School pays for community officer

A Devon secondary school has become the first in the county to part fund a police community support officer (PCSO) based on site.

The officer will be on hand at Queen Elizabeth Community College, in Crediton, before and after school and at lunchtimes.

The headmaster said the school did not have any "huge issues" but the PCSO would give "extra weight".

The police said it would help build better relationships with pupils.

The initiative came about after the college's headmaster, Richard Newton-Chance, approached Devon and Cornwall Police about employing a PCSO.

He said: "We haven't got huge issues with illegal activity of any sort in Crediton, but the outside of school is difficult for us and we think outside the school is a police issue."

The money to pay for the PCSO has come out of the school's education budget, which Mr Newton-Chance said was already used to employ a variety of other "social" staff, including counsellors.

Supt Phil Kennedy, from Devon and Cornwall Police, said: "This will build better relationships with young people in the school and reduce crime and disorder in the area."