Kidscape


Kidscape is a London-based charity established in 1985 by child psychologist Michele Elliott. Its focus is on children's safety, with an emphasis on the prevention of harm by equipping children with techniques and mindsets that help them stay safe.
After a 1984–1986 survey of 4000 children, their parents and teachers, it was apparent that the main threat to children came from people known to them – bullies, friends, or family members. Kidscape's Child Protection programmes are now taught UK-wide in thousands of schools and community groups.

Activities

Kidscape's work falls into four main categories:
Kidscape is a member of the and the

Awards

Kidscape's patrons are children's author and journalist Anthony Horowitz and Dame Mary Perkins, co-founder of SpecSavers.

Controversy

The effectiveness of Kidscape's methods for handling bullying behaviour were criticized in 1997 for not being benchmarked against other methods for preventing bullying. In some cases other education experts felt that Kidscape's methods might encourage further bullying. However, a 2018 independent evaluation of Kidscape's approach found that 98% of children felt more able to deal with bullying and three-quarters experienced a significant and sustained drop in bullying.