(Re-)Imagining the Relationship Between Schools and the Police in Preventing and Responding to Harmful Sexual Behaviours in Schools, 2022-2024

This dataset comprises anonymised qualitative interview transcripts generated as part of a study examining professional responses to harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) among children and young people in school and safeguarding contexts. The study was motivated by growing policy and public concern regarding peer-on-peer sexual abuse, alongside recognition of the limitations of existing legal, educational and safeguarding frameworks in addressing the relational, developmental and socio-cultural dimensions of such behaviours. The dataset includes interviews with a range of professional stakeholders, including police personnel, school staff, and practitioners working in social care, therapeutic services and third-sector organisations. Participants were recruited on the basis of their professional involvement in, or insight into, responses to HSB, resulting in a dataset that captures both direct case-based experience and broader systemic and preventative perspectives. Interviews explored a range of topics, including definitions and understandings of HSB; perceived drivers and contexts, including the influence of peer cultures and digital environments; institutional responses within schools and policing; multi-agency working; and the challenges of balancing safeguarding, education and criminal justice approaches. Particular attention was given to tensions between punitive and educational responses, the timing and impact of formal justice processes, and the role of prevention through relationships and sex education. The data provide detailed accounts of how HSB is interpreted and managed across institutional contexts, highlighting variability in practice, constraints on professional decision-making, and gaps in coordination between agencies. Participants frequently emphasised the importance of early intervention, relational approaches, and whole-system responses, while also identifying structural pressures, including resource constraints and delays in formal processes, as shaping outcomes for young people. The dataset offers insight into contemporary professional understandings of HSB and the complexities of responding to it in practice. It is intended to support secondary analysis of institutional responses to youth sexual harm, as well as research on safeguarding, policing, education and youth wellbeing in post-digital contexts.

This project responds to the current crisis of sexual violence, abuse, and harassment in schools in England specifically pertaining to the relationship between schools and the police in responding to and preventing what is typically termed 'harmful sexual behaviours' (HSB) among young people in schools. Presently, it is apparent that police have a role to play in tackling HSB in schools but there is a lack of guidance on best practice for the nature of the relationship they should have with schools. The proposed project will draw upon and consolidate the local partnership between academics, Surrey police, a network of Surrey schools, and other policy and practice stakeholders. It will directly address a key policing priority - the prevention of and response to HSB in schools - with transferable value for other local education authorities and police forces and national stakeholders. Specifically, the project will develop a framework for the relationship between police and schools in preventing and responding to HSB in schools. The framework will address the extent to which and how the police should be involved in responding to and preventing HSB in schools and how the police can work most effectively in and with schools. It builds on a review of evidence about HSB in schools, completed by the project team in March 2022 for the Department for Education (DfE), which identified that HSB is a cultural issue spanning a continuum of behaviours that vary in their harmfulness and (il)legality and must be understood as distinct from 'healthy' or 'normative' adolescent sexual development. The framework will be co-designed with stakeholders through four distinct but complementary strands of stakeholder engagement, knowledge exchange, and best practice development in partnership with schools, police, and local and national organisations and bodies concerned with the prevention of violence against women and girls. It is specifically designed to foster and expand the connections between these stakeholders and develop the partnership between Surrey police, academics, and other stakeholders. The Evidence-Based Policing team at Surrey Police will oversee and lead the project from the policing side of the partnership. The stands include: 1. A review and collection of data within Surrey Police, including interviews with staff, and a review of available data, policy documents, and educational materials and resources. 2. A review of data recently collected via a survey of the network of Surrey schools about their experiences of police involvement in HSB involving pupils, along with more in-depth data collection within one school in the network involving a review of incident data, policies, procedures, and educational materials, interviews with teachers, observations of interventions, and discussion groups with pupils. 3. A set of three stakeholder engagement sessions, involving Surrey police and Surrey schools along with Violence Against Women and Girls Coalition members and local and national policy and practice stakeholders. These sessions will include a seminar and two workshops for knowledge exchange and framework development based on the findings from strands 1 and 2. 4. An in-person launch event of the co-designed framework whereby stakeholders will co-identify areas for future research and policy and practice development and evaluation. The purposes of the work strands are, first, to identify the needs, priorities, and challenges from the perspective of local stakeholders (including young people, educators, and police) via strands 1 and 2; and second, to co-design the adaptable framework for the police-school relationship based on the different perspectives. The work strands will be designed to collaboratively and constructively include the different perspectives and will seek to bridge gaps between academia, practice and policy.

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