In the 1980's, poor discipline and unruly pupil behaviour within schools became a prominent public and political issue in England and Wales. The Professional Association of Teachers asked the Prime Minister to set up a committee of enquiry to look at discipline in schools.

In 1987, Lord Elton was appointed to Chair the enquiry. Over the next few years concerns continued to be raised about the impact of disruptive behaviour in schools on levels of academic achievement and a number of rare incidents attracted considerable media attention.

In 1995, the murder of Philip Lawrence, head teacher of a London comprehensive school, by a 15 year old pupil from a nearby school. The subsequent debate focused, among other things, on the need to provide better security in and around schools which ultimately led to the deployment of police officers within schools.

In 2002, under a joint initiative between the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), the Youth justice Board (YJB) and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) a pilot of the Safer School Partnership (SSP) programme was launched to provide a new policing model for schools. 100 police officers were deployed in 10 boroughs that had a high rate of youth offending, truancy and ASB. It provided a focused approach to address the high level of crime and anti-social behaviour committed, both by and against children and young people, in and around schools in some areas.

In 2009-2011, Safer Schools Officers (SSOs) are established in every London borough. There are 118 PCs, increasing to 183 and 102 PCSOs in 2010-2011.

In 2012, PCSOs are withdrawn from Safer Schools teams in order to match Police officer resource to demand. Subsequently, the number of SSOs is increased by 70 to coincide with the implementation of a new Local Policing Model, the total number of PCs was 218 with a target of 253 working with 295 secondary schools.

In 2013, The Police & Crime Plan 2013-2016 recognises the value of SSOs as an early point of contact for positive engagement with young people and offers every secondary school that wants one, a named SSO. There are 238 SSOs working with 425 secondary schools.

In 2015, Safer Schools Officers begin running Junior Cadet units in schools and assisting at Senior Cadet units to integrate all youth based policing into one local team per borough. There are 270 SSOs working with 550 secondary schools.

In 2017, In an effort to improve confidence and build stronger relationships with young Londoners, the Police & Crime Plan 2017-2021 commits to increase the number of Safer Schools Officers and increase the number of officers working with young people, and ensure that every school has a named officer supporting them. The number of SSOs has increased to 294 working with 639 secondary schools.

In 2018, As part of a new Basic Command Unit policing model, investment in youth based policing is doubled with plans to increase to 600 youth officers (Safer Schools Officers, Volunteer Police Cadet coordinators and Youth Engagement Officers). The number of SSOs has increased to 319.

In 2021, The Met reaches 287 Safer Schools Officers working in an official Safer School Partnership with 570 schools across London, with efforts ongoing to offer a named police contact to all secondary schools.

In 2022, According to the Police & Crime Plan 2022-2025, the MPS offers targeted support within secondary schools, to deliver a child-centered approach to policing, ensure young victims are supported and the most vulnerable are safeguarded. This will be achieved by tackling high-risk, high-harm criminality that affects young people. Further investment is to be made for SSOs to deliver preventative education focused on contextual safeguarding to best protect, support and inform primary-aged school children. There are 377 SSOs working with 622 secondary schools, plus an additional 374 schools on an ad-hoc basis.

By 2023, the number of SSOs fell to around 311 due to negative perceptions of police in schools driven by media reporting on the incidents like the 'Child Q' report and ongoing demands on the Met Police as a whole.