The Evaluation of the Government's Anti-Homophobic, Biphobic and Transphobic Bullying in Schools Programme
The government has funded a programme which aims to help schools to prevent and respond to homophobic, biphobic and transphobic (HBT) bullying. It also aims to help schools to create an inclusive school environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGB&T) pupils and their families. Six organisations have been awarded funding as part of this programme. These organisations are working with up to 2,000 schools using one of two models:
Model 1: Whole-school activities
Model 2: Staff training
Sheffield Hallam University's (SHU) Centre for Development and Research in Education (CDARE) has been commissioned by the Government Equalities Office (GEO) in the Department for Education (DfE) to conduct an independent evaluation of the anti-HBT bullying initiatives in schools. The evaluation will run until March 2019.
The overall aim is to assess how effective each of the six anti-HBT bullying initiatives have been in helping schools to prevent and respond to HBT bullying and create an inclusive environment for LGB&T pupils. It will explore how and why any improvements have been achieved and in what context. It will also assess relative costs to the outcomes (effects) at the initiative and programme-wide level.
The evaluation has three strands:
Strand one: Scoping phase (approx. December 2016 - February 2017)
As part of the scoping phase we will interview the main contact at each of the provider organisations to further our understanding of the initiatives. We will also collect cost data from each of the initiatives (e.g. based on their funding applications) to help us understand how the work is funded.
Strand two: Pre and post project surveys (approx. February 2017 - October 2018)
Staff survey: For model 1, we will send an online survey to ALL staff within each of the schools involved in the programme. The surveys will take place before schools begin the project work and then 6 months after it has completed. We will ask the school lead for the project to disseminate the survey link to all staff members in the school.
For model 2, we will do the same but the survey will only be for those who have participated in the staff training.
Pupil survey: In model 1 schools, we will also survey pupils in Year 4/5 (in primary schools) and years 7/8 and 9/10 (in secondary schools). We will ask the school lead to facilitate completion of the survey with all pupils within these year groups. Six months after the project work has finished we will re-survey the same sets of pupils.
Cost data: In addition, we will collect cost data from all schools involved in the project through a pre-populated form (with guidance). This is to ascertain whether/what schools have had to spend to support their anti-HBT bullying work.
Strand three: School case studies (Spring/summer 2018)
Within model 1, we will be visiting 12 schools (two from each initiative). During these half day visits we will conduct the following:
An interim report will be produced in January 2018 and a final evaluation report will be completed by 31 March 2019.
Data collected from schools will be stored confidentially. All data will be stored securely on password protected computers, and will be held in compliance with the Data Protection Act. No information included in any report or publication will identify individuals in any way. The study has been approved by Sheffield Hallam University's ethical process and will be conducted in line with SHU's ethics procedures, which are consistent with British Educational Research Association and British Sociological Association guidelines. If an individual participates in an interview or focus group they will be asked to sign a consent form to say that they understand that their participation is voluntary and that they can choose to withdraw if they wish.
At the end of the evaluation we will be sharing anonymised data sets with GEO. This data may also be shared with the six organisations but only where it can be shared in an anonymised form.
This project is being led by Eleanor Formby (Principal investigator) at Sheffield Hallam University. For any enquiries please contact: Claire Wolstenholme or Martin Culliney (Project managers) c.e.wolstenholme@shu.ac.uk tel: 0114 225 6058, m.culliney@shu.ac.uk tel: 0114 225 6072.
The project email address is: hbtbullying@shu.ac.uk.
For GEO/DfE enquiries please contact: Liz Pendry (Project manager) liz.pendry@education.gov.uk