CASE STUDY: Cat Gibson, Training and Competency Manager at Manchester Piccadilly for Network Rail, and champion of the SCT programme.
“The training built on what I was already doing with BTP and the Counter Terrorism Unit, and organisations such as the Samaritans.
“It’s all about looking beneath the surface at what’s really going on. With young people it particularly equipped me to look beyond anti-social behaviour - to stop seeing that surface issue as if it’s the main issue - and understand what might be going on to drive that behaviour.
“One particular case comes to mind. There were two young people (a boy and a girl - she was 16 and he was older) who were spending a lot of time at Manchester Piccadilly.
“All the staff knew about them because their behaviour was quite anti-social. They were quite abusive to our staff. They’d swear and shout and say things like ‘you know you can’t touch us’.
“We worked with BTP to find out what was going on and to start that conversation about why they were there, why they had time to be there, and why they weren’t at home or at school. Manchester has a particularly high number of looked-after children. They were coming to the station because they saw it as a place where they would get some sort of attention from adults - even if it was just getting told off.
“Once Network Rail staff made the safeguarding referral, there were numerous conversations and interventions from BTP, who began to work with the young girl’s care team. It transpired there were really serious issues there, including the relationship with the male, alcohol and care issues.
“Because of her behaviour, her care home was about to ask her to leave. The work that BTP started with the care team meant that she received support and help, and got to keep her place to live. She was that close to ending up homeless.
“Frontline staff at stations such as Manchester Piccadilly deal with millions of people every day, and these workshops will give them the guidance and confidence to alert the police to situations of concern that might otherwise go unnoticed. It is collaborative projects like these that help put the heart into our station communities.”