Response to child criminal exploitation in Northern Ireland inconsistent and often inadequate, says Chief Inspector

Speaking today (February 25) following the publication of the inspection report, the Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland, Jacqui Durkin, called for more to be done to protect children from this type of abuse and to understand the nature and scale of child criminal exploitation in Northern Ireland.

“Child criminal exploitation in our community is not a recent issue but is of increasing concern,” said Ms Durkin.

“It is child abuse and simply put, it is where someone uses a child to engage in criminal activity or to commit any type of crime and can take many forms.  When that abuse involves criminal exploitation and the abuser is their parent, a trusted individual or someone they fear, the harm caused to that child can take a lifetime to recover from. It can rob them of their childhood.

“Criminally exploited children can be targeted by paramilitaries and organised crime gangs, they can be or have been in care and have repeated episodes of going missing and they can be victims of other types of exploitation including sexual.

“Whoever exploits them, it is the child that often ends up with a criminal record that can impact their physical and mental health, education, employment and future potential.”

Inspectors found that the criminal justice system faced significant challenges in recognising, assessing and responding to child criminal exploitation.

“While we welcome the development of a definition of child criminal exploitation by the Departments of Justice, Health and Education in partnership with other stakeholders, work is urgently needed to embed this definition into service delivery and consistent practice to better safeguard and protect children,” said Ms Durkin.

“Inspectors recognise and acknowledge the difficult work undertaken on a daily basis by police officers working in the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s (PSNI) Public Protection Branch to help children in complex and challenging circumstances. However, I was both surprised and deeply concerned by the resources available to them in high harm, high risk areas of offending and safeguarding.

“While the allocation of resources is a matter for the chief constable and his senior team, I believe this is something they and the Northern Ireland Policing Board, should pay close attention to.”

Inspectors found the PSNI did not have a clear delivery model in place for tackling child criminal exploitation across the organisation. Frontline officers and staff lacked awareness and training on child criminal exploitation and there was no holistic approach to identify, investigate and disrupt offenders.

Case file reviews carried out as part of inspection fieldwork found children were often treated as suspects rather than victims and safeguarding referrals were not always made in a timely manner.

“Inspectors also found evidence and examples within case file reviews around the PSNI’s response to missing children that required immediate escalation and did not demonstrate an adequate understanding of the relationship between child exploitation and missing children reports,” said the Chief Inspector.

Ms Durkin said many missing episodes were recorded as concerns for safety rather than as missing person reports.  Inspectors also found evidence of victim blaming language in some records they examined during fieldwork.

As a result of the findings, inspectors have recommended that the PSNI immediately improves its response to missing children and implements a robust process of monitoring and quality assuring missing children reports and effective child-centred arrangements with its strategic partners; with the aim of reducing the number of children who go missing.

“We have also called on the PSNI to immediately develop an adequately resourced delivery model for the identification, response and disruption of child criminal exploitation across Northern Ireland and plan to effectively operationalise work emerging from the cross-Departmental action plan to tackle child criminal exploitation. This should include a mechanism to monitor the effectiveness of police responses,” said Ms Durkin.

Inspectors also found the lack of specific markers or flags, for child criminal exploitation in use on either PSNI or Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (PPS) case record computer systems, was hindering data collection and better understanding of its nature and scale.

This resulted in missed opportunities to identify and respond to exploitation risks and provide assurance that a child-centred, safeguarding response had been adopted, and perpetrators were being robustly pursued.

Inspectors were concerned that the lack of available data and outcome measures limited the ability to assess how many children had been helped, how many offenders had been disrupted or prosecuted, and whether the system was improving outcomes for children at risk.

“I have recommended that inside the next six months the Department of Justice (DoJ), in collaboration with criminal justice organisations, should develop a strategic framework that baselines how the criminal justice system is tackling child criminal exploitation,” said Ms Durkin.

“It should set out indicators of success and develop and implement an effective mechanism to monitor criminal justice outcomes that in turn, can inform the DoJ’s contributions to cross-Departmental oversight of child criminal exploitation and emerging child protection issues.”

Ms Durkin added: “This inspection report makes for concerning reading. While pockets of good practice including the use of multi-agency support hubs and targeted interventions were identified, based on the evidence gathered and considered during this inspection, Inspectors concluded outcomes for children who had experienced or were at risk of child criminal exploitation were not good.

“The challenge for the criminal justice system and others is to implement the two Strategic and two Operational Recommendations for improvement included in this report.

“It is for criminal justice organisations and others to work to improve awareness of the National Referral Mechanism and how it can be used to safeguard children and to ensure the voice of the child and what is happening to them beyond being a suspect is effectively heard, and their experience, needs and circumstances are considered.

“We need to see children as children, protect them from harm and vigorously pursue those who are exploiting them and robbing them of their childhood.  This is not a drama storyline – this is the work of all of us and there is no time to waste.”

Responding to the report, PSNI Detective Chief Superintendent Zoe McKee said: “We acknowledge the findings and recommendations made by Criminal Justice Inspection and welcome the opportunity to further strengthen our service-wide response.

“Children who are exploited are victims first. Children deserve the very best and as a Service, we are committed to ensuring that they are seen, heard and safeguarded – and that those who abuse and exploit them are held accountable.

“Alongside the Department of Justice and other key partners, we are laser focused in tackling child criminal exploitation, an issue that requires a whole system approach. Significant work to tackle child criminal exploitation is already underway. We have established enhanced governance arrangements, to drive delivery of shared objectives through a cross-departmental action plan, reporting through our established child criminal exploitation Delivery Group led by senior leadership within Public Protection Branch.

“The complexity in responding to this particular crime type lies in navigating the space between effective response to safeguarding, enforcement considerations and ensuring the best interest of the child at all times. We acknowledge we have more to do. This is wider than policing alone and our communities often have the insights needed to identify and protect those children most at risk and we will continue to  work in close partnership with them.”

Det Chief Supt McKee said the PSNI had “formally adopted” the cross-departmental definition of child criminal exploitation and is embedding it operationally across the Service. This includes:

• Development of enhanced data recording mechanisms to better identify and track cases;
• Amendments to prosecutorial documentation to clearly highlight exploitation factors and National Referral Mechanism considerations;
• Introduction of bespoke person flags to improve identification of children at risk; and
• Accountability for the issue and reporting to the Northern Ireland Policing Board on performance and progress in this area.

“Training and awareness are also being strengthened,” Det Chief Supt McKee said.

“An organisation-wide eLearning package is under development, and child criminal exploitation is being incorporated into foundation training, investigative development programmes and specialist child abuse training. Multi-agency simulated learning exercises are being updated to ensure frontline officers and partners can better recognise and respond to indicators of exploitation.

“We are working closely with the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland and academic partners including Queen’s University Belfast to develop improved screening tools and analytical approaches. Through initiatives such as Twin Sight North, we are enhancing our ability to map networks and identify adults who groom and exploit children.

“I also acknowledge the report’s observations regarding resourcing. Despite ongoing financial and workforce constraints, our specialist officers and staff in Public Protection Branch and across local policing continue to work hard to better protect some of the most vulnerable children in our society.”