Police officers in classrooms supporting the PSHE curriculum: Building methods to evaluate interventions

• In Event: The challenges and opportunities of using experimental approaches to inform VAWG policy in the UK

Abstract

Our research aim is to understand whether police involvement in personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education affects young people’s trust and confidence in the police and their understanding of sexual consent and the law. Working in partnership, our research team designed and implemented a multi arm cluster randomised control trial of a new teaching intervention on the topic of sexual consent and the law with school students aged between 13 and 15 years old. This builds upon previous LSE research of police-led lessons about drugs and the law.

In this paper, we consider the methodological, conceptual and practical challenges of this work. This includes reflections on sample sizes and recruitment of schools; randomisation of schools; recruitment and training of police officers and collection methods for feedback from students during the evaluation period.

Authors

• Simon Hackett, Durham University

• Catherine Donovan, Durham University

• Victoria Butterby, Durham University Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse

• Keming Yang, Durham University

• Georgia Steventon, College of Policing

• Ella Rylatt-West, College of Policing

• Abbie Foulger, College of Policing

• Beth Vague, College of Policing

• Cerys Gibson, College of Policing

• Pele Petnga-Wallace, College of Policing