Equally Safe: Assessing the Impact

Year three evaluation and Insights

2023-24 marked another successful academic year of EqualiTeach’s Equally Safe programme. The external evaluation highlighted how schools improved in all areas and how the programme has contributed to make a sustainable positive change for both young people and teachers and senior leadership teams. 

This was the final year of our three-year programme, which was designed to support schools to implement a whole-school approach to prevent, recognise and tackle identity-based bullying and prejudice.  

Each school engaged with the programme for a whole year and received:  

• Resources and guidance to undertake a baseline assessment of their equalities and anti-bullying work 
• Consultancy support to update and strengthen policies
• Eight two-hour online training events for school leads
• Whole-day events and follow up support for pupils to equip them to be Agents for Change ambassadors 
• In-house twilight training for all school staff 
• Action planning meetings with staff leads to support them to implement initiatives and create positive change in school 
• Assistance in communicating the work to parents/carers 
• The creation of a network of peer support with other schools 

The programme was externally evaluated by Goldsmiths University, and in this third and final year, the evaluation found that schools have been able to create much stronger policy systems for their staff and pupils. The adjustments to the policies have had a very positive impact on making the schools’ cultures more inclusive. This has been recognised by staff, children and young people, especially in relation to policy audits and visual representation. By incorporating policies and practices that align with the Equality Act 2010 and government guidelines, schools have been able to create safer and more inclusive spaces for all students and staff. 

“Feedback (from policy-related support) in this area was superb and very useful.”

Participating schools appreciated the tailored whole-school approach which provided solutions to live issues that they were facing in school and worked as a preventative measure to reduce incidents of identity-based bullying:   

“The trainers working with school staff use scripts that are reflective of the kinds of situations that are likely to occur in school settings, i.e. explaining to the perpetrator why it is not ok to use the phrase ‘that’s so gay’. These scripts are designed in a way that also prevents future bullying as the aim is to get the perpetrator to reflect on their actions without the need to ‘punish’ them. This is a very inclusive approach to both tackling and preventing identity-based bullying.”

“Discussing both gender identity and sexual orientation and LGBT+ families and all of that as part of the curriculum is now done with more confidence amongst the staff.”

Schools have shared that the training significantly increased pupils’ confidence and knowledge about protected characteristics, leading some Agents for Change to start diversity-themed clubs to raise awareness of diverse backgrounds and promote inclusivity. 

97.1% staff felt that the Equally Safe programme proved to be ‘very useful’ or ‘useful’ in educating young people and children on different types of prejudice-related incidents. 

91.1% staff felt that the Equally Safe programme improved pupils’ confidence in their ability to create positive change.

Some comments from young people who took part in the Agents for Change initiatives include:  

“We’re talking about equality together now – within the school…together with teachers! Teachers are more interested in our opinions. We need to teach more kids about this… I’d like to see what Agents for Change do differently in other schools too!“

“We have this great, new info…it’s good to teach each others and we have this newsletter that helps us do this within our school…“

Staff also praised the impact of the Agents for Change work:

Andrew Tate used to be a big role model for our boys especially… Well now our kids have prepared display boards with role models and information about stereotypes to educate their friends, especially the younger kids…. It’s good because we want positive role models for our children and unfortunately, social media is everywhere so we can only do what we can but this programme has certainly helped!’ 

‘‘… everything was age-appropriate … The training resources were fab and useful.” 

Finally, it makes us proud to say that most schools are hoping to work with EqualiTeach again in the future. 

Evaluation reports

View our yearly and full three-year programme evaluation reports below:

• Equally Safe Evaluation Report: Year One
• Equally Safe Evaluation Report: Year Two
• Equally Safe Evaluation Report: Year Three 
• Equally Safe Programme Evaluation Report