Police and partners missing complex risk

A rolling programme of inspections that began in 2014 continues to find recurring problems challenging forces and their partners who base decisions on the most recent incident, HMICFRS said. 

Where the risk to children is immediate and obvious, forces usually respond well, but complex or less obvious risks can be missed, the report published on Thursday (February 27) adds. 

“Too little emphasis is placed on identifying underlying issues or the cumulative impact on a child of multiple repeated instances of trauma. 

“Forces usually deal with straightforward cases of child abuse and neglect promptly and efficiently. However, the police often carry out more complex investigations badly and investigations can suffer delays,” it says. 

Too often the focus is on the incident, missing the bigger picture, and incidents are dealt with in isolation. 

“Cumulative and escalating risk is not spotted at the earliest opportunity. That delays the development of an appropriate protective plan.” 

Staff see their roles and responsibilities in the context of completing a process and sometimes have not had extra training before carrying out complex investigations. 

The report criticises supervision that is too focused on making sure processes are completed on time and “essential” reflective supervision is underdeveloped. 

Backlogs and varied digital forensics capabilities were also leaving some children vulnerable as delays in examining seized electronic devices meant the necessary support was not being put in place. 

The report also found current inconsistencies in the way agencies share data. 

HMICFRS believes new statutory local safeguarding arrangements and the parity established with social care and health partners offers an opportunity to build more effective structures and arrangements to share information about risk and make joint decisions about the development of protective plans. 

The inspections found that forces have got better at recognising children at risk but too many subject to exploitation are being criminalised. 

At the time of the assessments, officers were not using all the tools available to protect children who are forced to commit crime, such as those moved across the country and coerced into dealing drugs as part of County Lines offences. 

“In too many areas, children are still likely to be prosecuted despite clear evidence of coercion,” the report said. “Too little consideration is given to the reasons why children commit crime when decisions are made about the appropriate response. Recognition of the root causes of criminality (whether it be exploitation or another vulnerability) may provide the opportunity for different, and more appropriate, resolutions to be considered when crimes occur.  

However, there has been an unambiguous commitment from police leaders, officers and staff to the protection of children, with improvements, in some instances significant, in the service received by children at risk since HMICFRS’s first thematic child protection report in 2015, which found much more needed to be done to ensure that all children in need received the right help and protection at the right time. 

Her Majesty’s Inspector Wendy Williams said: “We have found that signs of vulnerability are more effectively recognised, and the assessment of risk is generally better. We have found that, broadly speaking, partnership working has matured and the quality of multi–agency planning and decision making has improved. This has resulted in improvements in the outcomes for some, though not all, of the most vulnerable children.” 

Police leaders are now more aware of the complexities of child protection and the increased demand it creates and forces and other agencies have been working hard to improve their responses to children in need of help and protection, Ms Williams added. 

Examples of innovative work to protect vulnerable children at an earlier point in their lives were identified but approaches to early intervention in England were inconsistent. In Wales, the police are part of a programme to give early support to children exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). 

Ms Williams proposes the Government promote the benefits of early intervention and best practice found by The Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme. 

“The current reactive approach of the police and partners that too often places an excessive emphasis on the management of demand as opposed to the reduction of risk is unsustainable,” Ms Williams said.  

“Despite the promise of additional officers, the police cannot hope to manage the increasing demand and complexity that defines the responsibility to protect children alone. Police leaders recognise this, but greater consistency and pace is needed to ensure that children are given the opportunities they deserve to thrive.” 

The report recognises the role of other agencies and urges them to “come together to form clear local strategies to reduce risk and protect children at risk from abuse and exploitation”.  

“To be truly effective, more radical approaches are required. Despite the efforts of dedicated staff in every force and partnership the current approach to risk and vulnerability places too much emphasis on addressing immediate risks and the symptoms of vulnerability. A new model is required that considers the root causes of vulnerability and take steps to address them. 

“New statutory safeguarding partnerships (underpinned by legislation) represent such an opportunity. These arrangements require the three safeguarding partners, the chief officer of each force being one, to join up and achieve the best possible outcomes for children and families by ensuring targeted services are delivered to meet their needs in a local area in a co–ordinated manner.  

“Police leaders must raise their gaze and embrace their potential. For our part, we will continue to evaluate the impact of safeguarding parterships on the lives of vulnerable children.” 

National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection, Chief Constable Simon Bailey, said: “We are alive to many of the issues raised in this report and will take time to go through and consider the recommendations. Policing will always explore any steps we can take to protect our children better and as the report says we are already committing increasing levels of resources to this. 

“The report rightly recognises the hard work and dedication of police officers to keep children safe. However, it also correctly points out that the demands on the police service have increased at a time when our resources have fallen. We are dealing with a perfect storm of increased reports of non-recent abuse, ever growing online offences and the challenges of familial abuse, which is still our biggest demand. 

“This pressure on the service means that on too many occasions we are reacting to reports of abuse and exploitation rather than getting ahead of the threat through early intervention. 

“However, placing the responsibility for tackling the exploitation of children at the door of policing alone will solve nothing. We need the government to take a lead and every part of the system, in particular health, Public Health and education, to play their part.”