‘Positive changes’ made by Staffordshire Police to improve child protection

The force said it has been “working diligently” through those recommendations and a number of “positive changes” have been made.

Following concerns raised in the initial inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) in 2021, Staffordshire Police said there is now a more effective structure and leadership of child protection, with officers who have “significant experience and expertise” overseeing all aspects of child protection.

It has also developed a detailed performance framework that shows how well its approach to child protection is being delivered

Training focused on spotting signs of neglect, hearing and recording the voice of a child, and how to gather evidence from children using a trauma-informed approach has also been introduced.

In addition, Staffordshire Police said there is now more effective:

• Use of IT systems, so that staff have access to the information and resources they need to complete their duties;
• Contribution to multi-agency child protection arrangements;
• Responses to online child sexual abuse by investing in more staff, and reviewing and developing our processes; and
• Management of registered sex offenders, and this team received direct praise from the inspection team

“However, there were a number of areas identified in the initial inspection that we were still working on at the time of the re-inspection in March this year,” said Staffordshire Police.

“Consequently issues were still present, which we fully accept and recognise there is still more to be done.”

These include:

• The quality of child protection investigations;
• Risk assessment and allocation of responses by the contact centre;
• Responses to children reported missing from home;
• The accuracy of recording details of children’s ethnicity and cultural heritage; and
• The processes to assess and share information with other organisations to help protect children.

The inspectorate has said that Staffordshire Police should provide an updated action plan within six weeks.

Assistant Chief Constable, Becky Riggs said: “We are committed to improving our child protection services, and addressing the issues raised in our previous inspection, which was noted by HMICFRS who saw our detailed action plan.

“We have made a number of positive changes to improve how we protect vulnerable children and have restructured our public protection unit, leadership and governance.

“Six of the 15 recommendations have been achieved including improving IT, training, our structure, attendance at multi-agency case conferences, our approach to those who pose a risk to children online and our sex offender management unit.

“We worked with specialists to review the capabilities of our public protection unit which has resulted in an investment in staffing, as we recognise there is more work to do.”

Ms Riggs added: “HMICFRS have asked for a detailed action plan within the next six weeks which sets out how we will make further progress around the outstanding recommendations.

“As part of this, we will continue to improve the quality of our investigations, to better safeguard children and bring those responsible for harming them to justice.

We’re focused on a number of areas including our quality of investigations involving missing children, the identification of vulnerable children, using evidence from audits, our information sharing with partners and our child exploitation and online crime investigation teams.

“We are working with our partners to redesign the system for information sharing to ensure we have clear pathways to enable frontline officers and staff to be able to access the right help and support from the appropriate agency at the earliest opportunity when we identify any concerns for the welfare of a child.

“We’re also working with our contact centre colleagues to ensure our risk assessment process is robust and resources are sent appropriately to incidents involving children, recognising that their vulnerability is vitally important and that we need to understand and think about the voice of a child.

“We continue to work closely with HMICFRS who are monitoring our progress, and remain committed to making sure we protect our children and young people.”

His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, Wendy Williams, said: “Staffordshire Police is committed to improving its child protection services and addressing the issues raised in our 2021 inspection, evidenced by the introduction of a dedicated action plan.

“The force has made several positive changes to improve the ways it protects vulnerable children, including better clarity in its senior leadership and governance arrangements.

“With that said, some of the issues highlighted in our initial inspection still haven’t been fully addressed. For example, the quality of its investigations must be improved to better safeguard children and bring offenders to justice.

“We will continue to work closely with the force to monitor its progress and expect to see an updated action plan within six weeks, which sets out how it will make further improvements.”