We are at crossroads in how we deal with child abuse

National Policing Lead for Child Protection, Chief Constable Simon Bailey said:

“The scale of child sexual abuse is staggering.  By the end of 2015, we anticipate that police will be investigating over 70,000 cases of child sexual abuse; an increase of 88 per cent from 2012. 

“HMIC’s reports today find that, ‘protecting vulnerable people is a priority for all police forces, and considerable efforts and resources have been allocated to this end.’  But demand is rising and there is still much more to do to provide the best service.

“We are at a crossroads.  We have got to fundamentally change our approach to policing so that our absolute focus is on working proactively with other agencies to protect the public from harm committed on or offline.  This requires a cultural shift away from largely reactive policing that targets acquisitive crime with success measured by crime statistics and conviction rates.  It must be supported by all agencies that work with children getting better at spotting signs of abuse, cruelty or neglect and intervening early to prevent harm. 

“Police chiefs must lead this change but no one should underestimate how much of a transformation this is.  Changing the culture of 43 individual organisations with between 44,000 and 1,800 people working in them does take time.  I’ll be talking to colleagues at the next Chief Constables’ Council about how we build on the improvements we’ve already made and make the further changes necessary so that we are protecting children from harm consistently across the country.”

What have police done in recent years to improve their response?

The College of Policing are revising training for specialist investigators to take account of modern forms of abuse such as child sexual exploitation, online grooming and honour-based abuse.  They are also delivering training packages for all new recruits and frontline staff.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing created a child sexual exploitation action plan in 2013 and all chief constables have signed up to delivering the plan.  It has already led to significant improvements in the local response, including better joint working with partners, prevention activity in schools and with young children, better intelligence collection and enforcement on those responsible for crimes. 

A network of regional coordinators and analysts have been appointed and tasked with improving the local response to child sexual exploitation and identifying where it occurs across force boundaries.

The Child Abuse Image Database has been developed to identify more victims of abuse depicted in child abuse imagery.  Nationwide training in victim identification techniques is underway.

Police forces and the National Crime Agency ran a six month operation targeting people accessing indecent images of children online, arresting 745 people, safeguarding 518 children and bringing charges against 264 suspects.

The service has committed to increasing the number of offenders pursued for accessing child abuse imagery across each police force area.

NPCC established a coordination hub, Operation Hydrant, in the summer of 2014 to oversee the investigation of allegations of non-recent child sexual abuse within institutions or by people of public prominence.  The hub identifies links between investigations and prevents duplication between forces. 1433 suspects have been reported to Hydrant and are under investigation by police forces.

With the College of Policing,  Approved Professional Practice (APP) has been developed on child sexual abuse to provide all officers with immediate guidance on how to respond to child abuse reports.

Notes 

Figures on abuse for 2015 - As part of research by the University of Bedfordshire, data has been gathered from twelve police forces on all the sexual offences recorded by the force in calendar years 2012-15 involving victims between the ages of 0-18 years.  This data has been extrapolated to provide a total case volume for 43 forces in England and Wales for a full calendar year in 2015.   These figures are an informed extrapolation rather than complete official national statistics.