Hi everyone! Jack McGuinness, your Vice President (Welfare), here to give some updates on the work I’ve been doing around student safety and the plans I'm putting in place to improve student safety here in Derby.
Hi everyone! Jack McGuinness, your Vice President (Welfare), here to give some updates on the work I’ve been doing around student safety and the plans I'm putting in place to improve student safety here in Derby.
Police and Crime Commission Roundtable
In December, I was invited to attend a Police and Crime Commission Roundtable where high profile figures from different organisations (such as Derby College, Derbyion and Political Parties) came together to talk about all things safety in Derby.
It was a great opportunity to meet with different people, some highlights include:
- Hearing about the progress that’s going forward with more funding for police resources.
- Seeing the developments of strategies to combat anti-social behaviour and violence against women and girls through early intervention.
- Hearing about how the Derby Safehaven scheme is being used, with Derbyion seeing an increase in the use of the facilities and how they’ve been of benefit to those in need.
Executive Officer Nighttime Economy Action Plan
This year, the Executive Officer team have been going around sports and society welcome parties and events to make sure that students are feeling safe. To continue this, I developed an Executive Officer Nighttime Economy Action plan, to ensure future teams continue this practice of going forward. It’s currently under review, but I will provide an update when it’s been confirmed for release.
Online safety
Criminals are always looking at new ways to take advantage of people and gain access to data such as passwords, card details and I have been working with the IT Services to develop information packs / training for students to help mitigate the risk of this happening to them.
The project came about after members of staff in the IT Services department saw a trend in the sector of groups of students not understanding the threats online criminals have or how to properly secure their accounts and profiles.
The information packs / training provide information to secure profiles and accounts used during your studies and could be carried onto personal profiles on social media or banking apps, which scammers are routinely trying to gain access to.