Education Practice Insight Creator (EPIC)

We know that as an education leader, you're committed to keeping children and young people safe from violence - but it's not always clear where to start, or what steps to take next.

This free digital tool enables you to periodically assess your practice against our evidence-informed guidance and receive immediate insights that highlight strengths and pinpoint areas for improvement.

Register to complete the self-assessment
1

Why? Being in education can protect children from violence.
Recommended actions
  • Deliver evidence-informed attendance-improvement strategies (such as meetings with parents/carers and breakfast clubs).
  • Implement whole-school and targeted behaviour support to reduce the need for exclusion.
  • Provide appropriate support for temporarily suspended and permanently excluded children.
2

Why? Meaningful relationships with trusted adults can protect children from violence.
Recommended actions
  • Provide one-to-one mentoring by trained adults to support vulnerable children.
  • Engage vulnerable children in sports with coaches who can support them.
3

Why? Effective social and emotional skills can protect children from violence.
Recommended actions
  • Develop children's social and emotional skills with a universal curriculum, targeted support and whole-school strategies.
  • Provide relationship violence reduction sessions to secondary-age children.
  • Implement an anti-bullying strategy.
  • Support access to therapy for those children who require additional support.
4

Why? Violence happens more often in certain places and at certain times.
Recommended actions
  • Survey children and talk to staff to determine where to focus your efforts.
  • Meet with partners to understand the local context and coordinate your safeguarding response.
5

Why? Resources are best spent on evidence-based strategies.
Recommended actions
  • Cautiously consider unproven strategies (such as knife education programmes, trauma-informed practice training, and police in corridors and classrooms).
  • Avoid approaches that have been proven to cause harm (such as prison awareness programmes).

The education sector has a crucial role to play in preventing children's involvement in violence

Whether you work in a school, college or Alternative Provision setting, or work in education policy, our job is to make it easy to know what works to prevent children’s involvement in violence and help you make it happen.
Learn more

Why are we focusing on education?

  • Education settings can provide safe, trusted spaces for children. In 2024, 82% of 13–17-year-olds across England and Wales said they felt safe at school, while only 5% believed school to be unsafe.
  • Education settings can offer evidence-based support to reduce children's involvement in violence. Where resources are available, these settings can offer mentoring, sports, social and emotional skills development, relationship violence prevention activities and more. These activities can help keep children safe from violence.
  • Education settings safeguard children by identifying problems, providing support and signposting to specialist help. As the one service that all children should interact with, they are well-placed to notice issues early and provide well-informed responses.
Our Education, Children and Violence guidance provides school, college and alternative provision (AP) leaders across England and Wales with five evidence-based recommendations on how to help prevent children's involvement in violence.
Learn more