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Staying safe

 
We asked young people at the Y factor conference - what does staying safe mean to you?

Bullying and crime (particularly gun and knife crime) were the areas of most concern. A suggestion was to automatically enrol bullies, who are excluded from school for this reason, onto a programme to address their behaviour.

A good discussion was held around the role of the PCSO’s and their lack of powers. Some young people felt that there should be more police with full powers protecting them on the streets. Others felt that PCSO’s were useful and helped prevent crime.

Other useful suggestions included improving street lighting and road crossings.

What was discussed?

The main issues discussed were:

  • bullying at school and cyber bullying
  • knife crime and knowing the consequences - police should come into PSHE classes to teach and talk about this issue
  • need for more activities outside of school and the high cost of leisure activities (to long a process for the Greenwich card)
  • Police need to be bothered about small crimes, need for better CCTV images
  • road safety - more lollipop ladies, drivers don’t take notice of speed limits, zebra crossings too far apart and drivers don’t take any notice anyway.

Changes

If young people took over the provision of services their priorities would be:

  • bullying – when excluded for this you should be made to go on a bullying programme
  • increasing the powers community police have – no one takes any notice of them
  • more places for young people to go, much cheaper activities
  • more street lights, night curfews for lesser crimes
  • more crossings on the roads, improve speed cameras – there are ways to cheat.

Key questions

The key questions that came out of the discussion were:

  • Why have the police got such a low profile on the street and why are they not bothered about small/petty crimes?

  • How are the council going to ensure there are more accessible and cheaper activities for young peple (may be lots going on but no-one knows about it!)

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