Safety in schools – what is the Met’s role?
In September 2024, the Met published its Children’s Strategy.1 It sets out five strategic objectives, including:
- Seek to build strong and trusted relationships with London’s children to strengthen confidence in policing
- Increasing efforts to prevent and reduce crime committed against children
- Ensuring children who engage in criminal behaviour have access to appropriate and effective interventions
- Ensuring officers have the capacity and capability to safeguard all children
- Improving the Met’s partnership working setting out clearly the role of the police in keeping children safe
On 1 May 2025, the Met’s Safer Schools Officer role was dissolved due to budgetary issues. It has been replaced by a Designated Ward Officer - Children and Young People (DWO-CYP), which will sit in local Safer Neighbourhood Teams.
The Met states that these new DWO-CYP roles “will not be visible officers assigned and stationed to deploy within a designated school”, and “a smaller percentage of their time will be nominated to working with schools and their time will be focused on ensuring children are safe as they travel between home and school as opposed to offering a police presence within schools”.2
Tomorrow, the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee will meet to understand how the Met’s operation in schools may be affected by this new approach, and how the Met’s ‘child first approach’ is manifesting in its neighbourhood work.
The guests are:
Panel 1: 10:00am to approx. 10:55am
- Ashley Fontaine, Young People’s Programme Manager, Neighbourhood Watch Network
- Omar Alleyne-Lawler, Police Engagement Manager, Hope in Haringey
Panel 2: approx. 11:00am to 12:30pm
- Commander Neerav Patel, Metropolitan Police
- Superintendent Matt Cox, Metropolitan Police
- Dean Nevill, Senior Policy and Commissioning Manager, Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC)
- Gary Connors, Assistant Director, Violence Reduction Unit
The meeting will take place on Wednesday 3 September 2025 from 10am in the Chamber at City Hall, Kamal Chunchie Way, E16 1ZE.
Media and members of the public are invited to attend.
The meeting can also be viewed LIVE or later via webcast or YouTube.
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Notes to editors
- Metropolitan Police, MPS Children’s Strategy, 26 September 2024
- Metropolitan Police, FOI Response: Current Safer Schools Officers (SSOs) and the recent restructuring
- Marina Ahmad AM, Chair of the Police and Crime Committee, is available for interview.
- Find out more about the work of the Police and Crime Committee.
- Read the agenda in full.
- As well as investigating issues that matter to Londoners, the London Assembly acts as a check and a balance on the Mayor.
For more information, please contact Tony Smyth in the Assembly Media Office on 07763 251727 or [email protected]. For out of hours media enquiries please call 020 7983 4000 and ask for the Assembly duty press officer.