What is being done to tackle crime in your child's school, asks Colette Hibbert
When a child leaves home in the morning to go to school how safe he or she is one of the top concerns for many parents. Whether it is the security of the school gates or how protected their children are from bullies, parents want to know that their child is safe once they enter the school grounds. For more and more parents it is really a huge worry, but with the increase in the number of children carrying knives to school who can blame them
Weapons in schools
According to the latest British Crime Survey 28% of schoolchildren have carried some kind of weapon in the past year - even if it is only a "legal" penknife. The figure rises to 57% if it includes children having been excluded from school over the past year for having carried a weapon. Recently it was announced that the Education Minister Alan Johnson is proposing changes, currently going through Parliament, to allow teachers to carry out knife searches of entire classrooms, not just individual pupils.
But what has been done already to directly address crime in schools so that parents can feel that their children are in a safe place while at school?
Safer school Partnerships
In September 2002 an initiative was launched to tackle street crime and anti-social behaviour in and around schools by and against children, following the Youth Justice Board's proposal to develop a new policing model for schools. The initiative was known as the Safer School Partnerships programme. But what exactly is it?
Guide to the Safer School Partnerships
The Safer Schools Partnership is an initiative in which schools and the police work together to tackle crime committed by and against young people in and around schools.
The SSP recognises that police and schools are essential partners in the prevention and reduction of crime and anti-social behaviour. Police officers are based in selected schools in areas with high levels of street crime. The four main roles of the school beat officer are: law, educator, advisor, role model.
Safer School Partnerships are intended to complement and enhance services such as Connexions, Youth Service, Youth Offending Teams (YOTs), Education Welfare, by developing a more solid partnership between
families, police and schools.
There are also an increasing number of police officers working in universities and colleges around the country.
