Police in schools

Report: 19
Date: 11 December 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report sets out the roles of the School Beat Officer, which forms part of the Safer Schools Partnership. There are four main roles: Law, Education, Advisor and Role Model. The roles are contained within the National Policing Model (Investigation, Intelligence, Diversion, Targeting, Problem Solving and Forensics) and also the Youth Crime Reduction Strategy for London.

All school officers along with their partners, who include teachers, youth workers, Connexions and support staff are able to access a modular training course, which supports them in their roles in making school communities safer. This is in addition to the training supplied by the Youth Justice Board.

Although the national evaluation, which is being conducted by the Policy Research Bureau on behalf of the Youth Justice Board, has yet to be released there are included in this report a number of examples of good working practices from around the Metropolitan Police District and reference to an evaluation conducted around an initial pilot scheme.

A. Recommendations

That members note the contents of this report and continue to support the work being carried out by the school officers.

B. Supporting information

1. The number of School Beat Officers, and the schools in which they work, is growing on an almost weekly basis as new boroughs seek to adopt the Safer Schools Partnership model.

2. The Safer Schools Partnership (SSP) has been in operation since April 2002 since when the MPS was given an undertaking to place 44 officers (known as School Beat Officers in accordance to the Safer School Partnership Guidance), into schools across the 15 Safer Street boroughs (30 by July 2002 and the remaining 14 by the end of the year). To date there are currently 80 School Beat Officers (SBO) working in schools with several other boroughs about to employ more SBO and / or change the role of existing school liaison officers. Attached Appendix 1 is the current list of SBO and their respective schools, as well as a list of school liaison officers and supervisors.

3. The SBO has four main roles: Law, Education, Advisor, Role Model. See Appendix 2. This model encompasses the four roles for the School Officer and under each heading there are listed a number of practical roles which form the functions of the job and provide a job description for the officers. Each role is colour coded to indicate where it fits into the National Policing Model. Investigation, Intelligence, Diversion, Targeting, Problem Solving and Forensics. There is of course an overlap with many of the roles, which may fit into a number of the categories shown.

Law

4. This role entails providing officers with a body of knowledge and understanding around the laws in relation to dealing with pupils on school premises and how to carry out their duties in response to incidents of crime and anti-social behaviour. Issues include powers of search, powers of arrest, including educational laws, identification procedures, and the use of acceptable behaviour contracts.

Education

5. This role is split into two - Firstly, there are educational inputs for pupils in the classroom setting around the key areas of Citizenship and include visits to prisons or deliveries on safer routes to school for the pupils. The second strand concentrates on educating the officers and their educational colleagues in areas of child protection, critical incident training, officer safety and forensic opportunities as well as how to deal with disruptive pupils and some of the reasons which trigger such behaviours.

Advisor

6. This role focuses on the officer acting in an advisory role to the pupils when dealing with some of the issues they face as part of a school community as well as for members of the staff. There is also a very important role to undertake with partnership agencies such as Youth Offender Teams (YOT), and Connexions along with other colleagues and professionals within the police service and wider youth justice field.

Role model

7. This is a role, which should not be overlooked and plays an important part in building relationships between police and young people and assists them with becoming better citizens and helps them participate fully in school life and the wider community.

Youth Crime Reduction Strategy

8. In London the Home Secretary instigated the setting up of a Youth Crime Task Force, which brought together policy makers and practitioners from across the Capital, to identify what was working well to reduce youth crime and determine what needed to be done. Its work centered on 8 key strands namely; education, health, local authorities, police, probation, social services, youth justice and the voluntary/private sector. It soon became apparent that by concentrating resources and time in certain areas significant gains could be made in a short space of time. These areas became priority actions for the Task Force and there were a total of 9 identified:

• Anti-social behaviour
• Behaviour Improvement Programmes
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
• Connexions
• Drug and Alcohol provision
• Early years intervention
• Education provision for excluded children
• Extended schools
• Youth Inclusion Programmes

9. All of the above priority areas have been include within the 4 key roles of the schools officer and where appropriate officers are able to contribute to the work of the Task Force and assist with the reduction of offending by young people.

Future training

10. Any future training that takes place for schools officers in the MPS will revolve around the four key roles and take into consideration the areas that are depicted in the diagram. At present there are plans to work more closely with the Government Office for London and the Home Office and YJB to publish some of the good practice which is taking place in various school communities and provide a training manual and e-learning platform including a CD-Rom as part of a blended learning approach. There are already a number of training modules that have been rolled out in the MPS in addition to the Youth Justice Board (YJB) standard training, which include problem solving, drug awareness, risk assessment, acceptable behaviour contracts, safer surfing and Crimestoppers. These modules assist the schools officer to perform their daily role and training is open for other partners such as teachers, Connexion workers, local crime reduction officers, YOTs and youth workers. The 2-day problem solving days as well as the Safer Surfing / Crimestoppers days are good examples of partners coming together for joint training.

Sharing the successes

11. There exists an Intranet site devoted to school officers and a newsletter, which updates them of current issues, as well as regular meetings, which are held for the schools officers across the MPS, which provides an opportunity to for them discuss ideas and share good practice. There is also the Home Office Crime Reduction Website, which has a link to Safer Schools and a discussion page for officers to post their ideas or ask questions which is now posted on www.Teachernet.org. At present the MPS are working with Crime Concern whose role is to assist with the evaluation of the SSP and who have to put in place systems for capturing all the good work of the SSP and the effect that their role has upon the school community. In some boroughs officers are providing pockets of excellence in partnership with their schools and have produced some good examples of best practice.

12. In Hackney SSP officers have been working closely with Year 6 pupils helping them with the transition phase from primary to secondary school. Activities have included outdoor pursuits such as canoeing and cycling combined with classroom sessions on crime and consequences, peer pressure and moral dilemmas.

13. In Lambeth SSP officers have in association with the local YOT team and various other agencies helped local pupils to produce a film about mobile phone theft entitled "No Credits". The video is accompanied by lesson plans for Personal School and Health Education lessons, which deal with personal safety and the consequences of robbery etc.

14. In Brent SSP officers have responded to Year 7 pupils who have expressed concern about their fear of travelling to and from school resulting in a number of absences. Officers held discussion groups with the pupils and spoke to the local residents and parents and after working in partnership with the local community beat officer they took the following actions: High profile patrol for that area; Buddy support for pupils; Removal of overhanging greenery; Improved lightening for winter months, which resulted in an increase of confidence reported by the pupils and improved attendance.

15. In Barnet an SSP officer worked with a group of young people identified as being at risk of exclusion with behavioural problems and at risk of becoming young offenders. The youths are part of the schools inclusion unit. The officer worked with Crime Concern to produce a street crime project, which resulted in a successful music video to be used in schools across London.

National evaluation of SSP by Policy Research Bureau

16. According to the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) the report on the first year of SSPs is not ready for circulation and the DfES have asked the Policy Research Bureau to undertake some further work. It is hoped to compare the findings with a recent report by Ofsted and other inspectorates “Streets Ahead”, interim reports from the Behaviour Improvement Programme (BIP) evaluation, and local police data.

C. Equality and diversity implications

Through the modular training programme partners involved with the SSP are receiving inputs on areas such as identifying young people at risk, supporting victims and witnesses of crime and dealing with disruptive pupils as well as race relations training. Such training is enabling officers to gain a better understanding of how to work and interact with young people and understand how young people view the world, in particular those from minority ethnic backgrounds. A good example of this is the work currently being developed with the Greater London Authority (GLA) around Gun Crime and the consultation process with a diverse number of people from minority ethnic backgrounds around how to develop a training package for young people to deter them from using guns. Another example is the work of the school officers with young people through the Independent Advisory Group, which enables young people to voice their feelings and opinions on a variety of important issues, and is well represented by all minority ethnic groups. A final example is that of SSP officers in Lambeth who have delivered a package around homophobic bullying in schools.

D. Financial implications

1. The Youth Justice Board has provided for training, which has been undertaken on a National Scale. Local training within the MPS has been delivered through partner agencies within the existing schools budget. This modular training has replaced the traditional week-long course run by local colleges, which were based on delivering educational inputs in the classroom. There is no cost to the school or the MPS in setting up a SSP. Schools have in practice provided a room and a phone for the officer, which he / she shares with key personnel such as Connexions, drug workers, mentors etc. Officers are commonly working flexible hours to undertake their duties at the schools as well as any extended duties such as Safer Routes patrols, arrests, crime reports, extended school activities including breakfast clubs, diversionary projects or restorative justice conferences.

2. The modular training programme, which is being delivered at present and developed into an e-Learning platform, is seeking funding from the Home Office, Government Office for London, and the Youth Justice Board. The total cost will be approximately £280,000.

E. Background papers

• International Journal of Police Science and Management Volume 5 No 2 2003. School Based Police Officers.

F. Contact details

Report author: Andrew Briers (Dr).

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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