Policing in Schools

Report: 9
Date:12 July 2004
By: Commissioner

Summary

The Safer Schools Partnership (SSP) has been in operation since April 2002 when the MPS gave an undertaking to place 44 officers (known as School Beat Officers in accordance with 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 117 School Beat Officers (SBOs) working in 192 schools with several other boroughs about to employ more SBOs and/or change the role of existing school liaison officers (SIOs).

A. Recommendations

That the report be noted.

B. Supporting information

1. All SSP officers have received a national three day training course with additional training days being held for supervisors and borough liason officers. These training days have outlined the four roles of the school beat officer (SBO), which were highlighted in the last report to the committee on 11 December 2003.

2. SBOs have been working in partnership with members of the school community. Together they have been able to network and discuss their work at a number of key training events organised by the Safer Neighbourhoods Unit over the last six months. Included in this are 22 modular taining courses which address the needs of officers and partners to help them to deal more effectively with their daily duties. These have been well attended and there are now moves to incorporate Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) within this training to enable them to work within their safer neighbourhood areas to assist SBOs and other ward officers with issues relating to the school community. Key areas already identified include truancy, safer routes to school and anti social behaviour.

3. It is now the intention of the Safer Neighbourhoods Unit to actively encourage all boroughs to move towards adopting the role requirement of SBOs, which will eventually replace the post of School Involvement Officer (SIO). It should be noted that the SBO role attracts a Special Priority Payment (SPP) whilst that of a SIO does not. There are now 117 SSP officers and 63 SIOs. These 117 officers cover 192 secondary schools and a cluster of primary schools. The move towards the SSP model is based on the number of reports that we are receiving from schools, parents and key partners about the effectiveness of school-based police officers within the school community. Many of these were highlighted in the last report to the MPA, and there continues to be a growing body of evidence that the activities of SBOs in partnership with the school is having a dramatic effect on school life, particularly to and from school. A copy of one such report by a local head is included in Appendix 1.

4. There is a need for a formal evaluation to be secured, and in the absence of the Youth Justice Board’s own report conducted by the Policy Research Bureau which has yet to be released, the MPS has undertaken its own independent evaluation in line with the recommendation from the MPA.

5. KPMG has been chosen to conduct the evaluation and are developing an “evidence base” to assess the effectiveness of the SSP. It is reviewing the activities and performance of a cohort of schools operating in the programme to judge whether they are meeting specific objectives. In addition it is assessing the extent to which their activities contribute to the strategic objectives and targets of the MPS Annual Business Plan and the MPS operational policing model.

4. A number of schools have been chosen which will assess the extent to which they have met key objectives, prioritised activities, achieved key performance indicators and met project milestones etc. Following this, a brief highlight report will be prepared detailing the findings and suggesting areas for future consideration. The evaluators will then explore the extent to which schemes are helped or hindered by the activities of the management arrangements. This will be conducted through a review of any relevant documentation that describes the structure and processes of the schemes as well as face to face or telephone interviews with partners to explore this in more detail. The aim of these interviews will be to openly debate the findings of the main evaluation and explore the effectiveness of the current management arrangements and the structure and processes of the SSP and whether any changes/refinements are required. The results of these interviews will be used to map out a number of recommendations, which will be presented to the MPA/MPS in a structured workshop.

5. The workshop will be used to:

• Share with the MPA/MPS the findings on the extent to which the SSP has had an impact on the ground.
• Share with the MPA/MPS the assessment of the value of the existing structure(s) and processes of the management of the scheme and where improvements/refinements are needed.
• Discuss with the MPA/MPS the recommendations for the future, in terms of suggestions to be included in a forward/roll out strategy.

6. Having considered any final comments from the workshop a final report will be delivered which will bring together the findings from the evaluation of the scheme with the evaluation of the management arrangements. As such the final report will provide a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of the programme and a forward roll out strategy for the MPA to consider. The evaluation will take six months to complete and will be due in September/October 2004.

7. In addition to this work the Safer Neighbourhoods Unit is developing a website/e-learning platform for school beat officers and their partners which will be accessible on the Internet and will link in with other police services and educational institutes across the world. Funding for this has been secured through the Prime Minister’s Street Crime Action Group, from the Government Office for London, the Youth Justice Board and from the MPS. It is envisaged that school officers across the UK will form their own National School Beat Officers Association which will share good practice on the website and come together for regular conferences. The MPS have been successful in applying for a Fulbright Alumni Award to undertake an exchange of police officers in a joint adventure with Colorado State University and Colorado Police Department. There are already good links established with these partners and the programme will be fully funded in the first instance by the award which will enable four officers a year to spend time in the USA studying the role of school based police officers and will allow a similar number of officers from the USA to shadow our own school beat officers. There will also be an opportunity to undertake some training, which will build upon much of the coursework already experienced by the officers.

8. A final area of development for the programme is the intention to accredit all of the training that school officers and their partners are engaged in which will soon include officers within the Safer Neighbourhoods. The modular training is available to all of these officers as well as the national three-day training course. All those engaged in working within the school community will be able to use the support of the website and e-learning platform as well as attending the training courses. Various materials will be made available through a blended learning approach for all partners who may enrol on a work based programme through Middlesex University who will accredit the work which could be awarded at NVQ Level 1 through to postgraduate level. This is an ideal opportunity to raise the profile and status of the role of SBOs as well as officers engaged in Safer Neighbourhoods and equip them with the necessary skills to undertake their roles. This will ensure that the MPS has a professional and well-qualified workforce who is committed and specialised in their roles and consequently able to perform their duties to the highest standard. Accreditation will also help address issues of recruitment and retention of SBOs, which is a role that has often had difficulties in attracting suitable officers.

C. Race and equality impact

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. An example is the work of the school officers with young people through the Independent Advisory Group, enabling young people to voice their feelings and opinions on a variety of important issues, and is well represented by all minority ethnic groups. A further 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 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 weeklong 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, has received funding from the Home Office, Government Office for London, and the Youth Justice Board. The total cost to date is £240,000.

3. The notional opportunity cost of employing officers in schools (based on the 2003/04 police ready reckoner - notional pension included) is as follows: -

Safer Schools Partnerships (117 police officers) £5,006,898

Schools Involvement programme (63 police officers) £2,696,022

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: James Smith, Commander
For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1

Letter from a School Head

Extract from a letter dated 10 February 2004, to Lambeth Borough Commander from a Deputy Head teacher regarding the work that the schools and the SSP officer has undertaken in the past year as part of the Safer Schools Partnership:

“The liaison has developed into firm and reliable links with our local police officers. The advantage of this relationship has been numerous and is illustrated in the improved safety of the pupils and our local community. Local crime has been reduced, our students feel safer on their journey to and from school and criminal personnel targeting the school have been removed. Examples of the activities developed are a police 'drop in' centre for students or parents to ask advice, summer activities for students, exchange of intelligence, visible police presence in and around the school both as patrol and in classroom presentations, visits to truanting students with the Educational Welfare Officer, developments of a school safety survey, evaluation and risk assessment of school accessibility, assisting drugs programme, protection of mobile phone to reduce opportunities for theft, cautioning students who have committed petty crimes, early intervention in situations of possible aggression and the immediate advice and availability of a police officer who is familiar with the area and the school population. If there was an area to develop it would be that the dedicated officer could spend more time in the school to build on this success, however, he has had to work with three other allocated schools. This has resulted in periods of time that he has been unable to deal with immediate problems”.

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