Following violence or other distressing incidents, the police send an alert to the school. This enables teachers to support a pupil immediately. Stella Efdé, director and chair of the board of Pantarijn: “Our teachers create a safe environment by offering tailored support. They look after the pupil without requiring them to give an explanation and consider what the pupil needs at that moment.” The Wageningen police add: “It is important that children receive support quickly when domestic violence occurs. Children can also be extremely distressed by other incidents. That is why it is good that, in such cases, we can send an alert to the school.”
Handle With Care is an initiative of the Augeo Foundation. It is part of the government’s ‘Violence has no place anywhere’ programme. This year, the new Handle with Care approach will be expanded in Wageningen and Heerlen. Other municipalities have also expressed interest in the meantime. The aim is to draw definitive conclusions about the new form of cooperation in 2020.
Read the interim evaluation of ‘Handle with care’ here.
Schools and their governing bodies play an important role in identifying abuse; doing nothing is not an option. Many organisations and resources are available to help schools with this.
Source: VO-raad.