Violence Reduction Unit schools toolkit
13 September 2022
This toolkit has been written to offer ideas and resources to school leaders that will help to prevent violence from occurring, and ways to support young people who have been affected by violence.
It emphasises the importance of providing a positive approach to building children’s resilience and how to support them with the life skills needed to overcome any adversity they may have experienced or continue to experience.
Educational settings have always played a strong and positive role in supporting children and young people and helping to protect vulnerable children from harm both inside and outside the setting. In recent years there has been an increasing concern about how children are exploited by criminals and that this exploitation can draw them into violence. The use of social media has also created risks of conflict between young people when online messaging leads to real world violence.
Education professionals are often in a unique position to identify and support young people. The response from professionals to individual young people or across the whole school can have a significant positive impact to help keep young people safe. The Kent and Medway Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) has been funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner using a grant from the Home Office to tackle the causes of serious violence and has been working with various schools since 2019 to test ways in which young people can be better protected from within the education sector.
The VRU will continue to work with education partners to test new approaches, share good practice and collaborate to help young people thrive in their communities. The toolkit aims to underpin this work and to provide opportunities for professionals to develop and enhance their support to young people.