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Safe schools initiative
The Safe Schools initiative originated from a County Conference
hosted by the Police, on Youth Crime Prevention in November 1993.
The Canterbury and Thanet Inter-Agency Steering Group had
consistently expressed concern about levels of youth crime and
anti-social behaviour and saw the development of Youth
Action Groups (YAGs) as a positive way to involve young
people in identifying their own issues of concern and finding
solutions.
Pilot project
In 1994, a pilot project was established in Thanet,
incorporating a full time Youth Action Project Worker and a part
time Assistant to facilitate Youth Action with groups of young
people in local Thanet/Canterbury secondary schools. YAGs involved
young people volunteering to tackle community safety issues such as
Anti-Bullying, Vandalism, Drugs Awareness and Personal Safety often
with links into District Community Safety Plans.
 A successful application for funding
to Kent County Council Safer Kent resulted in a continuation
of the initiative during 1995/6. Subsequently, a positive
evaluation report produced at the request of the Inter-Agency
Steering Group in January 1997 summed up by saying:
'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'.
Inter-Agency Steering Group
The Safe Schools Inter-Agency Steering Group involved
representatives from both statutory and voluntary organisations and
funding and resources were often pooled to aid the developments of
projects within the initiative. In 1997, Kent County Council looked
to extending the Safe Schools Initiative beyond its pilot scheme in
East Kent by writing into the 5-year Strategic Plan to develop a
County-wide project later to be known as Kent Safe Schools.
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. All these schemes are now well embedded in many
Kent Schools.
Currently, alongside Youth Action Groups and Peer Mentoring, Kent
Safe Schools makes a significant contribution in the fields of:
Transition, Inclusion, Primary Intervention and Youth Diversionary
Programmes.
Awards
During its 12-year history, Kent Safe Schools has remained at
the "cutting edge" of developing young people's approaches to
reducing crime, tackling social issues and empowering young people.
It was nationally recognised in 2000 by winning the prestigious
British National Crime and Community Safety Awards and this was
followed in 2001 by being cited by Social Services Inspection and
National Audit Commission report on Kent Social Services as an
example of good project practice. |