The Safer Schools Partnership with PC Colin Garland, Merseyside Police & The Mosslands School

Colin Garland is a Constable with Merseyside Police and has been a member of the force since 1987, serving the communities of Wirral and Merseyside for over 21 years.

Since October of last year PC Garland has been a part of the ‘Safer Schools Partnership’; an innovative, national scheme that aims to establish the police at the heart of communities by stationing officers in local high schools.

The Safer Schools initiative was launched in 2006 with the aim of linking key players – namely the police, schools and other youth agencies – in a multi partnership approach to crime prevention, school safety, behavioural improvement and educational achievement.

The initiative is based on the idea that the collaboration of these parties is essential to improving educational opportunities for young people and building constructive relationships, helping young people to recognise their responsibilities and develop respect, both for their peers and the wider community.

As a Safer Schools Police Officer (SSPO), PC Garland is based in The Mosslands School and Technology College in Wallasey on the Wirral.

Traditionally, your local bobby would patrol the neighbourhood and provide a familiar presence in the community. Here, the same principle applies, but the centre of the community PC Garland patrols is the local high school. The school, its 1,400 pupils, 140 staff and the wider neighbourhood all make up the community to whom he is dedicated.

Being based within the school itself gives PC Garland a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with the people he is charged with serving. This means he is on hand everyday as a highly accessible point of contact, bridging the divide between the police, the school and the wider community.

This is a unique position, and with it comes unique responsibilities. As an SSPO, PC Garland stresses the importance of balancing his work between the pupils and the school as a whole, with the responsibilities that every police officer must work to uphold.

“I’ve effectively got two employers,” explains PC Garland. “I work for Merseyside Police but I also look after the interests of the school and work very closely with the Head on those matters.

“Their ongoing concern is for the children; to make the children want to come to this school, to make them feel safe in the school, to make them want to study – and I’m a part of that mechanism.”

‘Where there’s smoke there’s fire’

Despite the admirable intentions that are at the heart of the initiative, placing police officers in schools has proved a controversial move and many people - including parents and teachers – have voiced concern that ‘where there is smoke there is fire’. In other words, that because there is a police presence in the school, there must be a problem there.

But this is not the case, and part of PC Garland’s job is to alter the perception that the presence of a police officer in a school is indicative of underlying problems:

“People sometimes don’t understand or appreciate what my role here is, and that’s not unreasonable. What we do here is sometimes hard to quantify.

“I think at the start of the scheme it was viewed with a little bit of suspicion and I think some schools were apprehensive. But people are starting to realise that there are a lot of benefits that come with having a bobby within the school.”

‘Breaking down barriers’

As you would expect with any frontline policing role, you never know what will present itself next - and PC Garland has found he is no exception to the rule; undertaking a variety of responsibilities in and around the school.

In school hours, PC Garland is on hand to help with any problems that might arise, offering guidance or if needed, assisting staff with reprimanding pupils when inevitably, some of them get into trouble.

A unique addition to his role sees PC Garland actually taking part in Personal Health and Social Education (PSHE) lessons, where he assists teachers, giving students an extra perspective on the consequences of their behaviour.

For example, when ES News visited PC Garland, he took part in a lesson with year 11 students, who watched a film concentrating on the subjects of peer pressure, anti social behaviour and personal responsibility.

Following the film, PC Garland endeavoured to contextualise the subject matter for the students, asking them, “Have you ever been in these situations?” and “What did you do?”

With this, the students were soon interacting and a wide ranging discussion ensued through which PC Garland was able to educate the young men present about the importance of the decisions they make today on their futures.

Here, the objectives of the initiative were clearly being employed. Constructive dialogue was taking place, and what’s more, the students were visibly enjoying the experience. One student even took the time to congratulate PC Garland after the lesson: “That was good Sir, thanks!” – And as anyone who has worked with children of this age will know, that’s no mean feat.

PC Garland’s message to the students was also clear – the importance of personal responsibility and of respect for ones peers, both in school and in the wider community – reflecting the core aims of the initiative.

For PC Garland, this exemplifies the value of the partnership and reflects just some of the benefits that Mosslands School has been able to enjoy:

“Being here as a Safer Schools bobby breaks down barriers and that gives you a more constructive connection with the children.

“The children out there know me by name, they are quite happy to come up and talk to me. You can see they are responding and you can see it is having a positive affect on them…and that to me is a success in itself.”

But PC Garland’s responsibilities don’t end at the school gate and he is also a well known point of contact for the wider community.

‘100 per cent policing’

During breaks, outside school hours, and even during holidays PC Garland remains as a permanent police presence within the neighbourhood surrounding the school.

In this area of his work PC Garland actively seeks to engage with local people and responds their needs and concerns. He will visit locals at their homes to discuss any problems they may have and where youths are involved, he can use his unique relationship with pupils to get to the root of a problem and resolve it before it can escalate into a serious matter.

For example, PC Garland recalls one incident where local man was having problems with youths congregating outside his house:

“It was a persistent problem and something had to be done,” recalls PC Garland.

“He got 100 per cent policing; I sat in his house during the afternoon and asked the man to point the youths out when they came along - and sure enough they did.

“I went out and spoke to them and that was the end of it.

“He couldn’t have asked for more and he was happy with that.”

And this is important. Allowing a relatively small matter to escalate - for example, children hanging around outside a persons home – causes upset for the people in the area. This can lead to confrontation and ultimately, could lead to youths being unnecessarily dragged into the youth justice system – a factor that could be very damaging for their future and even be the catalyst that sets them on course to a life of criminality.

Safer Schools – safer communities

The Safer Schools Partnership is an effective means of developing constructive relationships with a variety of groups within the community. And of particular significance is the strength of the relationship between PC Garland and the youngsters he works with.

Up and down the country, communities are blighted by disaffected youths who have resentment for authority and habit for low level disorder. They’re not all hardened criminals, but they need guidance and they need to be shown that authority figures – particularly the police – are not just there to hassle them for no good reason. And that is part of what the Safer Schools Partnership does.

Safer Schools Officers may not represent traditional idea of your local bobby. However, what the public want and expect from the police is changing, and like any organisation, the police service itself is not immune to change:

“The work of the police is no longer simply about enforcing punitive measures and we’re not here just to deal with the children punitively, for example, by locking them up.”

PC Garland goes on to explain that the new emphasis is about balance; it’s about punishing when necessary, but it’s also about offering guidance and educational opportunities that instil an individual sense of responsibility in young people – and it works.

“I think since we’ve been in schools – and I include my colleagues in this – there’s been a lot of good feedback across the area and I think other schools are now beginning to see the benefits of the partnership.

“The feedback we get from the teachers, from the children, from the parents, from the neighbourhood is good, which is an indicator that I’m doing my job.

“And at the end of the day, if my work stops young people from becoming criminals or committing criminal acts, then I’ve achieved one of my goals.”