Police watchdog’s report published

LEICESTERSHIRE Police has shown a ‘strong commitment’ to improving services to protect vulnerable people, according to the latest inspection report from police watchdogs.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has published the results of its latest inspection, which looked at child protection services. Inspectors highlighted a wealth of good and “innovative” work being delivered across the force and praised the knowledge and commitment shown by officers and staff who were spoken to.

Among the “positive results” found by inspectors were:

• the establishment of a multi-agency hub where officers work alongside children’s social care and health services to exchange information to protect vulnerable people

• the delivery of thousands of training sessions across the force

• the production of Kayleigh’s Love Story – a short film aimed at raising awareness of online grooming and Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE).

However, concerns were raised that the good work being carried out was not yet resulting in “consistently good outcomes” and the report outlined that more needed to be done to “develop and coordinate” the response to child sexual exploitation.

A number of recommendations were made to the force – all of which have been acted on and already resulted in changes being made including the launch of a partnership CSE tasking and co-ordinating group to identify and address recurring themes, repeat locations and emerging issues; establishing a domestic violence executive group; a review of the way the force deals with missing persons enquiries; and the creation of an additional training package highlighting the voice of the child.