Education chiefs in Bradford still have not agreed a district-wide policy to tackle bullying two years after urgent calls were made to tackle the problem.

A report on anti-bullying, set to be discussed by a Bradford Council committee next Monday, reveals that a "model anti-bullying policy" is not yet available to the district's schools.

That is despite the Council's Young People's Scrutiny Commission identifying bullying and the fear of bullying as its top concerns in 2005 and an anti-bullying co-ordinator, Natalie Wain, being appointed two months ago.

It has also been revealed that there were nearly 300 reports of bullying in the district's schools in 2006/7. That compares with about 400 cases in the previous 12 months.

Head teachers temporarily excluded children 62 times for bullying in the last academic year. There was a single permanent exclusion for bullying, according to official figures disclosed to the Telegraph & Argus.

Bradford Council says it has now developed "a comprehensive definition" of bullying and has produced guidance for schools. An audit of each individual school's bullying policies has also been carried out.

The Council's Young People and Education Improvement Committee chairman, Councillor Andrew Thornton, said: "Schools are required to have an anti-bullying policy by law but what the young people were saying was, let's stop schools re-inventing the wheel - give them a model policy which they can adapt to their own needs.

"At the time, the Council didn't take these things as seriously. Given that these issues were raised by the young people themselves, we need to check what progress has been made to tackle bullying and the fear of bullying.

"The committee will hear the report from the officer in charge and we will be asking various questions about what has been done and why things seem to have taken so long."