London Mayor Sadiq Khan yesterday announced all schools should have mandatory plans in place to help prevent knife crime.
In 2016, knife crime across England and Wales rose by 14% and 33 Londoners under the age of 25 have been fatally stabbed this year.
Speaking at a summit yesterday, Mayor Khan said: ‘Knife crime ruins lives and devastates communities — every death on our capital’s streets is an utter tragedy.
‘We need everyone to join the fight against it, and schools have a vital part to play in creating a safe, positive place for students, spotting danger signs and spreading the message that carrying a knife is more likely to ruin your life than save it.’
He said his office was working with Ofsted to take ‘tough action’ to ensure schools have the right safeguarding measures in place.
At yesterday’s summit, held in Euston, education leaders were provided with the opportunity to feed into the development of a downloadable toolkit that will support schools to participate in local anti-knife crime activity, offer guidance on how to identify those at risk and respond to incidents.
Schools are already able to receive a knife screening wand, and the police are using knife sweeps and test purchasing operations as part of the Met’s ‘Operation Sceptre’ to get knives off the streets.
Earlier this year Sadiq Khan also announced an additional £625,000 for knife and gang crime projects, taking total spending to £7m.
