young people from the Worcestershire Young Carers’ Group joined with Nigel Clark, front man of British Indie band Dodgy, to turn their thoughts and feelings about bullying into music.

They spent two days working with Mr Clark at his recording studios in Redditch. The youngsters worked in two age groups – eight to 13-yearolds and 14-year-olds and over – to produce a music track. The track will now be turned into a CD that will be distributed by the county council to every school in Worcestershire this week.

“Both groups of young people worked really hard with Nigel in the studio to produce this track and the results are fantastic,” said Miss Cridford. “All of the young people involved had messages they wanted to portray about bullying and the song itself takes quite a unique look at the issues, with lyrics that sympathise with both the ‘bully’ and the ‘bullied.’ I hope it will provide inspiration for schools and other services to explore creative and effective ways of tackling the issue of bullying.”

Another part of Miss Cridford’s remit is training people to deal with bullying issues.

“I do a lot of work with people who work with children and young people, I work closely with schools and I also occasionally deal directly with individuals,” she said. “I can help people develop anti-bullying policies and procedures and offer advice and training.”

The county council is holding five conference-style events for professionals in Worcestershire who work with children and young people in a bid to tackle the bullying issues.

The free events, which will be held from February to July next year at venues across the county, aim to gain further insight into the good practice already happening in Worcestershire and to signpost support and guidance, including recently-published DCSF guidance around anti-bullying work, Safe To Learn.

People interested in finding out more about the county council’s anti-bullying work should call antibullying co-ordinator, Hannah Cridford on 01905 728895 or e-mail hcridford@worcestershire.gov.uk.