We’ve been working with schools to keep children and young people safer, and we’re publishing our findings today.
Everyone’s Safer is a three-year project supporting schools to prevent harmful sexual behaviour. It’s given us a clear picture of what young people are facing, and how we can make schools safer for everyone.
Today, we’re publishing our final report, making five key recommendations for every school.
Alongside the main report, you can read highlights for schools and highlights for students – everything you need to know about Everyone’s Safer.
Where our work came from
For three years, we’ve been working closely with 30 schools in the Midlands, and 211 additional schools across the UK through our free specialist callback support service on the Stop It Now helpline. We worked with them to understand what the problems are, what support schools need, and what actually works to reduce harmful sexual behaviour in schools.
The Everyone’s Safer project was inspired by the influencer Soma Sara, who started the Everyone’s Invited platform after sharing on Instagram her experiences of being sexually harassed at school. After her initial post got hundreds of responses, she set up the platform for people to share what happened to them at school. To date, people have shared more than 50,000 stories of sexual harassment and assault among young people and at school.
What did students say?
When we asked students about their experiences at school, their responses were sobering. Some students we worked with said there were specific corridors notorious for groping in the busy transition between lessons. Many students said that inappropriate sexual language, bullying, and unwanted touching happen so often that it feels ‘normal’. Many said they’d received unwanted images, been threatened, or been tricked by people pretending to be someone else online.
Five recommendations for schools and policymakers
These recommendations to make schools safer places come directly from our work with students and staff:
Support safeguarding leads
They are often burnt out, under pressure, and dealing with complex cases. They have told us they need more time, training, support and resources to manage harmful sexual behaviour.
Take a whole-school approach
Preventing harmful sexual behaviour should not rest on safeguarding leads alone. The whole school, including parents and school leadership, needs to be included and committed. External agencies such as social services need to support schools, too. We also need policymakers to invest in staff training, and protect curriculum space for relationships and sex education (RSE).
Move from punitive and zero-tolerance approaches to restorative practices
A punitive response can alienate children and young people. It can make them more likely to continue harmful behaviour later in life and reduces the likelihood that they will feel comfortable coming forward with their concerns. We need to move the focus from negative to positive. We need to shift our attention from what young people should avoid, towards what they could become.
Promote positive masculinities
Instead of demonising boys and young men, emphasise that traits associated with masculinity such as strength, confidence, and leadership can be a real positive force when aligned with empathy and respect. We should weave this positive vision of masculinity through staff training, student workshops, everyday teachable moments, and even parent engagement.
Strengthen both healthy relationships education and the student voice
We need to prioritise regular timetabled time for students to learn about and discuss healthy relationships – and crucially, make space for teachers to update and adapt their lessons based on emerging issues. “It’s working. They’re actually getting it”, one PSHE lead noted, having made these changes to the RSE lessons, after students started intervening as “upstanders” when they saw others using inappropriate sexualised language.
Read more details about each of these recommendations and how we got there in the full report.
Let’s put these recommendations into action
We have plans for a new phase of the Everyone’s Safer project. Building on what we’ve done so far, we’ve developed a one-day, in-depth training workshop, seeking to train 700 safeguarding staff over the next two years. We want to develop this into a national training programme, to equip staff in every primary and secondary school to develop safeguarding and ultimately prevent harmful sexual behaviour in their school.
Sexual harm at school is not inevitable. Schools have a huge role in helping children and young people flourish. However, they need greater support. We need a cross-government approach to tackling harmful sexual behaviour.
The support you can get from us
We can help you prevent harmful sexual behaviour.
Students:
- We want to work with students who care about stopping harmful sexual behaviour. To help shape our new youth engagement programme, email schools@lucyfaithfull.org.uk.
- If you’re worried about sexual behaviour, our Shore website is a safe space where you can get help, and chat anonymously with one of our advisors.
School staff:
- Call our anonymous Stop It Now helpline, or book a free one-hour school callback slot to talk through safeguarding with our advisors – it’s free, anonymous, and confidential.
- Use our School Safety Plan to identify the needs of a child or young person who has displayed harmful sexual behaviour at school.
- Contact us to discuss our new HSB Prevention training course by emailing schools@lucyfaithfull.org.uk.
Parents:
- Read our advice and resources for parents – we have advice for those concerned about a child or young person’s sexual behaviour, and for those worried about how to keep their child safe.
- Contact our anonymous Stop It Now helpline to speak confidentially to one of our advisors about your concerns.
Save the date – webinar for schools on 24 September 2025
Join us on 24 September to hear from our team, co-author and academic Dr Emily Setty, and staff from the schools we worked with to find out more about our findings and the five recommendations we’ve made.
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