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Contents

1. Introduction
2. Definition of Racist and Hate Related Behaviour
3. Staff Duties
4. Reporting Racist or Hate Related Incidents

1. Introduction

The Youth and Play Service is committed to Racial equality and Justice and should tackle all forms of racist or hate related prejudice, harassment and discrimination.

The Youth and Play Service recognise the right of young people to feel, to learn, to play and be with others.  All young people should be treated fairly, with respect and dignity.

The Service should not accept any form of racist or hate related behaviour or harassment whether the individual meant it or not.

The Investigation into the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry has made it abundantly clear that each member of society has a part to play in taking radical steps to combat racism. It is the right of every individual that they should be able to live safely in society. Since the Inquiry a racist incident is defined as:

A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.

The aim of this guidance is to highlight responsibilities and the key role the Youth Service can play in helping to eradicate racism and in valuing diversity.

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act came into force at the end of 2000. It placed upon Local Authorities the general duty to carry out functions to eliminate unlawful discrimination, and the specific duty to stipulate in detail what it will do to comply with the general duty.

The City of London Corporation have adopted a Protocol for Reporting a Racist or Hate Related Incident for more information see the intranet.

The Youth Service will:

• work to develop curriculum strategies aimed at valuing cultural diversity and preventing racism, in order to better reflect the needs of a diverse society
• provide training to promote equal opportunities
• work to recruit staff who better reflect the ethnic diversity of our potential service users
• encourage and share examples of good practice in combating racist or hate related incidents

2. Definition of Racist and Hate Related Behaviour

Racist or hate related behaviour or harassment is any unpleasant or inappropriate behaviour against others because of their skin colour, religion, language or cultural background.  Different types of harassment or behaviour are:

Physical: which includes hitting, kicking, spitting, taking or damaging belongings or threats of violence.

Verbal or Visual: which include name calling, teasing, making fun of or jokes about (including graffiti, comics, magazines, books and badges)

Indirect: which includes excluding (leaving out on purpose) humiliating, spreading nasty rumours and laughing at.

3. Staff Duties

Young people should be able to tell any member of staff if they have a problem with racist or hate related behaviour and feel they are listened to and taken seriously. The Service should ensure that staff working in the service have the ability to deal with the problem, understand and take care in handling the issues.

The staff should inform young people on the consequences of they show racist or hate related behaviour or harass someone.

If a young person is accused of racist or hate related behaviour or harass someone the following steps should be taken.

The young person should be given a verbal warning and staff should inform the young person what is expected of them in the setting.

If the accusation is of a serious nature or it is a repeat of a behaviour after being warned, a letter will be sent to the young persons parent or carer and the young person will lose a privilege or excluded from the programme.

The young persons parent or carer will be invited to a final warning before exclusion or loss of place. See Section 3, Exclusion of Working in Partnership with Parents Procedure.

The young person will be excluded or lose their place straight away. The parents or carers will be informed and if appropriate the police will be contacted.

4. Reporting Racist or Hate Related Incidents

• The outcomes of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry places great emphasis upon the need for all agencies whether in the statutory, voluntary or community sectors to work together, and to share information where appropriate but particularly with the police in order to combat racism.
• In handling racist or hate related incidents at Youth Service Provision the person who has the first contact with the victim or witness reporting a racist or hate related incident should respond in a sensitive way that shows an understanding of how victims of such incidents may feel and seeks to show how common/shared human feeling will challenge the perpetrators.
• It is essential that all information is taken down accurately and recorded as soon as possible.

Alleged Racist or Hate Related Incidents - If Anyone Feels an Incident is Racist or Hate Related Then:

Initial Response

1. treat the issue seriously
2. respond immediately
3. reinforce Youth Service position and rules on racist or hate related incidents 
4. focus on the perpetrator's behaviour (rather than the person)
5. support and affirm the victim
6. connect with victim's  feelings
7. explain how racism works through the stereotyping of an individual

Record

1. fill in Racist or Hate Related Incident Reporting Form
2. notify the Department's Responsible Officer delegated to deal with racist or hate related incidents

How to Investigate a Racist Incident

1. senior manager to lead
2. listen to all parties
3. address underlying issues, e.g. an incident may not be racial in origin - it might be a dispute over resources in which racist or hate related abuse has been used: in which case the original issue should be sorted out as well as the use of the unacceptable words that made it a racist incident
4. make sure race or hate related issues are covered - do not just treat incidents as, say, a case of simple bullying  - be able to explain why it is a racist or hate related incident if you judge it to be such
5. reinforce Youth Service position and rules on racist and hate related incidents
6. if it's not judged to be a racist or hate related incident this would need to be explained to the parties involved, though the incident might still remain as another kind of infringement of the Youth Service behaviour policy which needed a response.

Further Response

1. inform and involve frontline staff
2. follow through with both victim and perpetrator
3. address the perpetrator's racist or hate related  behaviour and correct misperceptions, e.g. about not belonging in "our" country
4. reinforce the Youth Service position and rules on racist and hate related incidents
5. bring both parties together and give them a chance to be involved in resolving the situation
6. contact parents/carers of both the victims as well as the perpetrators. This could involve a letter appropriate to the situation with a phone call and an invitation to meet the Youth Service representative (if felt to be appropriate).

NB: Victims have a right to refer cases to the police if their parents/carers so wish and all parties have a right to appeal.

End