Memorandum submitted by the Association
of Chief Police Officers
1. ACPO are grateful for the opportunity
to contribute to this overview inquiry.
2. ACPO and the police service are committed
to protecting children and young people, encouraging their positive
contribution to society and preventing children and young people
from turning to a life of crime or antisocial behaviour. Accordingly,
ACPO and the police service are committed to the provisions of
the Children Act.
3. The below comments are made without the
benefit of a full appreciation of the questions to be posed at
the Select Committee and accordingly, ACPO reserve the right to
expand, clarify or add to their submission as needed to respond
to the needs of the Select Committee.
4. This submission will set out areas where
ACPO feels further work needs to be done to ensure the police
role is fully appreciated and integrated into the "new"
provisions and will draw clear conclusions for the Select Committee
to consider.
5. The police service has two clear links
to the proposals within Every Child matters:
(i) Child protection, and;
(ii) Preventing children and young people
becoming victims of crime, criminals and/or turning to antisocial
behaviour (ACPO term this as "youth issues").
6. Arguably, given the history of child
abuse and the close working relationships between the police and
the partner agencies that make up the "Children Services",
the child protection role of the police and its relationship to
other agencies is well defined and understood. Accordingly, the
broad provisions and proposals within Every Child matters in the
child protection area are acceptable in principle to ACPO. However,
there are some concerns about some of the detail, which will be
commented on later in this submission.
7. In the area of "youth issues",
is it suggested that there is not such a clear understanding of
the role of the police service and the contribution it can make
to Children Services. Although, Every Child Matters brings a "duty
to collaborate" upon the police service, the police are not
seen as one of the main agencies within the "new" proposals.
It is the view of ACPO that the position of the police service,
as far as it relates to "youth issues", needs re-consideration
for the following reasons:
(i) ACPO have a comprehensive youth strategy
that covers six specific areas:
— Engaging with children and
young people: building and maintaining positive relationships
with children and young people.
— Children and young people
as victim and witnesses: providing children and young people
and their parents and carers with support and information to avoid
crime and disorder and to deal effectively with any crime or disorder
they may experience.
— Pre-crime prevention—helping
those in need: taking a lead in helping those children and
young people at greatest risk of becoming involved in antisocial
behaviour or criminality before they enter the criminal justice
system.
— Post-crime reduction—active
intervention: dealing quickly and effectively with children
and young people in the youth justice system, having consistent
and effective processes and graduating policing responses to those
young offenders who are at greatest risk.
— Post-crime detection and deterrence—targeting
prolific offenders: deterring and detecting serious and prolific
young offenders in partnership with other agencies.
— Human Resource development—towards
a qualified workforce: ensuring that staff that have specific
contact with children and young people have appropriate skills
to perform their role.
(ii) The Audit Commission report, "Youth
Justice 2004", had a clear recommendation that, "all
police forces should develop a dedicated strategy for tackling
youth offending". Currently, a number of police forces have
a comprehensive youth strategy similar to that set out above whilst
others will be developing such a strategy in accordance with their
local needs.
(iii) The police service are often one of
the first agencies to be alerted to "risk factors" that
are as relevant to all aspects of Every Child Matters as
they are in relation to crime and disorder, some examples are
set out below but this list should not be seen as exhaustive:
— Mixing with offending peers.
— Criminal family member.
— Disruptive/antisocial behaviour.
— Unreported criminal behaviour.
(iv) As part of the wider ACPO youth strategy
set out above, the role of the police service is changing in relation
to schools. There are now almost 500 Safer Schools Partnerships
(SSP) [where full-time police officers are working as operational
police officers in an operational role within secondary schools
and their feeder primary schools]. Work continues to define a
graduated model for police in schools that recognises the more
traditional school liaison role and the new SSP role. However,
the police are working far closer with partners in this new role
and although evaluation of the SSP model is inconclusive at this
time (given the pace at which it was established and the likely
longer-term outcomes), there are a range of strong indicators
to show that there are considerable benefits in this "new"
approach.
MORE SPECIFIC
ISSUES
8. There are a number of more specific issues
directly related to the proposals within Every Child Matters
as set out below:
(i) Common Assessment Framework (CAF):
Whilst welcoming the development of a CAF there are some concerns
about the resource commitment required of the police service to
use and support the CAF. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS),
in their response to the formal consultation on the CAF have estimated
that they are likely to require 90 additional police officers/staff
to meet their commitment to the CAF. It may be that the MPS estimation
is inaccurate but as the police service were not one of the very
many agencies involved in the initial CAF Working Group, the actual
resource commitments cannot be clearly known at this stage. It
is accepted that much work needs to be done until the final CAF
is agreed and its application to the key agencies is resolved
but until this clarity is resolved this remains an area of concern
for the police service.
(ii) Child Indexes and IT systems: The
Home Office and the police service are working towards the development
of a national police intelligence system. There is a need to ensure
that any IS/IT developments for children and young people within
Every Child Matters has full regard to compatibility and
the need to transfer data and information. This must apply to
both child protection and "youth issues"' matters and
must lead to the ability to transfer data and information securely
and electronically.
(iii) Information Sharing: ACPO, the
Youth Justice Board and the Home Office Legal Department, supported
by independent Counsel's advice, have developed clear, practical
guidance (based on a simple and realistic case-study), to show
that personal and sensitive information about children and young
people, even before they have entered the youth justice system,
can be shared within the law and without consent, to prevent such
child or young person becoming involved in crime. This guidance
clearly shows how "risk factor" information can and
should be shared to the benefits of the child or young person
to enable early and effective intervention to prevent them from
entering a life of criminality. ACPO are keen to ensure that the
clarity and simplicity of this work is not lost in the development
of future guidance.
(iv) Children Trusts (CTs): The police
service are not currently seen as active partners in CTs. However,
Essex Police, with the consent of the partner agencies, have seconded
a full-time police officer into the Pathfinder CT at Braintree,
Essex. Consideration of the objectives of the Braintree CT shows
that around 80% of the objectives relate closely to the role of
the police (particularly the "youth issues" work), some
examples are shown below (the "short-hand" used is to
provide an indication and does not reflect the full extent of
the objectives):
— Improving awareness between CT agencies
of their role and functions.
— Reducing structural barriers for
better service delivery.
— Professionals to use a common language
and common assessment framework.
— Robust information collected and
shared.
— Develop an outreach model of service
to enable greater access to those at risk.
— More responsive services to target
support to children and families out of hours.
— Better co-ordination and promotion
of early intervention services.
— Increased accessibility of school
based support.
— Provide enhanced support to eight
to 14 year olds at risk of being looked after by the local authority.
— Reduce the level of victimisation
of children and young people.
— Enhance support to children at risk
of exclusion.
— Provide support to children and young
people subject of Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs) and ASBOS.
— Increase the level of support to
children and young people exposed to violence within the home.
— Improve the level of awareness of
the impact of domestic violence for children and young people
amongst police, social services, social care and health.
— Engage parents and carers who have
attended programmes to develop skills, etc.
The emerging view of the role of the police
officer in the Braintree CT is very positive and, although, local
evaluation is taking place it is too early for specific outcomes
(the police officer was only seconded in September 2004).
ACPO have made the point that there is a need
to consider a police officer as an active member of CTs from the
outset. There are obvious resource implications that have yet
to be considered and if there was a need to have a police officer
in each CT this would mean in the region of 600 to 700 police
officers needed to fill such posts nationwide.
(v) Youth Green Paper—a Youth
Green Paper is to be published in January or February 2005 which
is likely to have considerable connections to the "youth
issues" aspects of the work of the police service. It will
be important for ACPO to be early contributors to the thinking
and the detail of this green paper to ensure future developments
are compatible with existing practice and developments. It would
be unhelpful for any future proposals not to have regard to the
extensive work that the police service are undertaking with children
and young people in the area of child protection and prevention.
The comments in relation to the Youth Green Paper reflect the
issues raised at 7 (i) to (iv) above.
CONCLUSIONS
9. The following conclusions flow from the
above comments:
(i) The police service is committed to supporting
Every Child Matters.
(ii) The role of the police service, as far
as "youth issues" are concerned, needs re-consideration
as part of "Children Services".
(iii) The role of the police within Children
Trusts needs to be re-considered.
(iv) An "impact assessment" of
the role of the police needs to be undertaken between the Home
Office, Department for Education and Skills and ACPO, to determine
the likely future resource requirements for the police service.
(v) ACPO must continue to be closely involved
both from the child protection and "youth issues" perspective,
in the detail of future developments to enable the police perspective
to be properly considered.
December 2004
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