All schools and educational establishments are required to record racist incidents and to report them to the local authority on a regular basis. This is a legal requirement according to:
- The Race Relations Amendment Act (2000)
- Home Office Code of Practice on Reporting and Recording Racist Incidents (2000)
The official definition of a racist incident, as proposed by the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report (1999) is:
‘any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.’
This is the recognised Cambridgeshire definition.
All incidents which are perceived to be racist, however trivial, should be recorded and reported and investigated. If, after investigation, the conclusion is that there was no racist motivation, this information should be added to the report.
Further information is available in Equally Safe, guidance and procedures for reporting and recording racist incidents in educational establishments. This document is in all schools and can be downloaded from the right hand side link.
It also contains contact details of Cambridgeshire Police and CRISP (Cambridge Racial Incidents Support Project) and information about the ‘Open Out’ reporting scheme for reporting hate crime including racist incidents which occur outside schools, in the community.