Children aren’t being properly protected by Lincolnshire Police, a watchdog has said.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has labelled the way that the force investigates abuse, neglect and exploitation as inadequate, writes Local Democracy Reporter Jamie Waller.
It says that opportunities are missed to hold offenders to account and keep children from danger.
Lincolnshire Police say they have made improvements since the initial inspection, and are recruiting more staff to protect children.
One case highlighted by the watchdog involved a 16-year-old with autism whose mother was concerned they were being groomed by their manager.
The report says that officers “didn’t carry out even the most basic of enquiries such as speaking to the child”.
It also says the team responsible for protecting vulnerable children has been under-resourced for at least five years.
Staff feel “overwhelmed by unmanageable caseloads”, the report says, and this affects the quality of investigations.
In another case, two children made allegations against their parents, who were arrested. “Disappointingly, the force didn’t progress the case quickly enough, which meant one suspect was bailed with very little detention time remaining,” it says.
Inspectors also found examples of “victim blaming language”, with one supervisor saying it was difficult to talk to victims of exploitation because “lots of them chose that lifestyle”.
The force was commended for strengthening child protection and the effective way it responds to missing children.
Many staff were also found to be dedicated to their work “often in challenging and complex conditions”.
Two of the five areas examined were rated inadequate, with the others requiring improvement.
The force says it plans to add 48 police officers and 12 members of staff to the Protecting Vulnerable Persons team. A new risk indicator has increased identification of child sexual exploitation by 32 per cent, and cases are referred to a specialist team where needed.
Deputy Chief Constable Chris Davison said: “We fully accept the findings of this report, and since we were first made aware of the accelerated causes of concern, which form the basis of this report, we quickly took action and much of the work implemented at the time now addresses the issues outlined in HMICFRS’s full report.
“We know that there is still work to do but we are on the right path and will continue to work hard to make the changes needed.”
