Lincolnshire Police is ‘failing to effectively investigate’ child exploitation, inspectors have ruled.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has today (Friday, December 19) issued two ’causes of concern’ over the force following its inspection in November.
It says that police does not effectively investigate when children are at risk of, or have been harmed by, criminal or sexual exploitation.
The other concern relates to it not having enough trained officers to investigate abuse and exploitation effectively.
To address these concerns, HMICFRS has recommended that Lincolnshire Police needs to:
- produce a plan to meet its trained officer capacity and capability needs as quickly as possible;
- correctly identify children who are at risk, or have been harmed by, criminal or sexual exploitation;
- allocate exploitation investigations to trained officers who have the appropriate knowledge and skills;
- make sure supervisors regularly review investigations, record any outstanding actions and monitor deadlines for completion;
- follow all reasonable lines of enquiry to identify suspects;
- pursue evidence-led prosecutions and appropriate disruption activities when victims feel unable to provide active support for an investigation;
- effectively contribute to the multi-agency child exploitation meeting, so the partnership doesn’t leave children at risk of harm as a result of being discharged too early;
- make sure officers who have received Specialist Child Abuse Investigation Development Programme training complete portfolio registration with the College of Policing to allow them to be accredited; and
- make sure it has enough trained and qualified assessors available to oversee the portfolio completions to the required standard.
Chief Constable Paul Gibson said: “We fully accept the findings of this inspection and have taken immediate action to address the issues identified.
“If we are not providing the level of service that keeps vulnerable children safe, we will do everything in our power to make sure we take appropriate steps to make changes, as swiftly as possible, and that’s what we have done.
“We know it will take time to implement these changes and make improvements, but we are fully committed to doing so.
“Specialist training courses are being scheduled into early 2026 to ensure colleagues can attend them whilst we balance the demands within the department.
“This ensures we bolster our numbers of appropriately trained staff who can deal with child abuse and exploitation, and we will make sure that only those officers deal with these types of crimes. 68 officers have been on the specialist child abused investigation training with 28 still in a protecting vulnerable people (PVP) role, but are not yet fully accredited because they are completing the qualification as part of their work-based assessment- so we fully recognise the value of the training.
“On our investigations, we have quickly put measures in place by clearly tasking out supervisors to make sure there is adequate supervision and oversight to improve the way we investigate these cases.
“We still need extra resource in these areas, which is why we communicated the decision earlier this week to move some of our existing officers into areas like these that have critical safety functions, and we will keep asking for more resource both externally from the Government and seeking it internally by making sure our people are in the right places.
“The Force recognises that to make the improvements that the HMICFRS and the public rightly expect to policing services, additional investment will be needed. This has been a consistent message across all of our policing services.
“These causes of concern are not entirely down to a lack of resources due to inadequate funding but that does play a fundamental part, and a sustainable financial solution for the force is still under active discussion with officials and I am confident that they understand the issues.
“The inspection also found some positive areas of practice; how we deal with preventative legislation how we work in partnership with other agencies, and how we engage with schools in order to protect children.
“Saying that, I don’t underestimate the impact that news of this nature may have on people who might be parents or have caring responsibilities for youngsters because these types of crimes can be so harmful to victims, which is why we are 100% committed to making sure we address these issues.”
In December 2024, the inspectorate moved Lincolnshire Police into an enhanced level of monitoring, known as Engage. This process provides additional scrutiny and support from to help the force improve and provide a better service for the public.
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Roy Wilsher said: “I have issued two accelerated causes of concern to Lincolnshire Police as its standards for investigating child exploitation fall significantly below what we would expect.
“The force doesn’t correctly identify child exploitation or understand the effect it can have on children. Supervision of investigations is poor, and not all reasonable lines of enquiry are being pursued.
“There are also not enough trained officers to investigate child abuse and exploitation effectively. For example, there is only one accredited child abuse officer.
“The force must immediately produce a plan to increase trained officer capacity and capability. And it needs to make sure its investigations into children who are at risk of, or have been harmed by, criminal or sexual exploitation are effective.
“Although there is much the force can do to improve, I recognise that Lincolnshire Police is in a difficult financial position. As part of the enhanced monitoring process, alongside the National Police Chiefs Council, College of Policing and others, we will continue to support the force in making improvements
“I urge the force to implement our recommendations as a matter of urgency so it can protect children from harm. We will be closely monitoring the force’s progress.”
