The history of Kent Safe Schools

Safe Schools Initiative - 1993

The Safe Schools initiative started after a county conference on Youth Crime Prevention run by the Police in November 1993. There had been concern about the levels of youth crime and anti-social behaviour, after which the Canterbury and Thanet steering group developed Youth Action Groups as a positive way to help young people to identify their issues of concern find solutions.

Pilot project - 1994

In 1994, a pilot was set up in Thanet, including a full-time youth action project worker and a part-time assistant.  It was their role to support youth action with groups of young people in local Thanet/Canterbury secondary schools. Youth action groups involved young people volunteering to tackle community safety issues such as:

• anti-bullying
• vandalism
• drugs awareness
• personal safety
• Develop links into district community safety plans.

Following extra funding from Kent County Council Safer Kent, the initiative continued during 1995 - 96. The pilot received positive feedback from the Inter-Agency Steering Group in January 1997:

'There can be no doubt that the development of the Safe Schools Initiative has contributed to the overall safety of young people in their school environment. It is particular noteworthy that the Thanet/Canterbury model has been promoted by Crime Concern and adopted nationally resulting in 20 similar developments based on inter-agency co-operation'.

Extending the pilot - 1997

The Kent Safe Schools Steering Group involved representatives from both statutory and voluntary organisations. Funding and resources were often pooled to aid the developments of projects.

In 1997, Kent County Council looked to extend the Safe Schools Initiative beyond the pilot scheme in East Kent by including the plan to develop a countywide project later to be known as Kent Safe Schools in the 5 year strategic plan. The Kent Safe Schools Steering Group meets every 3 months to discuss new developments and current initiatives. The group is made up of representatives from Kent Police, Thanet District Council and various departments within KCC.

In 1999, the first peer mentoring scheme was introduced in secondary schools offering peer support to pupils from older, trained mentors. This was followed by a primary peer mentoring (buddying) scheme in 2001 in Folkestone and by primary developments in youth action in 2002 in Thanet. These schemes have been rolled out across many of the schools across Kent, along with transition and diversion activities. Both primary and secondary youth action groups are running and Kent Safe Schools is always looking to develop new and innovative schemes to benefit the children and young people of Kent.