Staffordshire Police head back to classrooms to get young people to #DitchTheBlade

Staffordshire Police are stepping up efforts to keep the area free of knife-crime by teaming up with schools and colleges.

In a bid to keep figures low, it is working with educational bodies to reach out to vulnerable and at-risk youngsters as early as possible and make sure they are helped before they have a chance to become just another statistic in the annual round-ups of youth crime.

One such body is the Stoke-on-Trent Association of School, College and Academy Leaders (SASCAL) in the county’s largest city.

SASCAL’s personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education co-ordinator Vicki Spall is the force’s main point of contact at the body. She said of how they work together: “This includes lots and lots of different topics – sexual health, drugs, gangs, youth crime, youth violence, that sort of stuff.

“We have a gangs and youth violence board set up through education and this has representatives from all the secondary academies and schools. We utilise the curriculum to support that.

“We also look at how we are communicating and sharing intelligence with the police in a partnership approach, working quite closely with the gangs policing unit. There are a number of PCs and sergeants responsible for that so we work closely with them.

“PCs meet with school representatives to share issues and problems around County Lines drug-running operations as well as territorial rivalry between schools, and they share that intelligence.”

This approach is to try and prevent youth violence and catch it with the police and partners before young people get involved with something they shouldn’t.

The campaign includes officers running workshops to engage with students, releasing episodes of Staffordshire Police’s podcast ‘The Beat’, partner agency support such as Together We Make A Difference and a special presentation about a knife crime victim to show young people what happens to families after a life is tragically lost.

Vicki added: “All high schools and a number of our alternative education providers had a pack of resources sent out to them including lesson plans, #DitchTheBlade leaflets and posters to display and national campaign resources.

“We do want to alert parents and carers to the danger of carrying knives, how to spot the signs and make sure those figures remain low.

“In each school students need to know where they can go for pastoral or teacher support if they have concerns.”

Vicki added. “We’re looking at a project this year that will be a little more creative around knife crime and links in to the local authority departments as well.

PSHE has now become statutory in 2021 and represents an opportunity for Staffordshire Police’s messages to be talked about often.

“I think the key is that within all schools there are members of staff who are aware of a process with the police where we identify issues. If we hear about any concerns with young people getting involved around things like County Lines and youth violence or knife crime we can report those issues straight into the wider partnership.

Mark Hardern, Youth Violence Coordinator for Staffordshire Police, said: “Educating those in schools, colleges and universities is just one of a raft of tactics we employ to spread the anti-knife crime message. We don’t just target the young and we speak to all walks of society.

“The police will always get asked what we are doing about knife crime which, clearly, we are part of the solution for. By some of the great work taking place with different partners such as TWMAD, Ruff and Ruby and the support of SASCAL it all helps in our multi-agency messaging to tackle the issue.”

Anyone who has any concerns around a young person becoming involved in knife crime or carrying a knife can report these via our website, through direct message on Facebook and Twitter or by calling 101. In an emergency always call 999.

More information on the campaign and advice is available here.