North Yorkshire Police criticised for 'poor' child abuse investigations

North Yorkshire Police has been criticised for conducting “poor” investigations into cases of child exploitation and failing to look for kids who have gone missing from children’s homes.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has published a damning report, after conducting an inspection of the force’s child protection services.

Chief Constable Lisa Winward accepted the findings and offered her “deepest apologies” to any child that has been let down.

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Inspectors found “little evidence” of the force working effectively with other agencies to protect vulnerable children and identified several cases where officers “poorly assessed risk”.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services has published a damning report, after conducting an inspection of the North Yorkshire Police's child protection services.Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services has published a damning report, after conducting an inspection of the North Yorkshire Police's child protection services.
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services has published a damning report, after conducting an inspection of the North Yorkshire Police's child protection services.

They highlighted one case, when officers did not check on a three-year-old girl at risk of sexual abuse for six weeks.

In its report, HMICFRS described the standard of investigations into cases involving children at risk as "poor".

It added: “This is because the force allocates cases inconsistently. In some cases where highly vulnerable children went missing from children’s homes, officers recorded those children as cause for concern, rather than missing. So officers didn’t look for them.

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“The force doesn’t prioritise safeguarding and child protection highly enough in operational activity. It has an inconsistent approach to the risk from those suspected of sexually exploiting children.

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“This shows officers don’t always understand their primary role, which should be to protect children.”

The inspectors examined 73 cases involving children at risk and found the child protection practices were inadequate in 26 cases and required improvement in 34.

They also said a “large proportion” of officers had no specialist child abuse investigation training - althought some have been booked onto courses - while some specialist units, such as the Online Abuse Team, were more focused on catching offenders than protecting children.

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HMICFRS has made several recommendations, urging officers to speak to children and listen to their concerns so they can use that information to make decisions about their welfare.

They have also been told to consider a wide range of risks when a child goes missing and promptly share information about high-risk kids with safeguarding agencies.

The HMICFRS report added: “The force knows it needs to do more to help its officers better understand how to safeguard children.

“It knows it needs to help them look beyond obvious risk factors to identify wider or underlying problems that need addressing.

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“In our inspection, we found that the officers and staff who manage child abuse investigations are committed and dedicated, while often working in difficult circumstances.

“But in too many cases, practice is inconsistent. The force needs to make sure senior officers’ ambitions to improve the service lead to better outcomes in practice.”

'We haven’t always got it right and we know that is not good enough'

Chief constable Winward described the findings as “extremely disappointing” but said the force is working to make improvements.

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She said: “We fully accept the findings of the Inspectorate and I offer my deepest apologies to any child that we have let down or could have protected more effectively. We haven’t always got it right and we know that is not good enough for the children of North Yorkshire.

“We have been working at a pace to address the issues that were identified in the Inspectorate’s report. Our plan for improvement in our performance has already been submitted to the Inspectorate. We are tracking our plan and will publicly report on our progress."

She added: “I encourage anyone with concerns about a child’s safety to report their concerns to North Yorkshire Police with full confidence that the matter will be dealt with effectively.”