Primary School Transition Support

The Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit (GMVRU) expects to be awarded multi-year Home Office Serious Violence funding. the Violence Reduction Governance Board has agreed to invest across the three-year funding periods (2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25), to develop a programme of child centred, strength based, trauma informed, 1-2-1 support for the most vulnerable, and high-risk pupils, and their families who are struggling for more targeted interventions as they transition between years 5, 6, and 7. The programme will be co designed with young people, parents, and primary school professionals, and explore what works in support of complex relationships through development of trusted relationships. The contract term will be for year 1 will be 6 months from 1 September 2022 until 31 March 2023 with an opportunity to extend into 2023/24 and 2024/5 (subject to receipt of Home Office Serious Violence funding). However, the service will be primarily delivered in line with the school’s academic year. The Greater Manchester Strategy recognises that the pandemic has disproportionately impacted our people and places, acknowledges that recovery will be tough. In Greater Manchester, we will make every effort to ensure that all our people are supported to live a good life, through all ages and stages in their lives. This includes a commitment to supporting our children and young people to be good learners, with any necessary family help, education recovery, wrap-around provision and health and wellbeing needs being met. The Inequalities Commission and Build Back Fairer reports both emphasised the need for Greater Manchester to embed a preventative and ‘future generations’ approach. We need to ensure that Greater Manchester is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The GMCA is committed to prioritising work with children and young people, to share expertise and evidence of the success of prevention approaches and continue to build capacity and partnerships to further develop these approaches. In June 2021, the VRU in partnership with the Innovation Hub held a Primary School Summit, to address growing anecdotal concerns from primary schools in GM that issues of intergenerational violence and knife carrying appeared to be increasingly prevalent and were affecting children at a younger age than had previously been the case. Of those attendees working in schools 83% indicated that behaviour, particularly in respect to violence or threats of violence, had become worse. Furthermore, when the question was pitched in the context of communities, 90% felt that criminality involving violence, or the threat of violence had become worse. A recommendation which arose from the Summit, was the recognition of the need to support effective transition between school phases and mentor schemes and ensure support is sustained as children transition to secondary school, drawing on existing good practice nationally and locally, to shape a GM model.