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Five-session mentoring course

Safeguarding: exploitation and county lines awareness

Who it's for

Consider this course for a pupil showing:

  • Unexplained gifts, money, or new possessions the pupil is vague about
  • New relationships with older individuals, or increasing secrecy about who the pupil is spending time with
  • Going missing from school or home for periods of time, or unexplained absences
  • Sudden changes in behaviour, appearance, or peer group
  • Unexplained injuries, or anxiety around specific people or locations

What it works towards

  • Build understanding of what healthy relationships and friendships look like, including power and respect
  • Recognise common grooming and exploitation tactics, in age-appropriate, non-frightening terms
  • Strengthen self-worth and resistance to manipulation or coercion
  • Practise assertive refusal and safe decision-making in pressured situations
  • Know trusted adults and reporting routes, both at school and beyond

The five sessions

  1. Session 1 Healthy vs unhealthy relationships Pupil can describe at least two features of a healthy relationship and at least two warning signs of an unhealthy one.
  2. Session 2 Spotting the tactics Pupil can name at least two common tactics used in grooming or exploitation, in the pupil's own words.
  3. Session 3 My strength and self-worth Pupil can name at least two personal strengths and describe why the pupil's worth is not tied to what others offer.
  4. Session 4 Staying safe and saying no Pupil can rehearse at least one assertive refusal response and describe one safe decision-making step.
  5. Session 5 My safety plan Pupil knows at least two trusted adults and one reporting route, at school and beyond, if the pupil ever needs help.

A sixth session follows, without the pupil: the mentor writes the support plan and agrees next steps.

The approach, and where it comes from

This course is preventative and protective in focus, building pupils' understanding of healthy relationships and resistance to manipulation, rather than a response to a disclosed incident, which should always follow your school's safeguarding procedures immediately and separately from this course. It is grounded in Keeping Children Safe in Education (2026), which is statutory for all school staff, and draws on practice principles from the DfE-commissioned Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme. If anything raised during a session gives cause for concern about a specific pupil's safety, pause the course content and follow your designated safeguarding lead's procedures without delay.

Try it with a small group

Three weeks free, no card, up to three staff and ten pupils. Everything recorded during the trial carries over if you continue.

Start the free pilot

Or read the white paper, which sets out the evidence behind each of the twenty courses.

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