Everyone has problems sometimes. When problems happen the best things to do are to admit there's a problem, get help and don't give up – you can get through it.

It's important to take action and to look after yourself and people you care about.

Taking action

If you don't feel safe, you can do something about it. Things you could do to keep yourself and others safe include:

• when you need help - ask for it, you don't have to deal with things alone
• tell people you trust (a parent, friend, teacher or police officer etc) about what you're worried about and what would make you feel safer. If they don't believe you or help you ask another person you trust
• get involved in a crime prevention group such as Students Against Dangerous Driving (SADD)
• share your safety ideas with leaders (e.g. school principals, the chair of the Board of Trustees, kaumatua and kuia, the mayor and local councillors, church leaders). Let them know what they could do to prevent crime and crashes by writing letters, making presentations, and using social media (Facebook etc) etc
• suggest ways in which the environment could be changed to make it safer –for example, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)  

Problems you may face

Bullying

Everyone has a right to be safe from other people. Bullying is a problem for many young people. You need to remember that:

• bullying is wrong
• nobody deserves to be bullied
• bullying is never the victim's fault
• if you are being bullied, tell an adult you trust
• if you see another person being bullied, tell an adult you trust.

Child abuse

Child abuse is when another person, usually someone more powerful than you, doesn't treat you nicely. This can happen in lots of ways including sexually or physically (by hurting you, touching your body in bad ways or doing things to you you don't like), or mentally and emotionally (by teasing you, picking on you, or making you really scared of them).

You need to remember that:

• all child abuse is wrong and is never the fault of the person it was done to
• nobody deserves to be abused
• child abuse must be stopped
• if you are being abused, tell an adult or a friend you trust
• if you know another young person is being abused, tell an adult or a friend you trust.
• if the first person you tell doesn't do anything, keep on telling people until someone does.

Cyber safety / being safe online

Doing things online (on the internet via computers or smart phones etc) can be risky, especially if people you don't know can chat to you or see your personal information. For example, you may be bullied by text or email, or you may agree to a face-to-face meeting with someone you met on the net.

Keep safe by only chatting online to people you already know and by avoiding sites that let others put you down or threaten you. Think about your safety at all times when you're online and make sure you use private settings etc.

If you are ever bullied, threatened or creeped out in any way make sure you tell an adult you know and trust - don't deal with it alone.

Drug and alcohol abuse

Some people use drugs and alcohol because they think it makes them happy and helps them cope with stress. Spending time with friends and talking to people you can trust are better ways to enjoy yourself and deal with things you're stressed about.

Drugs and alcohol can also cause problems, because they change the way your brain and body work. They can mess up your relationships (by making you do things you otherwise wouldn't do), cause physical and mental health problems, and lead to problems at school or work. You might also get into trouble with Police by doing things while you're drunk or wasted.

If you're worried about how drugs or alcohol might be affecting you or someone you know make sure you tell someone you can trust.

Theft

Theft is something that can affect lots of young people. When someone takes something that's not theirs without asking they are stealing (or committing theft). Theft is a crime and always affects other people. Make it harder for someone to steal your stuff by keeping things locked away in safe places or by keeping them within your view.

If anything of yours is stolen, make sure you tell an adult you can trust. You should also tell your local police about it. 

Where to go for help

New Zealand Police

• Call your local police station and explain your concerns.
• Information about drugs and alcohol
• Information to protect you property

What's Up

What's Up is a counselling phone line for children and young people 5-18 years old, staffed by trained counsellors.

P  0800 942 8787
W  www.whatsup.co.nz

Youthline

Need support or want to talk?

P  0800 37 66 33
Free Text  234
W  www.youthline.co.nz

Netsafe

Information and advice about cyberbullying.
W  www.cyberbullying.org.nz

Alcohol Drug Helpline

The Alcohol Drug Helpline offers free confidential information and support on any problem, issue or question about your own or someone else’s drinking or drug taking.

P 0800 787 797
W  alcoholdrughelp.org.nz

Drug help

This website provides quality information about illegal drugs and their associated harm.

W  drughelp.org.nz

Police support a range of education programmes and services to schools free of charge. The programmes are all designed to help children and young people lead happy and safe lives. They cover the following five themes:

• Successful relationships
• Travelling safely
• Responsible citizens
• Healthy body, healthy mind
• Living in a safe community

The Ministry of Education's Parent Portal also provides parents and carers with practical information about education.

How are these programmes provided?

A School Community Officer (formerly known as a Police Education Officer) works with the school to identify issues and needs and plan programmes and services to suit. If you are aware of any issues that you feel need to be addressed, ask your child's teacher or school principal.

The programmes are planned and delivered by a classroom teacher and, if necessary, supported by the School Community Officer.

Police recommend a whole-school approach for all these education programmes, as described in the intervention planning tool (PDF, 321KB). In the whole-school approach, parents and whānau contribute to and support the programme.

Ways in which parents and whānau can contribute include:

• helping the school decide what programmes need to be taught
• reinforcing at home the messages that the school is giving (for example, about bullying and crossing the road)
• taking part in some classroom lessons
• helping with homework activities
• attending and promoting school–parent meetings and partnerships
• contributing to the development of school policies and procedures
• being a resource person
• being a good role model for children and young people (for example, always wearing a safety belt, not misusing alcohol)
• taking part in evaluation of learning.

The programmes

Successful relationships

Police aim to assist children and young people develop and sustain successful relationships through three violence prevention programmes:

• Kia Kaha enables students, parents, caregivers and teachers to recognise that bullying is unacceptable in both the school and the wider community. They will develop strategies to stop bullying and replace it with acceptable behaviour. Here is some specific information for parents related to Kia Kaha.
• Keeping Ourselves Safe is a positive personal safety (child protection) programme that aims to provide children and young people with the skills to cope with situations that might involve abuse. It will help them keep themselves safe in their interactions with other people. Here is some specific information for parents related to Keeping Ourselves Safe.
• Loves-Me-Not is a healthy relationship programme in which senior secondary school students learn about relationships and the sometimes difficult subjects of relationship abuse and consent. Here is an FAQ (PDF, 111KB) about Loves-Me-Not that includes information for parents. 

Travelling safely

As a parent you have a very important role in practising and reinforcing road safety skills, whether it is walking, cycling, driving, or as a passenger.

Children are vulnerable road users. Every year children are killed and injured on the road, as passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, drivers and other road users.

Children are at risk on or near the roads because they:

• do not see and hear things in the same way that adults do
• have undeveloped eyesight, especially peripheral vision
• are easily distracted by noises and such things as animals
• are short and can't see over or round things easily
• can't judge safe distances and so make poor decisions about crossing the road
• may forget road rules if something unexpected happens, such as a ball bouncing on the road.

Young people are at risk because of hormonal changes, peer pressure, access to high-powered vehicles and insufficient experience when operating a vehicle on roads.

Here is more specific information for parents about Travelling Safely.

Responsible citizens

Police believe that children and young people should grow up with a sense of what is right and wrong. They should be able to take their place as responsible adults, concerned about the safety of people and their property.

In our programmes students learn strategies to help keep their own and others' property safe and so reduce the risk of crime. The programmes also help children clarify and develop their own values, which in turn leads to a change of behaviour.

The following information for schools and their communities includes specific advice on how parents and caregivers can be involved:

• Burglary Free
• Doing The Right Thing
• Tag Free (graffiti vandalism programme)

Practical things you can do as a parent to encourage social responsibility

To help your child protect their own and others’ property you can teach them to:

• put things back in the right place
• always ask if they can borrow something and return it promptly with thanks
• treat possessions with care
• think about how they would feel if one of their possessions was damaged or taken
• follow your example of looking after property well
• lock up possessions like bikes.

To prevent your child stealing:

• explain that stealing is wrong
• expect and show honesty
• help children to recognise and overcome the temptation to steal
• talk about how we feel when someone steals our possessions
• show them sensible alternatives to stealing to get the things that they need or want
• help them to sort out what things they can't have
• ask Police to run a parents' discussion meeting on stealing, at your local school.

If your child steals:

• keep calm and talk it through together
• decide on the consequences as a family
• help them to return stolen goods and to apologise to the owner.

To prevent your child vandalising property:

• teach children to take care of their property from an early age
• show children how carefully you look after your own property
• talk about what vandalism is and how it spoils the environment
• explain that all property belongs to someone
• talk about how people feel when their things are damaged and destroyed
• help children to find positive ways to use their leisure time
• give them skills to resist pressure from their peers.

If your child vandalises:

• keep calm and talk it through together
• decide on the consequences as a family
• go with your child to apologise to the owner of the property
• help them right the damage.

Healthy body, healthy mind (dealing with harmful substances)

These programmes are designed to help children and young people avoid illegal drugs, make sensible choices about their use of legal drugs and seek support when needed.

This information on preparing for a drug education programme includes specific advice on how parents and caregivers can be involved.

Living in a safe community

This programme shows the various ways Police help to keep people safe and how children make contact with Police when they need help.

For more information, see the theme Living in a safe community.

Prevention policies/activities in schools

Abuse is a serious matter and no-one deserves to be abused. Abuse can take a number of forms, all of which can be damaging to the victim.

Whenever Police or other resource people provide education about child protection, the following guidelines should be followed:

• The school must have an effective child protection policy that clearly describe how to identify and respond to suspected abuse and neglect (as required under the Vulnerable Children Act 2014).
• Everyone in the school community shares responsibility for preventing the abuse of children.
• So that children can recognise, avoid and report abuse, they should be taught skills, knowledge and attitudes through regular and planned relationship education programmes (e.g. Kia Kaha and Keeping Ourselves Safe or Loves-Me-Not).
• Abuse prevention and relationship education should take place at all school levels.
• Lessons should not be unsupported one-off events, but should incorporate effective pedagogy.

In particular, it needs to be remembered that:

• children don't always know that sex abuse is wrong and reportable
• young children are not always capable of judging adults’ motives
• abuse in family/whānau and close relationships is more damaging and significantly more likely than abuse by strangers – minimise teaching of 'stranger danger'
• the core of learning activities for students should include identifying danger signals, asserting rights to be safe, identifying and respecting private anatomical parts, developing problem-solving and social skills, and gaining confidence to seek help.

Further information

For further information, see:

• Sexuality Education: a guide for principals, boards of trustees, and teachers (2015) from the Ministry of Education
• Bullying prevention and response: A guide for schools (2015) (PDF) from the Bullying Prevention Advisory Group.
• Preparing for and dealing emergencies and traumatic incidents (2015) from the Ministry of Education
• Families Commission: Effectiveness of relationship education programmes in schools for Years 7–13 (2013)
• Who abuses children? - information about the myth of 'stranger danger'.
• Keeping Our Kids Safe: Advice on Behaviour Danger (PDF, 1.4 MB)

Response policies/activities in schools

Whenever child abuse, neglect, relationship violence, or cyberbullying is reported, the following guidelines should be followed:

• All reports of abuse must be listened to and acted on.
• Many people fail to report abuse in case their suspicions are wrong. Section 16 of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act (1989) protects people who notify concerns of abuse in good faith from civil and criminal proceedings.
• The child’s safety should always be the paramount consideration in the notification process.
• No decisions or actions in respect of suspected or actual child abuse, neglect, relationship violence, or cyberbullying are to be made by any staff member in isolation unless there are concerns for the immediate safety of the child.
• A consultative approach is essential to ensure the safety of the child and the staff member. Staff must discuss their concerns with the principal or nominated person/advocate. Where applicable, follow the board's complaint policy.
• Decisions about informing parents or caregivers about suspected or actual child abuse or neglect should be made after consultation between the school and Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki.
• Effective child protection requires a full, accurate and prompt sharing of information.

Further information

For further information, see:

• What do I do if I think a child is at risk? (2017), two short (20 second) videos from the Privacy Commissioner answering two important questions: What do you do if you think a child is in danger?  Can you share information to help at-risk children?
• Safer organisations, safer children (2015), an inter-agency child protection policy guideline that outlines what a good child protection policy should contain, along with links to supporting resources.
• Bullying prevention and response: A guide for schools (2015) (PDF) from the Bullying Prevention Advisory Group.
• Reporting process that Police follow for suspected or disclosed child abuse (2014) (PDF, 60KB)
• Guidelines for reporting suspected or actual child abuse and neglect (2009) protocol between the Ministry of Education, the New Zealand School Trustees Association and Oranga Tamariki–Ministry for Children

Contact information

To find your local Police station go to www.police.govt.nz/contact-us/stations

Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki: telephone 0508 326 459 or email contact@mvcot.govt.nz

School–Police response protocol

School and local Police are encouraged to develop and agree protocols about when and how Police will respond to potential or actual offending by young people related to child abuse, relationship violence, serious and/or sustained assaults or other severe byullying.

This could be done as part of the Partnership agreement (DOCX, 26KB) on how the Police and school partner together in general.

Suggestions as to when to involve Police in bullying are provided in Preventing and responding to bullying: A guide for schools (2015).

Specific guidelines for online abuse

Online abuse prevention policies/activities in schools

Whenever Police or other resource people provide education about online safety and responsible behaviour on the internet, learning outcomes should emphasise:

• protection of personal information
• responsible internet use
• the consequences of poor decisions about disclosing personal information, including photographic imagery
• options for seeking help.

Further information

• Cyberbullying in Preventing and responding to bullying: A guide for schools (2015).
• Digital technology: safe and responsible use in schools (2014) (PDF)
• Netsafe including their publication Staying Safe Online (PDF).

Also see our sample online safety intervention plan:

• Online Safety Plan  (PDF, 156KB)
• Online Safety Plan (DOC, 241KB)

Contact information

To find your local Police station go to www.police.govt.nz/contact-us/stations

Teachers and students can report concerns about online behaviour through Netsafe.

Online abuse response policies/activities in schools

Whenever a case involving online child exploitation or cyberbullying is reported, the following guidelines should be followed:

• The child’s safety should always be the paramount consideration in the notification process.
• Privacy issues must be considered in respect of notifying parents/caregivers of online child exploitation, as young people may not want the circumstances disclosed to parents/caregivers.
• Schools should seek guidance on the most appropriate course of action.

School–Police response protocol

Schools and local Police are encouraged to develop and agree protocols about when and how Police will respond to cases of online child exploitation.

This could be done as part of the Partnership agreement (DOCX, 26KB) on how the Police and school partner together in general.

Education about alcohol and other drugs

Whenever Police or other resource people provide education about alcohol and other drug use and abuse, the following guidelines should be followed:

• Students should be given information only about drugs that are within their experience.
• Students should not be shown or told about the equipment associated with alcohol and other drug use, or ways of using particular drugs.
• Students should not be shown drug substances.
• Lessons will incorporate effective pedagogy.

The document One-Day Workshops and One-Off Talks [PDF, 96KB] provides advice to improve some types of prevention activities that, although provided with good intentions, may actually be less effective, e.g. one-off events, scare tactics, and activities that only raise awareness rather than address risk factors.    

Further information

The following Ministry of Education resources provide useful information:

• Alcohol and Other Drug Education Programmes (2014) [PDF] will assist schools with questions to ask when selecting and implementing AoD education programmes.

Prevention policies/activities in schools

To minimise the likelihood of students or staff being affected by alcohol and other drugs, each school can develop its own prevention guidelines and promote regular awareness-raising activities.

These prevention guidelines could include:

• clear rules about cigarette, alcohol and drug use on school grounds or at school-sponsored events (sports contests, balls, hireage rules for school facilities, EOTC activities)
• signaling to students that alcohol is not necessary to have a good time, and discouraging the normalisation of alcohol, for example by not supplying alcohol at school events
• clear consequences, discipline and referral process if/when students break school rules (e.g. cigarette smoking, alcohol and other drug use)
• empowerment for students to run their own anti-alcohol and other drug activities (e.g.Students Against Dangerous Driving [SADD])
• regular and planned classroom-based alcohol and other drug education programmes (e.g.Choice).

School balls

School balls managed by school staff and students are generally very well run and are successful events. Any problems lie almost exclusively with the pre and after school ball functions.

This advice sheet (PDF, 115KB) has been compiled from a range of suggestions from both educators and the New Zealand Police. It is not a definitive list, but a guide to assist you in your school ball preparations.

Response policies/activities in schools

To ensure consistency of response, each school should have clear procedures to follow when students or staff are affected by alcohol and other drugs, or break school rules about alcohol and other drugs.

School - Police response protocol

Schools and local Police are encouraged to develop and agree protocols about when and how Police will respond to potential or actual offending by young people related to alcohol and other drugs.

This could be done as part of the Partnership agreement (DOCX, 26KB) on how the Police and school partner together in general.

Prevention policies/activities in schools

The NZ Transport Agency's road safety education guidelines summarise what the research and road safety experts consider to be good practice in road safety education.

Whenever Police or other resource people provide road safety education, the following guidelines should be followed:

• All schools should have a comprehensive road safety policy. A sample is provided in the New Zealand Transport Agency’s Education Portal.
• Students should only be given information that is within their experience or legal age (e.g. no driver education for young people under 16) or as advised by Police (e.g. no under 10 cycling unaccompanied on the road).
• Lessons will emphasise strength-based processes (e.g. show correct rather than incorrect skills, stress the positive values of following traffic laws and school rules rather than the punitive aspects).
• Schools should teach regular and planned classroom-based road safety education programmes such as Road Safe.
• The New Zealand Transport Agency has developed a set of road safety education guidelines.These guidelines provide useful questions to help schools ensure the efficacy of road safety education initiatives/interventions and programmes being offered to their school and community.
• The document One Day Guidance provides advice to improve some types of prevention activities that, although provided with good intentions, may actually be less effective, e.g. one-off events, scare tactics, and activities that only raise awareness rather than address risk factors.

Response policies/activities in schools

To ensure consistency of response, each school should have clear procedures to follow when students or staff break traffic laws or school rules around road safety.

Schools and local Police are encouraged to develop and agree protocols about when and how Police will respond to behaviour by students, staff, or members of the public that places students at risk of road trauma. This could be done as part of the overall school-Police partnership process.

There are many agencies and organisations who offer programmes for schools that are promoted to address specific crime and/or road safety issues.

Police have an Intervention assessment tool (Word, 548KB)  that provides a range of questions to be considered before the Police will support and endorse an external programme.

Schools should be critical about the relevance and quality of external programmes and providors. When collaborating with or engaging an agency that provides educational programmes to address specific crime and/or road safety issues (such as relationship violence, cycle safety, bullying, child abuse, road safety, cyberbullying), each school should consider the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the agency’s programme or resource?
• What is the nature of the programme or resource:
  • Is it relevant to New Zealand students and schools?
  • Is it inclusive?
  • Does it meet the needs and interests of the targeted group?
  • Are the aims and objectives of the programme clearly defined, and can they be evaluated?
• Does the agency’s goal or philosophy align with the school’s safety culture? Does it support the school’s current teaching and learning programme and complement The New Zealand Curriculum?
• Do the personnel have the knowledge and expertise to work within an educational setting?
• Does the agency actively collaborate with relevant staff to adapt the programme to meet the needs of individuals or the school?
• Is the material practical? Can it be previewed?
• Does it have a cost and is it cost-effective? Who benefits from the purchase of these programmes – the students or the agency?
• Is there evidence that the programme or provider is effective in influencing ongoing student behaviour?

For road safety in particular, the New Zealand Transport Agency has developed a set of road safety education guidelines. These guidelines provide useful questions to help schools ensure the efficacy of road safety education initiatives/interventions and programmes being offered to their school and community.

For alcohol and other drugs (AoD) in particular, the Ministry of Education's Alcohol and other drug education programmes: Guide for schools (2014) summarises the findings a  review of government-funded AoD education programmes for young people, and reflects additional thinking that boards of trustees, school leaders, and teachers may find useful to ask when selecting and implementing AoD education programmes.

This page describes the specific planning and processes by which schools and Police partner together, and describes some sample interventions and narratives.  

For a wider overview of why and how schools partner with Police, and the roles of various police officers involved with schools, go to the Police-schools partnerships page.

Police-School Partnership Model

The Police-School Partnership Model describes a four stage process for partnering effectively with schools.

Each stage of the model aligns to a respective phases of the SARA (Scan, Analyse, Respond, Assess) problem-solving process.

Under this model, Police and the school:

1. scan by building a relationship and sharing information with each other
2. analyse how to achieve their aligned goals
3. respond through one or more of a range of prevention activities
4. assess the achievement of the goals.  

See the following sections for a more detailed explanation of each stage.

1. Relationship building and information sharing

Building relationships and sharing information are the basis for prevention activities.

Building relationships

To facilitate partnerships between Police and schools:

• Police have a dedicated liaison person for each school (Lead Police Contact)
• each school has a dedicated liaison person with Police (Lead School Contact).

Having a specific person in Police that the school can contact will help build trust and confidence, so that they are comfortable to seek pro-active advice.

Effective Police-school partnerships occur at multiple levels, such as:

• Youth Services staff partner with individual students and their family/whānau
• School Community Officers partner with individual classes
• Lead Police Contacts and/or the School Community Officers partner with individual schools
• Area Youth and Community Supervisors partner with school clusters or Communities of Learning
• District Youth and Community Managers and/or Area Prevention Managers partner with regional Ministry of Education staff (e.g. to discuss children and young people disengaged from education)
• District Prevention Managers partner with the Regional Directors of Education.

Sharing information

To facilitate sharing information between Police and schools, they both agree that each organisation can help the other to achieve their goals, e.g. through a partnership agreement:

Police share information about crime, victimisation and harm data, and schools share information about student behaviour concerns, e.g. through a school profile:

As a result, Police and the school can jointly agree on what their partnership is trying to achieve, which will provide focus and purpose to the partnership.

Police and schools should be clear on what they are trying to achieve in relation to their shared goals. They should agree on the desired outcomes, and the measures of success. They should gather preliminary data to identify problems related to achieving their shared goals.

By agreement, some schools may not need to progress beyond this stage of the partnership, for example, if the identified problems are of low priority or are already being managed effectively by the school through other means. Alternatively, a partnership may focus on maintaining an existing safe environment to prevent problems from occurring.

2. Analysis of shared goals

During the previous stage, Police and school will have gathered preliminary data regarding their shared goals. In this stage they drill down to be even more specific about problems, by testing theories and analysing data to determine why they occur.

The analysis should define and lead to a better understanding of how to achieve the goals set in the previous stage, e.g. through a SARA (Scan, Analyse, Respond, Assess) problem-solving plan:

There may be other information that is required to gain better understanding of what is required to achieve the shared goals or to address problems. This information might come from the Police, from the school, or from other sources.

There may be examples of how a specific problem has been dealt with elsewhere, for example through the knowledge bank of school-wide intervention narratives on the Police’s School Portal, each describing how an intervention was implemented, and the impact it had. 

The Police also have tools that may provide an evidence base for the effectiveness of a particular response to deal with an issue.

3. Response

The following three steps can be used to undertake a response.

Step 1:  Outline the response aims:

Refer back to the measures of success and the agreed outcomes from Stage 1 of the Police-School Partnership Model.

Discuss the analysis of the problems from Stage 2.

Drill down to be more specific about how you will measure your success, using SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic  and time-bound). 

Step 2: Select the response(s):

• safety education:

- training School Traffic Safety Teams

- programme approach

- inquiry approach

• shared interventions (see this page of sample interventions)
• restorative justice.

Step 3:  Implement the response(s):

Break the response(s) into steps (if appropriate), record timeframes and resources required, and nominate the lead, e.g. through an annual partnership plan:

4. Achievement of goals

Assessment is about identifying whether the shared goals have been achieved or not, and provides learning opportunities for continuous improvement.

By having SMART goals, Police and the school can assess whether the goals of their partnership have been achieved or not achieved.

Whether the goals were achieved or not, it is important to reflect on the practice of the partnership. Reflective practice is about learning from experience by thinking what happened, why it happened, and what you would do differently as a result.

Identifying the ‘next steps’ ensures continuous improvement. Next steps may involve modifying the goals and/or changing the actions towards achieving the goal.

Acknowledging and celebrating the achievement of a Police-school goal acknowledges and recognises the contribution of the many individuals and organisations who contributed to that goal.

Writing a narrative (or case study) at the conclusion of an intervention encourages the school and Police to reflect on their practice, and to share the lessons they have learned with other schools and Police:

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