Force knew of child protection staffing gaps 'since 2021'

The full findings of His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services’ (HMICFRS) national child protection inspection, carried out between November 24 and December 5 last year and published today (July 10), grade the force inadequate in two of five areas and requiring improvement in the remaining three: working with safeguarding partners, responding to children at risk of harm, and risk assessment and referrals. Not a single judgment was above requires improvement.

His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Roy Wilsher said: I am concerned about the performance of Lincolnshire Police in safeguarding children at risk, as there are significant areas in which it needs to improve.” He added that the force “must take urgent action” and “work harder to improve outcomes for children”, although he recognised the commitment of frontline officers and staff working in challenging circumstances.

When inspectors reviewed the force’s own risk register, they found leaders had been aware since 2021 that its protecting vulnerable people (PVP) teams were under-resourced. At the time of the inspection, the force had an 11 per cent vacancy rate across its four PVP teams, officers described feeling “overwhelmed by unmanageable caseloads”, and a number were absent from work with work-related stress.

Inspectors found not all personnel investigating crimes against children had the skills and training for the roles they were performing. HMICFRS itself had identified force capacity as an area for improvement in its 2021/22 PEEL inspection — meaning both the force and the inspectorate had the issue on record four years before this inspection found it critically affecting the quality of child protection investigations.

Of 18 child protection investigations reviewed, only five had adequate supervision. Ten of 18 exploitation-related cases did not follow the Victims’ Code. In 20 of 48 cases audited, officers had failed to record the voice of the child and the force’s own audit found 51 per cent of public protection notices submitted by officers contained no information about the child’s voice at all.

Inspectors also found the force was sitting on a backlog of around 3,000 unreviewed return home interviews, the accounts children give after being found or returning from a missing episode, which it said it lacked the capacity to consider. HMICFRS warned the backlog could contain intelligence explaining why children go missing and urged the force to prioritise it.

The force’s contribution to multi-agency child exploitation (MACE) arrangements was similarly limited: between January and November 2025 it made just 12 per cent of all MACE referrals, compared with 60 per cent from children’s social care. Inspectors saw victim-blaming language in seven of the 48 cases audited and heard it used about exploited children during fieldwork.

The two accelerated causes of concern documented in the report — that the force is not carrying out effective investigations when children are at risk of exploitation, and does not have enough trained and accredited officers to investigate child abuse — were issued in December 2025, when Mr Wilsher revealed the force had only one accredited child abuse officer. Lincolnshire Police has been in the Engage phase of enhanced monitoring since December 2024.

Responding to today’s publication, Deputy Chief Constable Chris Davison said: “We fully accept the findings of this report, and since we were first made aware of the accelerated causes of concern, which form the basis of this report, we quickly took action and much of the work implemented at the time now addresses the issues outlined in HMICFRS’s full report.

“This includes, but is not limited to, the planned and ongoing recruitment to add 48 police officers and nearly 12 members of staff to our PVP team, and the majority of our specialist PVP investigators have now completed industry-standard training.

“A new initial screening and Child Exploitation risk indicator tool has been developed, which is applied to a variety of incidents to identify indicators of exploitation and prevent it. There is also clear escalation to the Multi Agency Child Protection Team (MACPT), which is a highly skilled specialist team that ensures that occurrences sit with the right agencies and appropriate referrals are made.  Data shows this process has increased our identification of Child Sexual Exploitation by 32.4 per cent, so it is making a hugely positive difference.

“Furthermore, continued professional development is being delivered to the four main departments in the Force most likely to deal with child protection issues. We have also redefined an existing focus group to work more in tandem with partners and regional parties. Planned investment in our PVP team will increase frontline staff, while new live processes now track Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE) occurrences and specialist investigative advice is now provided at the point of initial allocation. Also, our specialist investigators who work in this area have completed or have been booked onto SCAIDP courses.

“All of this work, and other associated actions, directly address the issues raised by HMICFRS and will see meaningful improvements made at pace.

Mr Davison said the force was at a turning point, in large part because of the stability funding it received earlier this year, which underpins Lincs 2030, the three-year investment and transformation programme announced last week.

The HMICFRS report did identify areas of strength, including a prompt response to high-risk missing children, effective use of police protection powers, and the force’s role as a pathfinder in the Department for Education’s Families First Partnership programme, with its new multi-agency child protection team viewed positively by personnel.