There were 47,000 juvenile knife offences across the UK in 2019-20. In response, West Midlands Police are visiting every school in Dudley to talk to learners about the dangers and consequences of knife crime. As part of this programme, they are taking a Knife Arch metal detector to every secondary school with the intention of showing that Dudley Schools are a safe place to be.

Today, they visited St James Academy, where our Senior Leadership Team and Pastoral staff were on hand to assist. The vast majority of learners and parents from schools where this has been trialled have told us that they support this scheme, which is also supported by every school in Dudley.