MPS sets out new strategy to protect children from crime

As part of the strategy all officers will receive new training in childhood vulnerability and adultification bias.

This training will ensure the force can effectively implement a ‘Child First’ approach while continuing to take tough action where communities or individuals (including children) are put at risk.

MPS Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the strategy recognises that it has “not always got it right in the past”, often focusing on the criminality rather than the vulnerability that lies behind it.

However, he stressed this will not mean a “free pass” for childhood criminality.

Sir Mark said the new five-year children’s strategy, launched on Thursday (September 26), will ensure that officers have the tools, systems and training they need to effectively manage the range of very different ways that children experience crime.

Around two million children live in London and the policing challenges they present are “wide ranging”, said the MPS: from a 13-year-old being exploited and forced to transport drugs to an eight-year-old growing up amid domestic abuse, or a violent 17-year-old with a knife.

In 2023, there were approximately 61,000 child victims of crime and 51,000 children who were suspected of committing a crime.

Sir Mark said: “This is a major milestone in our mission to keep children in London safe from crime.

“It will give officers the training and support they need to recognise vulnerability and safeguard individual children, while ensuring that they can still effectively protect the public from criminal behaviour.

“Importantly, the strategy also recognises what the Metropolitan Police has not always got right in the past: that in policing the line between vulnerability and criminality, we may have sometimes focused too hard on the criminality we can see, not the vulnerability that lies behind it.

“This does not mean a free pass for childhood criminality, rather it will ensure we are taking a ‘Child First’ approach to policing which takes into account the unique needs of children impacted by crime and brings to justice those who exploit or abuse them.”

London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden, said: “I welcome the Met’s new strategy to protect children from crime which will rightly place greater emphasis on recognising the vulnerabilities of young people as well as being able to respond appropriately to criminal behaviour.

“Enhanced training for all officers will help ensure a ‘Child First’ approach is embedded in policing in London – which the mayor and I have long called for – and will fulfil a key recommendation from the Baroness Casey and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services reviews.

“This new approach is an important step forward in the Met’s work to keep vulnerable young people in our city safe, rebuild their trust in the police and bear down on anyone who abuses or seeks to exploit them in our communities and online.

“The mayor and I will continue to do everything we can to support the Met and key partners to build a safer, fairer London for everyone – where no child is left unprotected.”

Anne Longfield, executive chair of the Centre for Young Lives and former Children’s Commissioner for England, said they supported the development of this children’s strategy, which she says will “provide the MPS with the opportunity to hear the experiences and insights of children and young people”.

“Children want to be confident that the Met are there to protect and to serve them,” said Ms Longfield.

“Ensuring the Met understands the experience of young people and the challenges they face and interacts with them in a respectful and safe way is a crucial part of building trust.”

Ade Adetosoye CBE, chair of the London Safeguarding Children Partnership Executive, welcomed the commitment to improving the experience of London’s children when they engage with the police.

This strategy provides an opportunity for the police to reset its relationship with children and young people.

“As a board, we welcome and support the MPS’s children’s strategy and we look forward to continuing to work with the Metropolitan Police as they continue their improvement journey.”

In addition to new training for all officers, the MPS will undertake work to improve relations between officers and children in London, as well as work better in partnership with agencies which have a primary responsibility to keep children safe.

The Children’s Strategy also commits to:

• Increasing the size of our child exploitation teams with an additional 72 officers across London;
• Integrating trained schools officers into neighbourhood ward teams; and
• Establishing a new Public Protection Referrals desk to identify children who are experiencing domestic abuse and help facilitate a multi-agency response.