Kidscape is a London-based charity
established in 1985, by child psychologist
Michele Elliott. Its focus is on children's safety, with an emphasis on the prevention of harm by equipping children with techniques and mindsets that help them stay safe.
After a 1984–1986 survey of 4,000 children, their parents and teachers, it was apparent that the main threat to children came from people known to them – bullies, friends, or family members. Kidscape's Child Protection programmes are now taught UK-wide in thousands of schools and community groups.
Activities
Kidscape's work falls into four main categories:
* Providing children, families and professionals with advice and information to keep children safe.
* Providing a range of training opportunities for professionals working with children and young people to support the provision of safe and nurturing environments.
* Delivering high impact programmes of support for children, parents, care-givers and professionals to prevent bullying and keep children safe.
* Working through a variety of communication channels, partners, campaigns and events to raise awareness of bullying and how to stop it.
Work with external organisations
Kidscape is a member of the Anti-bullying Alliance and the National Suicide Prevention Alliance.
Awards
* In 1998,
Smith Kline Beecham awarded Kidscape an Impact Award recognising Kidscape's work in improving community health.
* In September 2000, Kidscape was named UK Charity of the Year in the first
Charity Times awards.
* In 2007, Kidscape was Highly Commended in the 2007 Charity Awards Children and Youth category and Michele Elliott was Highly Commended in the Charity Principal of the Year category.
* In the
New Year Honours 2008, Michele Elliott was awarded an
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
by The Queen in recognition of her services to children.
Patrons and trustees
Kidscape's patrons are children's author and journalist
Anthony Horowitz
Anthony John Horowitz (born 5 April 1955) is an English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense. His works for children and young adult readers include the '' Alex Rider'' series featuring a 14-year-old British boy who spi ...
and Dame
Mary Perkins, co-founder of
Specsavers.
Northampton mental health campaigner, Joe Plumb, is a trustee.
Controversy
The effectiveness of Kidscape's methods for handling
bullying
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, Suffering, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggression, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. On ...
behaviour were criticised in 1997 for not being benchmarked against other methods for preventing bullying. In some cases other education experts felt that Kidscape's methods might encourage further bullying.
[''Crying for Help: The No Blame Approach to Bullying'', George Robinson, Barbara Maines, Page 9, ] However, a 2018 independent evaluation of Kidscape's approach found that 98% of children felt more able to deal with bullying and three-quarters experienced a significant and sustained drop in bullying.
[Evaluation of Kidscape's ZAP Programme, M&E, June 2018]
References
External links
Kidscape web site*
{{Authority control
1985 establishments in the United Kingdom
Anti-bullying charities
Charities based in London
Children's charities based in the United Kingdom
Organisations based in the City of Westminster
Youth organizations established in 1985