MPS progress update on response to Laming 2

Report: 8
Date: 5 November 2009
By: Assistant Commissioner Specialist Crime

Summary

This report, commissioned by the Strategic and Operational Policing Committee provides

• An update to the report provided to the committee on 6 June 2009 on the MPS response to the recommendations in the Lord Laming review; ‘The Protection of Children in England A progress Report, following the death of Baby P’
• An update on the progress of the MPS action plan also outlined in the report provided to the committee on 6 June 2009
• An update on the Ofsted led Joint Agency Review (JAR) in June 2009 of progress made in Haringey

Appendix 1 is the report ‘Inspection of progress made in the provision of safeguarding services in the London Borough of Haringey’, published 3 July 2009

A background update is provided of the criminal prosecutions, Serious Case reviews (SCR) and other relevant inspections affecting the MPS since the last report.

A. Recommendation

That

1. Members note the contents of this current report; and
2. consider this report alongside the content of the previous reports presented on the 4 December 2008, 8 January 2009 and 6 June 2009.

B. Supporting information

Criminal investigations, reviews and inspections

1. On 3 August 2007 police were informed of the death of 17-month-old Baby Peter, who had been brought to Hospital with a number of visible injuries. Baby Peter and two of his sisters, were on the Haringey Child Protection Register (CPR) at the time of his murder. The child’s mother Tracey Connolly, her partner Stephen Barker, and his brother Jason Owen, were all convicted on 11 November 2008 of Allowing or Causing the Death of a Child.

2. During the investigation, Child E, disclosed to her foster carers that, aged 2½, she had been raped by Stephen Barker. Child E was on the CPR at the time of these offences. The allegations were investigated, Tracey Connolly charged with Wilful Neglect and Stephen Barker with Rape. On 1 May 2009 Stephen Barker was convicted of rape and Tracey Connolly acquitted of neglect.

3. On 22 May 2009 all three were sentenced as follows:

Stephen Barker: Life for Rape, 12 years for causing death. He was given a minimum tariff of 10 years and an ‘Indeterminate Sentence’.

Tracey Connolly: An Indeterminate Sentence for Causing Death with a minimum tariff of 5 years.

Jason Owen: An Indeterminate Sentence for causing Death with a minimum tariff 3 years.

(NB: An ‘Indeterminate Sentence’ or Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) is an order courts can make against adults convicted of a serious offence where the convicted person is deemed to pose a significant risk to the public. The IPP is reviewed as part of the prison service parole board process following service of the minimum tariff.)

4. Appeals were submitted by all three. Barker has an appeal pending against conviction for rape and against his indeterminate sentence. The appeal hearing is set for 24 November 2009. Connolly and Owen appealed against the indeterminate sentence but Connolly subsequently withdrew her appeal. Owen’s hearing is set for 27 October 2009.

5. The first SCR into Baby Peter’s death was deemed inadequate by Ofsted. A second SCR was completed and published by Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) on 23 May 2009. A SCR into the siblings of Baby Peter was completed in July 2009 but cannot be published until completion of care proceedings, expected in December. The ‘sibling’ SCR and the MPS contribution to it have been graded ‘outstanding’.

6. The Haringey action plan drawn up following the JAR in November 2008 incorporates the learning from the SCRs. A joint agency inspection of progress of the plan was made in June 2009 and reported to Secretary of State Ed Balls in July (Appendix 1). The report recognises the thoroughness of the action plan but given the short time since the original inspection reports limited progress. Feedback from the HMIC to the MPS on their specific findings was more positive, complementing the progress of the SCD5 modernisation programme, new robust practices at Haringey CAIT and the MPS investment in addressing the need for change. A follow up inspection is scheduled for January 2010.

Update on the MPS Response to the Lord laming Review (Laming 2)

7. Lord Laming’s review, published on 12 March 2009, made 58 recommendations to the Government. The Government responded with an action plan ‘The Protection of Children in England’ in which they accept all 58 recommendations.

8. The majority of the recommendations and Government actions are high level, falling to the Home Office, Ministry of justice, DCSF and Dept of Health and more detailed responses are still awaited. The Government has; appointed a Chief Advisor on the Safety of Children, Sir Roger Singleton, approved a National Safeguarding Delivery Unit and invested £58m in a national social worker recruitment drive. A key element of a number of the recommendations is the revision of ‘Working together to Safeguard Children’. The revision is currently in draft and should be completed in December 2009.

9. As reported in June the MPS is progressing on some recommendations as part of the modernisation programme as follows:

10. Recommendation 4 requires new statutory targets for safeguarding and child protection that will require the National Indicator Set to be revised and national indicators included in Local Area Agreements for the next Comprehensive Spending Review. The Government action plan aims for draft new statutory targets by autumn 2009. The MPS is leading on behalf of ACPO a six force pilot of new national performance indicators. These indicators measure for the first time; quality and risk reduction management with partners, interventions and outcomes. The pilot commenced in July 2009. Details of the pilot and PIs have been shared with partners through the London SCB. Some data collection is currently manual but a CRIS enhancement project will eliminate this burden (See para 3.3)

11. Recommendation 6 specifies that leading partners at LSCB level should regularly review all points of referral where concerns about a child’s safety are received to ensure quality of risk assessments, decision making, onward referrals and multi-agency working. LSCBs are now routinely attended by Borough Commanders or a senior ranking nominee and by CAIT DIs or their DCI line manager.

12. Recommendation 8 requires DCSF to organise regular training on safeguarding and child protection and on effective leadership for all senior political leaders and managers across frontline services. Whilst there is no specific recommendation for police the MPS fully recognises the need for regular and effective joint agency training at all levels. The MPS provision, of Multi Agency Critical Incident Exercise (MACIE) training for each London borough has already delivered to eight boroughs. This training is provided free of charge to the boroughs with the costs associated absorbed by the MPS. The 2-day training is timetabled to deliver to all boroughs by April 2010. The development, continuance and longer term funding of this training is on the agenda of the London SCB. As part of the Haringey action plan independent consultants have conducted a full review of training provision covering competencies, single and joint agency training needs, ownership and evaluation. Their report should be available to partners on 28 October 2009. The MPS will evaluate this and respond promptly taking a pan London view.

13. Recommendation 16 refers to the need for ‘constructive challenge’ between agencies. The HMIC and the ACPO consultation on SCRs identifies the reluctance of police representatives to challenge where they may be unsure of their footing amidst a peer group who appear comfortable in their professional role. SCD5 training unit are developing a competency for constructive challenge in the child abuse environment and a course titled ‘Confidence in Communication’ to deliver it. This is likely to include role play exercises with paediatricians, lawyers and social care managers. The target date for completion is January 2010.

14. Recommendation 25 states: “Children’s Trusts should ensure a named, and preferably co-located, representative from the police service, community paediatric specialist and health visitor are active partners within each children’s social work department”. As reported in June this has potentially significant resource implications for accommodation, IT, security of data, staff resilience and other equipment. Following an initial assessment in Haringey, a pilot project between police and children’s services will see the creation of a co-located first response team at the local authority premises in Wood Green. A start date is set for April 2010 and whilst the detail is still being worked through the unit will combine the referral and assessment functions of children’s social care, borough public protection team and CAIT under one manager.

Progress of the MPS Action Plan

15. The following is an update on the areas for improvement and associated issues reported on in the June report. Members will note a number of pilot initiatives are now in place.

Management of case files

16. The revised manual docket is now being placed onto the MPS crime recording system CRIS as part of the new risk assessment process (CRAM) (see Sec 3.3). This is a significantly positive step that will enhance all aspects of managing files of children on care plans. This conversion is being rolled out as part of the CRAM rollout and will be pan London by January 2010.

17. Supervision, capability, capacity and support

• The recruitment of the additional staff of 19DSs, 19DCs, 32 PCLOs and 19 researchers is progressing well and to plan. Selection processes have recruited into all DS, PCLO and researcher posts. Many have already joined or have start dates and it is expected all will be in post by December 2009. The more challenging recruitment of DCs has seen over 20 DCs and PCs selected but staff turnover leaves a current net shortfall of 14. A policy of continuous recruitment has been adopted. Two external campaigns have been run, the most recent attracting 14 applicants from substantive detectives from other UK forces. This selection process will be complete by end October. Open days and internal adverts continue to run in North and East regions where recruitment is most challenging. In the meantime, a block has been placed on officers leaving these two regions and SCD5 is treated as a priority posting by workforce planning.
• A staff allocation formula has been developed to ensure planned strength and staff allocation matches workload.
• The impact of maternity leave remains a significant issue for SCD5. When the new staff are in place the command will move from the current gender balance of 48% female police officers and 74% female police staff to over 50% and 80% respectively. Based on the last three years data and accounting for the growth it is predicted that maternity abstractions will equate to ten police officers and five police staff per year. The risk presented by abstractions from key roles is being managed in two specific ways. Firstly, the development of an ethos that all staff on CAITs are part of a regional team and may be required to work temporarily on other CAITs within the region. Secondly, a pilot system of impact assessment is being introduced for each maternity or other long term absence and an appropriate level of response made to maintain child safety in the most cost effective way. Options include; accepting the risk, re-deploying existing staff, agency backfilling and temporary or permanent recruitment ‘over strength’. The budgetary impact will be managed separately and reviewed with ACSC in March 2010.
• A pilot extending the core hours of CAIT teams from 8am - 6pm to 8am - 8pm ran from June to August on east region to determine any benefits to service delivery, administrative functions and overtime management. Whilst there were no substantial benefits or costs, being ‘open more hours’ was seen as a positive step. Extending hours on other CAITs is being encouraged and a policy decision on core hours will be made in December.
• The Child Risk Assessment matrix (CRAM) has now been rolled out to five CAITs covering nine boroughs and will be pan London by December 2009. This will standardize the referral process and improve identifying, reviewing and reducing risk to ‘children at risk’. The CRIS enhancement (see below) will reduce the administrative burden of the CRAM. CRAM has been shared with the London SCB and presentations to child protection heads and LSCBs are made as part of the rollout.
• A new SCD5 page on the CRIS crime recording system is currently being considered. Costing £500,000 to develop and implement the page will support supervision, intelligence retrieval, performance measurement and data quality. It will specifically support the CRAM process and collation of the new child protection PIs. Work will be completed by DoI this financial year and the possibility of paying from existing SCD budgets through a revenue contribution to capital outlay (RCCO) is under review. It is proposed that the cost is met from the current under spend forecast across SCD.
• The additional 19 general purpose vehicles to support attendance at child case conferences have been ordered and delivery is planned for January 2010.

Child protection policy and standard operational procedures

18. A full review of SOPs affecting frontline CAIT work was conducted in conjunction with SCD15 (Performance Improvement Team) and included focus groups on all SCD5 regions. These groups proved invaluable in informing assessments of current SOPS, their relevance and the ability to deliver against them. As part of the modernisation programme, where relevant, SOPs are systematically reviewed and updated. To date, updates (some minor) have been made to SOPs on; obligatory checks, reasonable chastisement, CAIT job descriptions, child case conference attendance, medical examinations, personal development, intelligence dissemination, ‘post charge’ case supervision and domestic violence.

Governance and Continuous improvement

19. Responsibility for ensuring compliance and pan London governance of CAITs sits with the SCD5 Continuous Improvement Team (CIT). The CIT is led by a DCI and includes quality assurance (QA), training and partnership. The merger of Camden and Islington CAITs (which completes in November) has enabled growth of 1 DI, 1 DS and 1 DC in the QA team and creation of a band C training manager. Governance is being honed as follows:

• A CAIT QA inspection programme has been developed. The inspections focus on comparative analysis in the four critical areas; referral processes/CRAM, performance, quality of investigations and effective partnership. Three CAITs are inspected every two months (one inspection per CAIT per year). The inspection product, best practice and areas for improvement are scrutinised at bi monthly DI meetings. Meetings are chaired by the OCU commander and CAIT DI attendance is mandatory. Actions arising out of identified areas for improvement are reviewed prior to subsequent meetings and are auditable. To date, two meetings have been held. The support and challenge process is 2-way with the emphasis on learning. The ethos of this process is to achieve consistently high quality practice and standards and develop a strong confident workforce that makes a real difference to children at risk.
• The SCD5 training unit is currently operating at extended capacity, laying on additional initial training courses to deliver the 3 week training course to all new staff by April 2010. Additional training developments include the introduction of CAIT team training days (one per year), workplace training for referral staff, development of PCLO and researcher competency workbooks, supplementary training to PCLOs and the ‘Confidence in Communication’ programme (see para 2.7)
• The partnership team, led by a DS, have expanded their remit to support the CAIT inspections in respect of partnership working and relations. The team are seeking to define a practical model of what effective borough/LSCB partnership working looks like; assessment/evaluation criteria, best practice, joint measures, shared responsibility etc. The team will look at internal, external, statutory and voluntary relationships as part of each CAIT inspection over the next 12 months.

20. Information and intelligence management

• The sharing of information between Specialist Units, the Met Intelligence Bureau (MIB), Public Protection Desks (PPD) and TP Borough Intelligence Units is a continually evolving and improving process. Information sharing is facilitated by each Command with a portfolio for Public Protection working together. This is achieved at the strategic level through the MPS Public Protection Steering Group. At an operational level the fortnightly MPS Public Protection Operations and Intelligence meeting, chaired by MIB, provides a forum to share cross-Command intelligence.
• To ensure that standards are maintained, compliance is determined by local inspection programmes within both TP and Specialist Units. This includes compliance checks regarding identifying and referring children at risk in domestic violence situations. Each Borough PPD is now accredited, and has been provided with a dedicated intelligence researcher post. Additional researchers have also been recruited for each CAIT referral desk. The CRAM will provide an improved structure for intelligence research and reporting, with its new supervision, review and escalation process. This process will be aided in the future by the new SCD5 page on CRIS.

21. Meeting attendance:

• DSs are involved in all strategy discussions and meetings as part of the initial referral process. The CRAM requires that such discussions take place after all police information and intelligence has been researched. This enhances the value of the strategy meetings but may take longer than hitherto. The initial assessment including the strategy meeting should be completed within a maximum 24 hours (target minimum 95% of referrals).
• The doubling of the PCLO strength is to enable attendance at all review case conferences (RCC) where police attendance is deemed beneficial to the conference. CAITs continue to support RCCs by report only as the new staff are not yet in place. Once in place, a supervisory process will involve pre and post RCC meetings between PCLOs and supervisors, monitoring of report quality and documented rationale where RCC attendance is deemed unnecessary. Non attendance will normally be agreed in advance with the RCC chair. SCD5 continue to maintain 100% attendance at initial case conferences (ICC) and 100% report submissions to RCCs.

Performance management and measurement

22. SCD5 performance management framework and monthly performance reports now include the qualitative measures included in the national PI pilot (see para 2.4).

CAIT staffing levels

23. At the time of the June report SCD5 total officer strength (which includes MIT, paedophile unit, Hi tech unit, Paladin and more senior ranks) was up to 398 officers against a (current) planned strength of 450. The figure is currently up to 428.

24. The new planned strength for CAIT DCs is 232.5 (10% increase) and for DSs is 86.5 (20% increase). All DS posts are filled. As stated earlier, there are currently 14 DC vacancies on CAITs with 14 external applicants scheduled for interview this month.

C. Race and equality impact

1. The work being progressed under the Children and Vulnerable Young People strand of the MPS Youth Strategy, now supported by the HMIC report on the need to improve supervision of high risk cases, has identified key risk factors which when combined, have a predictably negative impact on children and are strongly associated with physical offences against children. These factors include mental health, drugs, domestic violence, repeat victimisation, deprivation and BME background of the victim.

2. In order to impact on these factors, multi-agency work is progressing through the London Safeguarding Board to influence the provision of and access to services to improve the fate of children in these circumstances. Additional effort will be required to impact upon new communities and BME communities.

3. The pilot to address the impact of maternity leave and other long term abstractions on SCD5 will contribute to the MPS understanding and decision making in its commitment to being an equal opportunities employer.

D. Financial implications

1. The additional costs to implement these reforms were presented to the MPS Investment Board in March 09. The option approved allowed for the growth in SCD5 of 38 police officer posts and 51 police staff posts at a total cost of £2.4m in Yr 1, rising to £4.8m from Yr 2 onwards.

2. Table 1 below illustrates how this cost will be met.

In addition to the revenue funding above, a further £166k is within the current capital programme.

3. This net growth of £1m will be reflected in the 2010-13 budget and business plan submission and will require budget reductions to be made in other parts of the Service in order to contain costs within the overall budget limit set by the Mayor.

4. The approved additional investment in SCD5 covers staff and additional vehicle costs. The additional costs for office and staff equipment that will be met from within existing SCD budgets.

5. Co-location of members of the ‘safeguarding authorities’ (Rec. 25, Laming 2) will affect CAIT resilience and have accommodation, equipment and IT implications. The Haringey pilot integrated team costs will assist to assess these issues over the next year.

6. The increased training delivered by SCD5 will require some additional funding of overtime and materials and this will be absorbed by SCD5.

7. Additional costs arise to provide on-going training to new researchers and to build in MACIE training with partners long term. Further developments as recommended by both Laming 2 and 2nd SCR, to improve partnership working at operational and strategic level will also have training, accommodation and equipment costs as well as abstraction/ resilience implications. The joint training review conducted by Haringey will assist in determining these costs in greater detail.

8. HMIC were also critical of MPS systems in the management of child abuse investigations and concerns. It particularly criticises CRIS for making supervision difficult and MERLIN for its poor search and supervision facilities. The MPS response is currently being developed. The proposal for a dedicated SCD5 CRIS page project is estimated to cost £500,000 in terms of capital investment. This project is not currently in the approved capital programme and progress will be subject to agreed decision making processes and the identification of a suitable funding source.

9. The financial impact of maternity abstractions of 10 officers and 5 police staff equates to approximately £750,000, which will need to be managed through existing SCD budgets. The actual impact on budgets in maintaining service will be measured by the impact assessment pilot and reviewed in March 2010.

E. Legal implications

None given.

F. Background papers

• Appendix 1: Inspection of progress made in the provision of safeguarding services in the London Borough of Haringey

G. Contact details

Report author: Detective Superintendent Reg Hooke, SCD5

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Abbreviations and Acronyms

JAR

Joint Agency Review

CPR

Child Protection Register

IPP

Imprisonment for Public Protection

LSCB

Local Safeguarding Children Board

HMIC

Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary

CAIT

Child Abuse Investigation Team

DCSF

Department of Children, Schools and Families

MACIE

Multi Agency Critical Incident Exercise

SCB

Safeguarding Children Board

SCR

Serious Case Review

CRIS

Crime Recording and Intelligence System

CRAM

Child Risk Assessment Matrix

CIT

Continuous Improvement Team

PCLO

Police Conference Liaison Officer

MIB

Met [police] Intelligence Bureau

PPD

Public protection Desk

RCC

Review Case Conference

MIT

Major Investigation Team

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