'It’s Not Love' digital resources launched to support professionals working with children

 A new package of digital resources has been developed by York St John University and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) to help support teachers and professionals working with children and young people in secondary school to explore healthy and unhealthy friendships and relationships.  

The resources are a mixture of powerful character-driven films, comprehensive lesson activities and support for teachers, and were developed by the university’s Performance department and the NSPCC’s local campaigns team in Yorkshire over the last 18 months.

These national resources are based on the It’s Not Love play and drama workshop, a theatre in education (T.I.E.) piece that seeks to prevent harmful sexual behaviours and coercive control that may lead to domestic violence and abuse in intimate partner relationships.

With support from the NSPCC’s Together for Childhood ‘Give it to get it’ Healthy Relationships campaign, the It’s Not Love play, with accompanying workshops, successfully toured secondary schools in Yorkshire and Northeast Lincolnshire across 2023 and 2024. 

As a further legacy of the campaign, the new It’s Not Love digital resources have been developed to support professionals across the UK going forward.

It's Not Love was co-created and directed by Rachel Conlon and Jules Dorey Richmond, senior theatre lecturers at York St John University and experienced theatre practitioners. The pair have extensive research, collaboration and development experience, both with the NSPCC and young people. 

The It’s Not OK play raised awareness around child sexual abuse and exploitation and reached an audience of over 45,000 pupils, practitioners and teachers nationally. 

Rachel Conlon, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Director of the York St John University Prison Partnership Project (delivers weekly creative arts projects in prison and in the community) said that NSPCC partnership working was key to getting such important messaging across to young people.

“Working collaboratively with community groups and with national charities has real value in bringing expertise together and reaching the same aims and objectives,” said Rachel.

“This knowledge exchange means that we can learn from the charity sector, and the charity sector can learn from Higher Education, and using the arts in this way can be a really effective tool. 

“The It’s Not Love work particularly focuses on social justice and the arts, and the value of that in marginalised communities, and also how we can create resources and products that can be delivered across the country.”

Jules Dorey Richmond, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and co-director of York St John University Prison Partnership Project’s community initiative On the Out, added that the It’s Not Love and It’s Not OK projects have also provided York St John theatre students and alumni with an opportunity to have real world learning experiences to become socially engaged artists.

“Students are helping us to deliver these resources in schools, on placement in our degree courses, and we are really fortunate to be able to run modules where we can draw on the resources that we are making for the NSPCC,” said Jules.

“Sharing these resources with schools also means that we are bringing a community of teachers together, facilitating teachers to feel confident and engaged with these materials, and enabling them to learn from each other’s best practice.”

NSPCC Local Campaigns Manager Gail Sayles co-developed the campaign with the charity’s Head of Local Campaigns, Helen Westerman, and York St John, and said the resources could soon be rolled out across the UK.

“Working with Rachel, Jules, Helen and the performers has been a fantastic way to develop an accessible, informative and important resource,” said Gail.

“We are all very proud of It’s Not Love, and the feedback we’ve had from students and professionals who have seen it has already been amazing.

“We have found that young people respond really well to the live performances and recognise characters and situations they might encounter in real life. By making that message relevant to young people across the country, and easily accessible through these digital resources, we hope to help thousands of young people understand when something might not be right in a relationship, and how they can help themselves or others.”

The 'It's Not Love' digital resources aim to:

- Prevent interpersonal domestic violence and seek behaviour change through effective awareness raising targeting young people through a range of interactive positive behaviour change techniques

- Create opportunities to discuss a number of complex issues relating to healthy and unhealthy relationships

- Create opportunities for discussion and a rehearsal for life around these issues of concern

- Offer strategies for how to navigate away from potentially 'harmful' situations

- Consider the safe and trusted allies, organisations and services available to help young people keep safe and seek support

- Offer contact details of local workers who can support young people if they do find themselves in difficult situations

- Act as a preventative measure to reduce potential risks to young people and to break patterns of intergenerational interpersonal domestic violence.