Pupils are being taught in school how to treat stab wounds, reports The Times.
Children in areas where knife crime is common are learning how to stem bleeding and deliver first aid to victims under the Street Doctors scheme, which operates in 16 cities including London.
Carl Ward, chief executive of City Learning Trust in Stoke, has seen the scheme in operation in schools in the area. He said: “They come and show you what a knife can do to the body — it makes it very real. Children are usually in quite a lot of shock.”
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Other initiatives are being launched, as data shows that the number of fatal stabbings in England and Wales last year — 285 — was the highest since records began in 1946.
Headteachers in London are inviting police in to schools to take assemblies on knife crime. The Palace for Life Foundation is running the Breaking the Cycle programme, which sees youngsters work with youth, sport and social care experts and receive mentoring.
Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit, which treats knife crime as a public health issue and not a policing one, has seen a dramatic reduction in stabbings, The Daily Mail says. Glasgow, once the knife crime capital of Britain, can “show the way”, the paper suggests.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Sajid Javid is to hold talks with police chiefs from seven forces most affected by violent crime. Tensions are mounting between the police and government after Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said there is “obviously” a link between violent crime and cuts in police numbers.
Theresa May responded that there is “no direct correlation”.
Labour MP Vernon Coaker says ministers should treat knife crime like terrorism. Coaker is calling for the Cobra emergency committee to meet to respond to a “national crisis” after two 17-year-olds were killed in separate stabbings in London and Greater Manchester at the weekend.
Jodie Chesney was killed in a London park as she played music with friends, and Yousef Ghaleb Makki was stabbed to death in the village of Hale Barns, near Altrincham.
