New school and college schemes are being carried out in Swindon in a bid to reduce anti-social behaviour.

Swindon Borough Council has used some of the £1.4m from the government’s Safer Streets Fund to pay for workshops and one-to-one sessions with students who have been referred to the programmes by schools.

The funding, which can be used between October 2022 to March 2024, has helped more than 1,299 young people so far across 25 places of education.

The Home Office is using Swindon as a pilot area which could become a blueprint for similar schemes in other parts of the UK.

The grant has been split across three different programmes in the town.

The first is an anti-social behaviour workshop by Iprovefit offering weekly one-to-one sessions which focus on positive community engagement and self-worth to 415 young people who have shown behavioural issues.

The second scheme, by Barnados, has involved 420 girls in workshops that promote young people’s rights to healthy, consensual, and safe relationships.

The third initiative by the council's Our School Now team is designed to end public sexual harassment through the education of young people and teachers. It has helped nearly 400 people challenge harassment and stereotypes.

The sessions involved asking the young people to design a campaign that could help raise awareness of sexual harassment and come up with ideas of how to tackle it.

A Health and Social Care Lecturer at New College Swindon said: “Our students really enjoyed the workshop and our teachers were incredibly impressed with how well they engaged with activities.

"Exploring real-life experiences helped the students to understand what sexual harassment is and the impact it has on young people.

"The focus on designing campaigns and being proactive was really engaging, and the students were inspired to be creative, imaginative and productive, producing pieces of work that they were all incredibly proud of.

"We are looking forward to welcoming the team back to facilitate more workshops with even more students.”

Coun Jim Grant said: “I’m really pleased to hear such positive feedback about these programmes which were commissioned by the council.

"As we move into the next school year, the programme will continue to provide young people the opportunity to feel informed about community safety and how to make a positive contribution to the town and themselves.

"I look forward to seeing how these will continue to make a positive impact on our young people.”