Mayor backs police’s troubled data system
Andy Burnham denies iOPS is ‘a scandal’ as one MP has claimed
ANDY Burnham says he has been reassured the problems with Greater Manchester Police’s troubled IT system will eventually be sorted out – insisting it is ‘not a scandal.’
The mayor’s comments came in a lengthy statement issued following Her Majesty’s police inspectorate report into the iOPS system, which has been the subject of a catalogue of concerns from officers.
That report found thousands of child protection and domestic abuse cases had potentially not been passed on to safeguarding agencies after the network was introduced – while staff felt ‘blamed’ for the problems and were unable to find crucial information on victims and criminals.
Mr Burnham said he had been reassured by GMP that the problems identified in the report would be rectified, however.
He said a range of issues ‘could have been handled better’ by the force, including communication with staff and other organisations, as well as training.
But he rejected an assertion from Bolton West MP Chris Green this week, who labelled the troubled system a ‘scandal,’ adding that he had met with senior officers from the force to discuss the report’s findings.
Regarding a huge backlog of open incidents that had built up within the first three months of iOPS being introduced – which included hundreds of domestic abuse cases that had not been risk-assessed, meaning vulnerable people and had potentially been put at risk, according to the inspectorate – he insisted all cases had in fact been investigated.
“GMP have assured me that the thousands of calls and reports that they received following the implementation of iOPS were dealt with immediately and in the normal way. Incidents were opened, investigated and, where appropriate, closed,” he said.
Mr Burnham added that he had also been reassured a backlog of cases involving vulnerable people, about which HMI said the force had not had a full understanding, had in fact been investigated – although they had not necessarily been passed on to social services.
“The HMI report raises a specific concern about a number of child protection and domestic abuse incidents,” he said. “These incidents were investigated but it is unclear whether, if further follow up action was needed by a partner organisation, an alert had been sent to them.
“The HMI recommended GMP undertake a full audit of child protection and domestic abuse incidents in the period July to October 2019 to clarify whether the correct follow-up action had been taken where appropriate.
“GMP is currently conducting this audit and will report its findings to me when completed.”
Some officers spoken to by the M.E.N. believe those cases were not properly investigated, however.
“The reality is that they weren’t ‘investigated’ in the true sense of the word,” said one senior officer of the child protection and domestic abuse cases that had been in the backlog.
“Some may have been looked at, and some safeguarding activity may have taken place, but had they been properly ‘investigated,’ then I’d expect the proper processes would have been followed.”
In other words, they said, proper investigations would have seen referrals to social services as a result, which the report found in hundreds if not thousands of cases had not happened.
“Take it from me, iOPS has created a huge amount of extra process-type demand in the world of safeguarding, which essentially means that more resources are having to deal with system process issues just to keep our heads above water,” they added.
“But it’s not sustainable.”