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Good practice Imported

Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Scotland — Peer-Led Bystander Training in Secondary Schools

United Kingdom · Glasgow · See the United Kingdom profile · See the Glasgow profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 67% 52/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Scotland's peer-led bystander programme scaled from a 3-school pilot to over 130 secondary schools, but its only academic evaluation is qualitative and self-report only, and surfaced a direct, unresolved contradiction between boys' and girls' accounts of behaviour change.

3 schools
Schools in original pilot (2012-13)
130+ schools
Secondary schools now running MVP
32 of 32 local authorities
Local authorities covered
33 mentors, 58 mentees
Participants in the academic evaluation (2017)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, with Education Scotland and the Scottish Government
Period
2012–present
Keywords
education, youth work, violence prevention, bystander training

Context

Mentors in Violence Prevention, a peer-led bystander model originated by Dr Jackson Katz in the US, was adapted by the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit and piloted in three secondary schools in 2012-13. Older pupils (S5/S6) are trained to deliver role-played scenarios to younger pupils (S1/S2) on gender-based violence, bullying, sexting and coercive control, and the programme has since scaled to more than 130 secondary schools across all 32 Scottish local authorities.

Results

The only academic evaluation (Williams & Neville, 2017) is qualitative — interviews and focus groups with staff, 33 mentors and 58 mentees — with no control group and no quantitative outcome measure. It surfaced an unresolved contradiction: boys at one school said they had become more respectful toward girls, while girls in the same cohort disagreed. The Scottish Government's own evidence review rates MVP only 'promising', noting that bystander-programme evaluations mostly measure attitude rather than violence reduction.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
School staff coordinators to select and support S5/S6 pupil mentors, External trainers (Scottish Violence Reduction Unit / Education Scotland) to deliver initial mentor training

Conditions for success

  • Older pupils (S5/S6) willing and supported to mentor younger pupils (S1/S2)
  • School leadership buy-in and curriculum time for delivery of the 'Playbook' scenarios

Common failure modes

  • Boys' self-reported behaviour change was directly disputed by girls in the same cohort, pointing to a risk of overstated impact if only mentors' own accounts are used to judge success

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes CERV — Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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