A child protection inspection report regarding Greater Manchester Police (GMP’s) handling of the protection of children in Greater Manchester was published this morning, alongside a letter of interim findings outlining the safeguarding peer review process.
Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, joined Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester for Safer and Stronger Communities, Kate Green and Greater Manchester Chief Constable, Stephen Watson to discuss the findings of the report.
Report findings
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) report stated GMP had a ‘good’ rating for working with safeguarding partners, an ‘adequate’ rating responding to children at risk of harm, assessing risk to children and making appropriate referrals and investigating reports of abuse, neglect and exploitation.
Recommended improvements
Responding to children at risk of harm
HMICFRS determined police should ensure they recognise all risks to children and act quickly to protect them.
The report concluded there were examples when officers and staff did not identify concerns when they should have, with oversight meaning action could come too late.
Assessing risk to children and making appropriate referrals
The report recommended the force should ensure it accurately records children’s demographic
information, and links individuals on its intelligence system, to better assess risks to children.
For example, In 12 of the 48 case file reviews, the report found the force hadn’t recorded the ethnicity
of children. This makes risk assessment harder in cases where a child’s ethnicity may be a factor, and to analyse how risk changes for different cultural groups.
The improvement on recording cultural information also spanned to the recording of information concerning the disability of a child.
In 20 of 48 case file reviews, the report found staff had not recorded information on a child’s disability or special educational need.
Finally, it has been determined that GMP should be more aware of individuals being connected across complex family groups in order to adequately consider the risks and complexities in children related cases.
Investigating reports of abuse, neglect and exploitation of children
The report concluded police staff should be adequately trained to respond to reports of online child exploitation.
In addition, the force should ensure it has enough trained officers to be able to carry out video interviews with children, ensuring they are in a comfortable environment to reduce the traumatic nature of a possible event a child has gone through.
The report concluded that more trained officers, staff and social workers should be specially trained to be able to limit delays in the process.
Following previous reviews into child sexual exploitation in 2018, Burnham stated a more thorough review was needed of the Greater Manchester system concerning child protection.
He said: “These reports took a long time to complete, but were crucial in laying these failures bare and giving a voice to those victims and survivors so very badly let down and to the whistle blowers who were not listened to.”
The Mayor acknowledged the failures of the system, and decided a more thorough review was needed to understand the extent to which child protection is dealt with.
Burnham said: “I can say to the Greater Manchester public for the first time with independent assurance, that you can be confident that the Greater Manchester system is much stronger than it was, and that children today are much better protected.
“Of course, we are in no way complacent, and we will now build on these strong foundations to make the arrangements good in every respect.”
Burnham recognised there was more room for improvement, but stated significant progress had been made regarding child protection, including 67 arrests under Operation Green Jacket, 96 arrests under Operation Midden, and 200 charges under Operation Biro.
Chief Constable Stephen Watson said: “This report recognises that the GMP of today is one that affords child protection the priority that it deserves. It puts victims at the heart of what we do. It works effectively with partners to safeguard children, and it has developed a well trained, committed and determined workforce that specialises in this work.
“I am pleased that HMC were able to recognise the considerable strength of our officers and staff so much in charting GMPs progress is a direct reflection of their professionalism, focus and compassion.
“Sadly, we know that the continued prevalence of risk to children in society demands of us a sustained focus, an enduring appetite to innovate and continuously improve and to be accepting of the fact that we and our partners will need to constantly challenge one another to prevent even the nearest hint of complacency.
“The protection of our children will remain a key priority for GMP and I am determined that we, together with our partners, will continue to work hard at getting better.”
Featured image: Peter McDermott via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0
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