As part of the wider Peel Group, the Peel Roleplay team closely follow and support the work of our sister company, Game Changer—a specialist organisation using drama-based interventions to address some of the UK’s most complex social challenges, including County Lines exploitation.
Following the success of last year’s National County Lines Conference in Cambridge, the Game Changer team were invited to present at the South East Conference in Portsmouth, hosted by the National County Lines Coordination Centre. The focus this year marked an important evolution in their work—and offered valuable learning for us at Peel Roleplay.
Why This Matters to Peel Roleplay
At Peel Roleplay, our work centres on professional roleplay, simulated interaction, and reflective learning—particularly within education, healthcare, safeguarding, and social care contexts. We share with Game Changer a belief that experiential learning, when delivered responsibly and ethically, has the power to change understanding, behaviour, and outcomes.
Game Changer’s presentation focused entirely on their Impact Programme, a drama-based early-intervention initiative designed to support young people before harm occurs. This approach strongly aligns with Peel Roleplay’s own commitment to prevention, emotional safety, and learning through structured, facilitated experience.
Early Intervention and Experiential Learning
The conference reinforced a sobering reality: children targeted by Organised Crime Groups can be extremely young, with some cases involving children under the age of ten.
Game Changer’s Impact Programme focuses on young people aged 10–13 (Year 6 to Year 8)—a critical developmental stage where learning is most effective when it is embodied, relational, and reflective. This mirrors Peel Roleplay’s understanding of how roleplay and simulation support learning not just cognitively, but emotionally and socially.
A Structured, Safeguarded Approach
At the conference, Game Changer presented three core components of their programme:
- Theatre in Education – Our Town: An interactive drama piece that introduces County Lines exploitation in an age-appropriate and carefully framed way, ensuring young audiences are engaged without being overwhelmed.
- Making Meaning Sessions: Following the performance, young people explore characters, motivations, and consequences together. This reflective practice is particularly resonant for Peel Roleplay, as it mirrors the debrief and analysis processes we use in simulated learning to build insight, empathy, and critical thinking.
- Game Changer Challenges: Team-based activities that develop collaboration, communication, and emotional resilience—skills that are essential if awareness is to translate into action.
Beyond Awareness: Capacity to Act
One of the most powerful messages to emerge from the conference was that awareness alone is not enough.
Professionals shared that, in some cases, a young person can move from being targeted to being placed in a trap house within 24–48 hours. Without confidence, resilience, and trusted routes to disclosure, young people may struggle to act on what they recognise.
This emphasis on capacity, confidence, and safe disclosure closely aligns with Peel Roleplay’s work with adults and professionals—supporting individuals not only to recognise risk, but to respond effectively and appropriately.
Learning from Lived Experience
The conference also included a deeply moving contribution from Escape Line, whose presentation centred on lived experience. A young person spoke openly about being drawn into criminal activity from an early age.
For both Game Changer and Peel Roleplay, this reinforced the importance of authenticity, ethical storytelling, and informed facilitation. Lived experience—when shared responsibly—has the power to deepen understanding and ensure interventions remain grounded in reality rather than assumption.
Insights from this session will directly inform Game Changer’s practice and, by extension, enrich the shared learning across the Peel Group.
Shared Values, Shared Purpose
The multi-agency nature of the conference—bringing together police, social care, housing, education, and organisations such as Catch22, Crimestoppers, and The Children’s Society—highlighted the need for coordinated, values-led responses to safeguarding challenges.
At Peel Roleplay, we are proud to work alongside Game Changer as part of a wider ecosystem committed to early intervention, ethical practice, and meaningful experiential learning.
By sharing insight across our sister companies, we strengthen our collective ability to support safer decision-making, reflective practice, and positive outcomes—whether working with young people, students, or professionals across the UK.
Want to Learn More?
If you’d like to learn more about Peel Roleplay’s professional roleplay and simulated learning programmes, or explore Game Changer’s Impact Programme for schools and youth settings, please get in touch