A county lines drug gang forced 40 children to deal cannabis and cocaine at a single school.

The teens, some as young as 14, had been supplied with drugs and dealing kits including deal bags and scales. 

Police say grown-up dealers had a network of 40 pupils dealing at the school which has just over 1,200 pupils - meaning one in thirty was possibly selling drugs.

It is suspected that girls as young as 14 at Kingsdown School in Swindon, Wiltshire, have been pestered for sex in exchange for cocaine.

And the dawn police raid yesterday - on the eve of GCSE results - revealed the extent of the teens coerced into the operation.

Wiltshire Police arrested a 27-year-old man during the raid. He has since been released under investigation.

Sgt Nathan Perry, who planned the 7am raid, said: "We found the person we're looking for, we've managed to safeguard the children who were at risk and we've found drugs.

"We all know about county lines and the risks associated with that.

"The difficulty with this type of drugs operation is that it's specifically targeting very young children in order to get them to deal drugs.

"Some of the information we've been passed is that children are not only being coerced into this activity, but they're also being physically threatened.

"If they go to police or teachers they'll be harmed," he added. 

Police were said to have been alerted to the gang at Kingsdown School.

A pair of older teen boys, both 16, are believed to have been supplying a network of up to 40 children in their mid-teens at the Swindon school.

The 27-year-old was arrested during the morning raid on suspicion of possession of class B drugs with intent to supply and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

The raid came as Swindon police focused their sights on modern slavery.

Nationally, police have increasingly turned to modern slavery laws to target drug dealers who force children and vulnerable adults to peddle their product.

Sgt Perry said those convicted could expect sentences of up to 15 years imprisonment.

"You've got children being exploited and young kids being forced to run the drugs. We will take it seriously," he said.

"The sheer nature of the exploitation of these young people is unacceptable.

"If we don't do something to stop that they're potentially going to be at risk for the rest of their lives.

It has become common practice that UK nationals or UK Registered Sex Offenders will travel overseas to gain access to vulnerable children for the purposes of sexually abusing them. They do this by seeking direct contact with children through employment, volunteering and charity work.

In a joint initiative, the National Crime Agency's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (NCA-CEOP) and ACRO have developed the International Child Protection Certificate (ICPC) to help protect children from offenders.

The ICPC is a criminal record check against police and intelligence databases located in the UK. It is similar to the DBS check and provides information on convictions and cautions as well as impending prosecutions and offences that are under investigation.

Schools and organisations that are registered for the ICPC scheme can request a job applicant to provide a certificate as part of their recruitment process. Furthermore, existing employees can be asked to periodically produce an ICPC as part of their ongoing inspection processes.

When used alongside robust safeguarding procedures, the ICPC enables overseas schools and organisations to make informed decisions about whether the people they employ are suitable to work with children.

If you are an organisation functioning abroad, please include the ICPC within your recruitment process. You will be taking an important step in helping to protect vulnerable children from those individuals who intend to sexually abuse and exploit them. For more information, including in other languages, please visit: www.acro.police.uk/icpc.

Following another death at a University due to mental illness, the student’s father has been working with Universities around the UK, such as Bristol and East London, to develop a new system to assist with individuals who require support. The aim is to identify students who need but don't ask for help by analysing their digital footprint. A trail is left when they attend lectures, take out books at the library or log in to the computer system. Through analytics they then can build a student profile that is updated regularly.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show 95 recorded university student suicides for the 12 months to July 2017 in England and Wales. But around half of students who take their own lives are not known to mental health services.

Last September, vice-chancellor Hugh Brady brought in an initiative that allows students to opt in to a scheme that would allow staff to contact a friend or relative if there were serious concerns about a student's mental health. According to Mr Brady, around 95% of students have signed up and since the scheme started, just over a dozen students had been a cause for concern. "We've probably considered it so far this year in maybe about 15 students. We have actively used it in about five.”

Other institutions doing their part are Wolverhampton University, who have trained 450 staff including security guards, caretakers and cleaners to recognise early warning signs in students; and Nottingham Trent University has a dashboard for staff and students that generates an alert after 14 days of lack of engagement.