Child protection - implementation of The Laming Report

Report: 6
Date: 9 October 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

Progress report regarding the changes in the MPS approach to child protection following the death of Victoria Climbiè. To include issues arising from both the MPS internal review and the recommendations of the Ministerial Inquiry chairing by Lord Laming.

A. Recommendations

That the progress in addressing child protection issues since the death of Victoria Climbiè be noted.

B. Supporting information

1. The PRRC has requested a Police Authority report covering four areas that are headlined below.

• Action taken by the MPS towards meeting the recommendations of the Laming Report since its publication (preferably by reference to each individual relevant recommendation).
• So far as not covered in the above point, an update on joint working between MPS, local authorities and other stakeholders on child protection matters.
• A briefing and commentary on the Government’s proposals for responding to Laming, as set out in the child protection Green Paper (subject to this being published in time).
• An update on resourcing and organisational issues relating to child protection in the MPS.

Action taken by the MPS towards meeting the recommendations of the Laming Report since its publication (preferably by reference to each individual relevant recommendation).

2. Appendix 1 contains the response to the recommendations to date. There are diversity and financial impact issues outlined elsewhere in the report.

3. On 8 September 2003 the Government published its response to the Victoria Climbiè inquiry report and the joint Chief Inspectors Safeguarding report entitled ‘Keeping children safe’. It will be studied alongside the Green Paper.

So far as not covered in the above point, an update on joint working between MPS, local authorities and other stakeholders on child protection matters.

4. The London Child Protection Committee (LCPC) approved the new pan London procedures manual final version. Each Area Child Protection Committee will be launching the manual in the coming months.

5. On 9 and 10 June 2003 a pilot HYDRA critical incident multi agency exercise took place at Horsley Towers conference centre. Managers from health, education, social services and police formed syndicates to undertake this challenging and innovative training. The MPS fully funded the pilot and many valuable lessons were learnt. A second pilot will take place in October. It was realised that some additional work was required on the social work sub plots and a consultant social worker has been engaged to under take 20 days work with Dr Jonathan Crego and his team.

6. The Government has selected three London boroughs to become ‘trailblazer’ sites for identification, referral and tracking systems (IRT). Other London boroughs are starting to show an interest in this type of system. The idea of a universal services register to track every child is at the heart of the Green Paper recommendations.

7. Whilst the MPS supports the concept of IRT the developing strategy is uncoordinated and the danger exists of the MPS being asked to buy into systems that cannot interconnect in the 32 boroughs. London agencies are missing the opportunity of capitalising on the economy of scale that could be gained from a consortium driving down the costs of implementing IRT London wide. Detective Chief Superintendent Kelleher has raised the issue with the Department of Health, Association of London Government, Greater London Association of Directors of Social Service and in evidence before a Parliamentary All Party Committee on Public Health.

8. The Association of London Government (ALG) is now negotiating a role in co-ordinating this work. The MPS Child Protection Group secondee to the LCPC works at the ALG building. One of that officer’s projects is to lead for this command on IRT. An inspector at TP HQ is leading on the youth justice aspects of IRT in partnership with the LCPC secondee.

9. Appendix 2 is a report detailing the provisional agreement reached with the National Health Service in London for the establishment of Amethyst Suites and early estimates of associated costs.

A briefing and commentary on the Government’s proposals for responding to Laming, as set out in the child protection Green Paper (subject to this being published in time).

10. On 3 July 2003 Mr Richard Sumray (PPRC Chair and MPA child protection link member), David Riddle (MPA Officer) and Detective Chief Superintendent Kelleher attended the Cabinet Office to discuss the proposed Green paper on the future of services for children at risk. This followed the submission of a joint MPA/MPS position paper and a previous meeting on 20 November 2002 with the Green Paper team with Detective Chief Superintendent Kelleher and representatives from the National Association of Directors of Social Services.

11. The publication of the Green Paper entitled ‘Every child matters’ took place on 8 September 2003. The MPS is reviewing the document and formulating both a position and a formal response. Both Commander David Armond and Detective Chief Superintendent Kelleher are members of a national multi-agency group. They have not had the opportunity at this time to discuss the impact of the paper with its membership or other partners. The MPS position to date has been closely aligned to the National Association of Directors of Social Services and discussions also need to take place with this body before formulating a response. Likewise the London Child Protection Committee (LCPC) has yet to meet to debate the position. A seminar is to be held by the LCPC on 25 September 2003 and by the Child Protection Group senior management team on 6 October 2003.

12. Detective Chief Superintendent Kelleher and a senior colleague from the NSPCC will be leading a workshop at the LCPC event on the subject to canvas views from a multi agency audience.

13. Detective Chief Superintendent Kelleher will provide an update to the PPRC on 9th October 2003.

An update on resourcing and organisational issues relating to child protection in the MPS.

Impact of recommendations on supervisory ranks

Detective Sergeants

14. Recommendation 93

“Whenever a joint investigation by police and social services is required into possible injury or harm to a child, a manager from each agency should always be involved at the referral stage and in any further strategy discussion.”

15. The direct implication for this recommendation is that a police manager of Sergeant rank be available for a strategy discussion with an opposite number in Social Services. The pilot post of Referral Manager was introduced into most teams incrementally replacing a Constable post on the existing BWT.

16. The workload consists of screening almost 17,000 referrals and 20,800 requests for information annually from social services in relation to Children’s Act procedures. Additionally some 90,000 form 78’s (contact with a child) are assessed annually by referral Managers. In the busier units Referral teams have been formed to manage the workload.

17. A time consuming process related to the incoming work is completing checks against every person mentioned in the family against potentially eight separate MPS databases and the PNC. DOI are looking at a technical solution to the searching problem. The Referral Manager also acts as an informal point of advice for MPS colleagues.

18. Workloads in eight teams are so high that an additional eight Sergeant Referral Managers are required. Separate work is underway to assess providing civilian support for the Referral Managers to undertake the research. Data warehousing is also being examined as a way of introducing a business efficiency.

19. Recommendation 94

“In cases of serious crime against children, supervisory officers must, from the beginning, take an active role in ensuring that a proper investigation is carried out”

20. This recommendation directly relates to the quality of supervision. The current SCD5 supervision model for CIPP team sergeants has been difficult to fully implement in some teams primarily because the Sergeants have been swamped with investigations themselves. The ratio was originally set at one sergeant to four constables but with the sergeant being counted as half an investigator. The reality is that some CIPP team Sergeants are full time investigators with no capacity to supervise. An increase of 17% workload in the last year in fourteen of the boroughs has caused major concern.

21. Workload levels in the other boroughs remain static but changes in working practices through the introduction of the Pan London procedures and the abolition of the CRIS facility to record non crime child care issues will change the workload profile this year. The latter policy has already increased the level of crime reports. It was felt the old system treated low level crime inconsistently across London and there were concerns that the practise did not accurately reflect the true level of crimes that were actually being dealt with. Strong leadership and supervision is vital to countering this situation.

22. There was strong evidence that police officers were spending enormous amounts of time investigating non-crime matters that should have been dealt with by social services under section 17 Children’s Act 1989 as a child in need. For instance at one point in time 69% of the annual total of crime reports for Camden (the highest level in the last three years) were classified non-crime matters as against the lowest level in London in Croydon with 9%. The remainder of the boroughs were ranged along that continuum.

23. Under the Human Rights Act proportionality, legality and necessity of deploying police officers into the private lives of individuals and their families must be fully justified as it impacts on that very right guaranteed under Article 8. The investigation of crime and suspected crime is justifiable. The issue of blurred and collapsed professional boundaries was a major concern identified in the Laming report. MPS policy now is to confine police action to information sharing in non-crime cases. This policy brings the MPS into compliance with the ‘Working together to safeguard children’ guidelines issued by the Government and the recommendations of Lord Laming.

24. Reform by other agencies also has an impact on the MPS. As an example, the London Borough of Haringey instituted major reform in its social services department increasing salaries above the normal London levels and investing heavily in improving staff facilities. The consequent significant increase in social workers and support staff has increased workloads into the MPS Child Protection Team by 50%. An additional sergeant and four constables will have to be found to manage this workload increase. The sergeants’ on this team have become almost full time investigators’ as a consequence.

25. Currently there is a pan London social worker vacancy factor of 20%. Many boroughs have a higher vacancy factor than that. The Haringey experience of workforce reform has identified unmet needs with a considerable impact on the MPS. The Green Paper is seeking solutions to the shortage of trained social services staff. If emerging recruiting strategies prove successful then they may impact on the MPS ability to provide appropriate levels of service delivery. In this context supervisors capacity to adequately gate keep and risk assess workloads is essential.

26. In the light of Lord Laming’s recommendations and the experience of implementing the current SCD5 model it has been considered prudent to remove investigative responsibly as an officer in the case from CIPP team Sergeants other than for rape investigation in line with Operation Sapphire guidelines.

27. All SCD5 CRIS reports are deemed serious as the victim is always a vulnerable person. Continual active supervision by a sergeant is time consuming. Laming’s recommendation 93 says that the supervisor must continue to engage with social services managers during the investigation. This might include attending additional strategy meetings with social services and other partners as necessary.

Revised staffing model

28. The staffing model has been adjusted and re run on the following basis:

• Sixty crimes per Constable Investigator,
• Ratio of one sergeant to four investigators
• Sergeants no longer counted as half an investigator (30 investigations per year) in order that they concentrate on supervision.

29. The rising workloads of the previous year, a 13% rise so far this year and the impact of the Laming recommendations has the effect of requiring in addition to the 398 BWT a further twelve Sergeants and forty-two Constables. 18 additional posts have already been authorised and are being recruited now. Authority was recently given for a further 22 posts by April 2004 and target dates are being set when the actual BWT can be increased within the overall MPS growth programme. The urgent need is for constables as a number of sergeants in some teams are carrying workloads almost as high as their subordinates and this needs to be addressed.

Detective Inspectors

30. The impact on Detective Inspectors is not yet completely clear at this point in time. The Internal Consultancy Group workload project will inform the position of Detective Inspectors during its study of the whole workforce which should be completed by early 2004. It revisits the workload formula and the spans of command for all levels in the Child Protection Group.

Care Officers

31. Thirty-two Civilian care Officers will be introduced this financial year following difficulties with agreeing pay banding with the Hay review. This will free up police officer time from administrative duties connected with the child protection register. Three have been recruited and interviews are currently taking place. An external recruiting exercise will have to be under taken to identify more candidates. 800k has been set aside in the Child protection Group 2003-4 civil staff budget line for these posts

C. Equality and diversity implications

1. London has a population of children and young people amounting to approximately 1.6 million. 900,000 of these are within the school system and 32% within the schools have a first language other than English. The education system is trying to deal with 300 languages. Just under a third of Londoner’s are from minority communities. Victoria Climbiè was a child brought into this country on a passport issued to another child to be used as a tool to defraud the welfare state. This aspect has caused the MPS to look closely at the trafficking of children. Clearly there is a need for specialist advice and support regarding diversity in the everyday service delivery activities in respect of safeguarding London’s children.

2. On 1 and 2 September 2003 a seminar was held to launch the safeguarding children Independent Advisory Group (IAG) that is a sub group of the main MPS IAG. Richard Sumray represented the MPA. The sub-group will advise the Child Protection Group on:

• A Child Protection Group diversity strategy for safeguarding children,
• The deployment of two partnership development officers who will be secondees from the big five charities on a twelve month pilot project to communicate with minority communities to establish their needs and embark on an education programme on safeguarding children in the United kingdom. In due course a report will be available chronicling the event,
• The establishment of third party reporting procedures,
• Oversight of Operation ‘Paladin-Child’.

3. Talks initiated by Metropolitan Police Authority members and London Borough of Hillingdon elected members with Detective Chief Superintendent Kelleher have centred on the increase of child protection issues arising from unaccompanied minors and trafficking at Heathrow Airport. Operation Trident is also causing particular concerns as unaccompanied minors are going onwards from the airport to addresses known to Trident.

4. MPS Special Branch, HM Customs & Excise and HM Immigration Service are also calling for additional specialist support. One Hillingdon Child Protection Unit (CPU) officer is now working full time at Heathrow with all these agencies. SCD5 was unable to backfill within the Hillingdon CPU as there was not a BWT post available. The initiative now includes a multi-agency intelligence gathering operation code named ‘Paladin Child’ that is dealing with the entry into the country of children from non-EU countries. This MPS led initiative is mentioned in the Green Paper and is being copied at other ports following a conference at New Scotland Yard to discuss the issue.

D. Financial implications

1. It is too early to say what the financial implications for the MPS will be as a result of the Green Paper process. A 2006 target date of completion of reforms appears in a timetable within the Green paper.

2. The London Borough of Brent are looking at a referral Tracking system which might involve the MPS in a spend of 85k for start up with no indication of revenue costs at this time. This is not a full IRT database. If this cost was to be replicated across London then the MPS would be faced with a minimum cost of 3 million pounds with no guarantee that any of the thirty-two systems could communicate with each other. No provision has been made for such spends in the MPS financial planning at this time.

3. The costs of Hydra (9k per pilot) and the consultant social worker (7k) have been met from the reserve for Laming Inquiry costs.

4. Management Board have provided the additional posts from existing funding from the Mayor’s 2003-4 1000 officer growth.

5. Appendix 2 deals with the early estimates of the financial implications of Amethyst suite pilot sites. These amount to 286k. This funding will come from the existing the reserve for Laming Inquiry costs (46k) and the MPS 500k budget (200k). No estimates are currently available for revenue costs. The 40k project Manager costs is the MPS share. There is an implication for the 2004-5 budget for revenue costs and a further 40k for the MPS share of project management costs.

6. Appendix 3 is a briefing note prepared by DCS Kelleher on the instructions of Management Board for ACPO Council. This identifies significant costs to date associated with the Laming recommendations. This does not include the Amethyst project.

E. Background papers

• MPS Plan 2003/2004

F. Contact details

Report author: Detective Chief Superintendent Derrick Kelleher, MPS.

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1

Recommendations to be implemented in 3 months

Recommendation 91.

Save in exceptional circumstances, no child is to be taken into police protection until he or she has been seen and an assessment of his or her circumstances has been undertaken. (paragraph 13.7)

• Police Notice 46-01 issued on 14th November 2001 revising old Police Notices from 1991 and 1993.
• The start date for SCD5 officer's to be retrained in police protection in duties of the designated officer was 1st November 2001. Half are currently trained.
• All newly promoted Inspectors now receive special officer training from an SCD5 trainer on their promotion course.
• SCD5 has given training modules to Human Resources so that they can be fed into locally based training on:

1. child protection issues generally
2. existing Inspector's designated officer role training.

• Chapter 4 of the SCD5 Professional Standards Manual states that both the child and informant must be interviewed.
• Training is on going. Existing Inspectors are under going a programme of designated officer training.
• A PowerPoint presentation has been created and supplied to all Child Protection Units for onwards transmission to their local borough duty officer’s.
• All SCD 5 officer’s receive the latest version of the ‘Child Protection Investigator’s Companion’ upon joining the OCU.
• MSS sent out to all BOCU’s on day of report being published informing that designated officers can only be an officer of the substantive rank of Inspector.
• Police Notice 29-03 issued on 16th July 2003 revising Police Notice 46-01 that designated officer must be an Inspector.

Recommendation 92.

Chief Constables must ensure that crimes involving a child victim are dealt with promptly and efficiently, and to the same standard as equivalent crimes against adults. (PARAGRAPH 13.24)

• In September 2001, SCD5 issued Professional Standards for Crime Investigation involving inter familial child victims set against critical success factors drawn from the ACPO Murder Manual. These have been subsequently reinforced in SCD5's Professional Standards Manual within specific Standard Operating Procedures.
• In the Metropolitan Police, officers in SCD5 now attend a 4 week Centrex investigator's course, 1 week SCD5 specialist child protection training, 1 week Achieving Best Evidence training and 1 week multi agency training.

Recommendation 93.

Whenever a joint investigation by police and social services is required into possible injury or harm to a child, a manager from each agency should always be involved at the referral stage, and in any further strategy discussion. (paragraph 13.52)

• Since 2001, The Metropolitan Police Service has incrementally introduced additional Sergeant's to each child protection team with the new role of Referral Manager. This Sergeant is the first point of contact with the Social Services Manager so that a strategy meeting can be held in relation to new matters arising. Child Protection Units are sub-divided into investigation teams of 1 Sergeant and 4 Constables.
• The Sergeant uses a prescribed supervision model from the MPS manual to supervise each case.
• Pilot sites are about to commence in the City of Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Redbridge. These units will be positioning a Referral Manager, Care Officer and MPS IT inside social services. In some cases representatives from Health and Education will undertake assessment of referral. It solutions are being considered including using laptop computers.

Recommendation 94.

In cases of serious crime against children, supervisory officers must from the beginning, take an active role in ensuring that a proper investigation is carried out. (Paragraph 13.55)

• Steps taken in 92 and 93 are the same.
• In particular the Sergeant uses a prescribed supervision model from the MPS manual to supervise each case.
• Initial monitoring undertaken by the CMU and data collated in the MMR.

Recommendation 98.

The guideline set out at paragraph 5.8 of Working Together must be strictly adhered to: whenever social services receive a referral which may constitute a criminal offence against a child, they must inform the police at the earliest opportunity. (paragraph 14.46)

• The Pan London Procedures have now been produced. Copies ordered and on their arrival will be despatched to all members of the Command.

Recommendations to be implemented in 6 months

Recommendation 96.

Police forces must review their systems for taking children into police protection and ensure they comply with the Children Act 1989 and Home Office guidelines. In particular, they must ensure that an independent officer of at least an Inspector rank acts as designated officer in all cases. (paragraph 13.68)

• It is now Metropolitan Police Service policy that the designated officer will be Inspector rank.
• As stated above a PowerPoint presentation has been created and circulated to all MPS Child Protection Units.
• The MPS Police Notice (Operating Standards) has been updated to reflect changes in policy and procedure. Police notice 29/03.

Recommendation 97.

Chief Constables must ensure that the investigation of crime against children is as important as the investigation of any other form of serious crime. Any suggestion that child protection policing is of a lower status than other forms of policing must be eradicated. (paragraph 14.15)

• Since 3rd July 2000 the Metropolitan Police Service has brought all child protection investigation within the remit of the Serious Crime Group, which also investigates homicide, kidnapping, armed robbery and other serious crime. The numbers of detectives have risen, and the target is to turn the whole command into almost an entirely detective one.

Recommendation 105.

Chief Constables must ensure that Child Protection Units are fully integrated into the structure of their forces and not disadvantaged in terms of accommodation, equipment or resources. (paragraph 15.45)

• As per over recommendation the Child protection now has it’s own command structure and dedicated personnel.

Recommendation 106.

The Home Office must ensure that child protection policing is included in the list of ministerial priorities for the police. (paragraph 15.46)

• This is a Home Office action.

Recommendation 107.

Chief Constables and police authorities must give child protection investigations a high priority in their police plans, thereby ensuring consistently high standards of service by well-managed and well-motivated teams. (paragraph 15.46)

• Since 2001/2002 the Metropolitan Police Service has given child protection high priority in the policing plan. It is the first police service to do so and it continues to be included in 2002/03 and 2003/04 plans

Recommendation 108.

The Home Office, through Centrex, must add specific training relating to child protection policing to the syllabus for the strategic commands course. This will ensure that all future chief officers in the police service have adequate knowledge and understanding of the roles of child protection units. (paragraph 15.53)

• This is a specific recommendation for the Strategic Command Course and a matter for Home Office and Centrex.
• DCS Ian Delbarre sits on the National Training working group and has submitted several documents that are currently utilised by the MPS for consideration for the Strategic Command Course.

Recommendations to be implemented in 2 years

Recommendation 95.

The Association of Chief Police Officers must produce and implement the standards-based service, as recommended by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in the 1999 thematic inspection report, Child Protection. (Paragraph 13.66)

• This requires a national response from ACPO. The Metropolitan Professional standards based service is accepted nationally as best practice. It is currently being amended to a national document format.

Recommendation 99.

The Working Together arrangements must be amended to ensure the police carry out completely, and exclusively, any criminal investigation elements in a case of suspected injury or harm to a child, including the evidential interview with a child victim. This will remove any confusion about what which agency takes the ‘lead or is responsible for certain actions. (paragraph 14.57)

• Whilst this is a department of Health/Home Office action, the Metropolitan Police Service Professional Standards Manual has already implemented the spirit of this recommendation. This is in line with police primacy.

Recommendation 100.

Training for child protection officers must equip them with the confidence to question the views of professional in other agencies, including doctors, no matter how eminent these professional appear to be. (paragraph 14.73)

• Whilst we have highlighted the issue of training, we believe this is a development area for SCD5.
• In April 2003 each Child Protection Unit is issued with, the “ABC of Child Abuse” by Ray Meadow. This has now being issued with a warning over it’s content and that that it is to be used as a textbook.
• Dedicated training sessions are now built in to the initial CPU course.
• Training designed to assist with ‘Confidence to Challenge’ has also featured on the regional seminars for 2003 for all staff.

Recommendation 101.

The Home Office, through Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, must take a more active role in maintain high standards of child protection investigation by means of its regular Basic Commands Unit and force inspections. In addition, a follow-up to the Child Protection thematic inspection of 1999 should be conducted. (paragraph 14.132)

• This is a recommendation for Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.

Recommendation 102.

The Home Office, through Centrex and the Association of Chief Police Officers, must devise and implement a national training curriculum for child protection officers as recommended in 1999 by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in its thematic inspection report, Child Protection. (paragraph 15.16)

• Whilst this is a Home Office/ACPO matter the Metropolitan Police Service has contributed to a national training module to be issued to Centrex standards.

Recommendation 103.

Chief Constables must ensure that officers working on child protection units are sufficiently well trained in criminal investigation, and that there is always a substantial core of fully trained detective officers on each team to deal with the most serious inquiries. (paragraph 15.24)

• SCD 5 currently has 418 Officers (August)
• The total number of Substantive Detectives in the CP command is 180.
• The OCU has 118 Trainee Detectives
• The OCU has 101 Branch Detectives.
• The Monthly Management Report monitors the number of officers and detectives per team.

Recommendation 104.

The Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) should evaluate the child protection IT systems currently available, and make recommendations to chief constables, who must ensure their police force has in use an effective child-protection database and IT management systems.
(paragraph 15.40)

• This is a national recommendation for PITO.
• ‘PROtect’ is a linked system that allows police staff to input information and search for children at risk (including their families) and other vulnerable victims.
• ‘MERLIN’ (Missing Persons Enquiries and Related Linked Indices) is an MPS system accessible to all staff that needs to search for missing persons, children at risk, prostitute and juvenile cautions.
• Criticism made in DCS Kelleher's report, including deficiencies in basic IT, have now all been rectified.

SCD5 now has a dedicated IT manager.

Appendix 2

Amethyst project

Purpose of report

To set out the funding implications and provisional agreement reached with the National Health Service for piloting Amethyst suites.

This report is forwarded for the following action:

• Assistant Commissioner SC and Commander Armond to note progress of agreed project.
• SC Business Manager to liase with DCS Kelleher to agree procedures in relation to this project.
• Metropolitan Police Authority to note progress in relation to the special funding awarded to child protection.
• DCS Greenslade (TP-HQ Sapphire) and Chief Superintendent Jarman DCC4 to note in furtherance of the ‘Making the links’ scheme.
• Trevor Marsh to note ring fencing of amounts in special budgets held centrally.
• Keith Luck to be updated on potential for long term financial commitment.
• Department Of Information to note requirement for IT.
• Property Services to note project and appoint liaison officer.
• Ken Pratley to inform FME community of development.

Project description

The creation of a centre staffed by health, social services and police to deliver a range of services to the child victims of sexual and physical crime.

The services will range from therapeutic and evidence gathering medical services, interviewing child victims and non-abusing to achieve best evidence, photography, the assessment of children and non abusing parents for post incident multi-agency treatment and support plans. Office accommodation and conferencing facilities will be available to all agencies using the site.

Centres will be sited to readily access other medical services such as accident and emergency, psychiatric, counselling, family planning, GU, X-ray and other medical specialisms. Centres will deal with the full range of interfamilial offences and stranger attack sexual offences.

The concept arises from ongoing work in response to the murder of Victoria Climbiè and was included in the MPS submissions to Lord Lamming. In addition the Metropolitan Police Authority scrutiny into rape investigation made two related recommendations:

• The creation of such centres,
• That the Child Protection Group undertake investigations into stranger sexual offences currently dealt with by borough.

Health, social services and the Child Protection Group are in agreement that the current Havens provide a default service but the shared future vision is that children and adults be separated.

Provisional agreement on piloting Amethyst centres

On Monday 15th September 2003 the following was agreed between Julie Dent, Chief Executive of the South West Strategic Health Authority (NHS London wide child protection portfolio lead) and Detective Chief Superintendent Kelleher (OCU Commander Child Protection Group):

• NHS London will lead on the project with a project board for London supported by local project boards for each site reporting centrally to the pan London board.
• The full time NHS project manager used to implement the Havens be retained at the imminent close of her contract to manage the Amethyst project. The MPS will pay half the costs of this project manager. NHS will fund the other half.
• The project board for London will be a sub group of the London Child Protection Committee.
• To establish two pilot sites in London to prove the concept and provide a model for planning for pan London needs.
• Two different models would be preferable to evaluate.
• One centre to be established in the North-West Strategic Health Authority at Northwick Park hospital.
• One centre to be established in the North Central Strategic Health Authority at either University College Hospital or the Great Ormand Street Hospital for Sick children. Both hospitals want to host the centre thus Julie Dent will negotiate the site to be used.
• Catchment areas for both centres will start geographically small and spread with experience.
• Other stakeholders will be approached for funding contributions.
• Work be commissioned on protocols to determine:
  • Appropriate ages of children and young persons to be referred to the centre,
  • Levels of services to be provided at each site,
  • Inter Primary Care Trust agreements on the provision of services,
  • Arrangements to ensure health staff are not de-skilled by the existence of such a centre,

Financial Implications for the MPS

The overall project has London wide and year on year financial implications. It formed one of the main strands in the MPS evidence to Lord Laming on how child protection should be taken forward. The concept of joining up the provisions of services for children at risk of harm is central to the recently published Green Paper. The 40k required for the Project Manager has therefore been ring fenced in the Laming contingency fund as the work is central to the MPS response to both Laming and the Green Paper proposals.

The NHS has not yet completed detailed scoping of capital and revenue costs. The Project Manager will use the Haven experience to produce estimates in the coming weeks.

200k was set aside for development work on this project this financial year from the MPA 500k development fund. A provisional offer of 120k from the MPS been made towards a central joint fund towards building works and start up costs at both sites. Other spends are detailed below in addition to this money. As this year progresses more detailed plans will be available especially in respect of revenue costs. Additional identified costs this year would be set against the Laming contingency budget.

120k

MPS equipment and furniture

The MPS support branches provided an estimate of commissioning existing accommodation to provide to MPS standards a family room, interview suite, control room, medical examination room, catering unit and office with equipment and furniture. An estimate of 40k per site was arrived at. That figure does not include plumbing and electrical infrastructure costs or IT. (80k will need to be ring fenced from the 200k contingency fund).

80k

In relation to another project it has already been established that installing MPS IT on non-MPS premises will cost approximately 3k per site. (6k will need to be ring fenced from the 200k contingency fund).

6k

Northwick Park

The proposed site is about to be built as part of a larger complex that has received part sponsorship from MacDonalds PLC and another firm. The additional floor space will cost approximately 300 to 400k. This project is on the brink of being delivered and work is due to start in December thus time constraints mean this will probably be the priority site. A prefabricated building structure is to be used thus it is hoped that this building will be operational within three months from the start of building.

A Colposcope (40k) was purchased from last year’s MPS budget and will be deployed at the Northwick Park site as an interim measure once security issues have been resolved.

Central London site

It is intended to purchase a second Colposcope for the central London site (40k) from the Laming contingency fund of 500k.

40k

Two floors are currently free at University College Hospital and accommodation is available at Great Ormand Street Hospital although this has not been measured against the user requirement at this time. If University College Hospital was selected building works could begin very shortly.

The Bodyshop Foundation has expressed an interest in this project and fundraising has begun. DCS Kelleher will be meeting with Bodyshop again to bring them up to date and request they sponsor in part the costs of the central London site.

Provisional total estimate of MPS spend

The provisional estimate of costs are as follows:

• Project Management 40k
• Building works and commissioning 200k
• IT 6k
• Colposcope 40k

Total estimates 286k

Report Author: Detective Chief Superintendent Derrick Kelleher, Child Protection Group.

Appendix 3

Briefing note for Association of Chief Police Officers

Victoria Climbiè ministerial report - cost of implementation of recommendations to the Metropolitan Police Service

The Metropolitan Police Service investigated the murder of Victoria Climbiè thus from March 2000 was well aware of the potential for a Ministerial Inquiry and the necessity of root and branch reform. This has enabled the financial impact to be spread over the financial years 2001/2002, 2002/2003, 2003/2004 and is expected to feature in growth bids in coming years. The criticisms fall into three distinct categories:

• Leadership,
• Capacity,
• Capability.

The decision was made to draw together twenty-seven Child Protection Units, the Paedophile Unit and four ad-hoc Major Investigation Teams looking a children’s home enquiries into one independent command spanning London. This occurred in July 2000.

Leadership

One Detective Chief Superintendent, three Detective Superintendents and nine Detective Chief Inspectors formed the senior Management Team and were new posts. Personnel and Resource Managers complete the team. The HQ infrastructure represents a major spend in terms of capital start up and revenue costs. It is anticipated that other police services will not avail themselves of this resource. The Operational Command Unit budget for 2003/2004 is £24,457,859,654.00.

Capacity

The main financial costs incurred by the MPS fall within this heading. MPS Child Protection Units were understaffed. One manifestation of this was that a former child protection officer successfully sued the MPS under health and safety legislation regarding high workloads and poor supervision.

The police staff has grown over three years from two hundred and seventy two police officers [1]  to four hundred and sixteen [2]. Increased full year new staffing costs for all police ranks between 2001 and 2003 have amounted to £12,110.921 per annum. This sum includes increased civil staff support posts being increased by twenty-six. Further growth bids for twelve sergeants and forty-two constables are currently under consideration that, with support costs, amount to £3,973,585.00 per full year cost. An additional thirty-two civilian care officer posts have been created and will be placed at Hay pay band D although the cost is still being assessed exactly but is estimated to be in the region of £622K.

The HMIC have accepted as best practice nationally the MPS workload formula of 60 cases per year per investigator (constables) with a ratio for Sergeant supervisors at 1:4 constables. Recommendation 93 relating to close police managerial involvement at the time of referral with social services managers has led directly to the creation of 23 referral Manager posts at Sergeant rank. Recommendation 94 directly relates to first and second line supervision and led to the decision to have a ratio of one sergeant to four constable posts. The complexity of this area of policing demands high levels of supervision and that issue was a major area of criticism of both police and social services.

Recommendation 95 reflected the MPS failure to provide the necessary resources and quality of accommodation. 650k in each of the last three financial years was ring fenced to improve Child Protection Unit accommodation. 200k in office furniture and 5k in basic office equipment per year has been invested in equipping units to the same standards as other parts of the organisation. Half of the thirty-one sites were not connected to the MPS IT infrastructure and therefore denied direct keyboard access to databases including PNC. Remaining sites had few terminals. Investment in this area includes the Protect database that was specially purchased by DOI from their budget. The combined IT costs for the basic remedial work is estimated at 250k including £150k alone being spent on the Protect system. Additionally the CPG IT budget line per annum is £135K and this has been used to buy extra terminals and accessories within each of the last two financial years.

In the current financial year the Metropolitan Police Authority provided additional funding to the OCU devolved budget specifically to build up the child safeguarding service within the Child Protection Group:

• 500k contingency fund to deal with Laming recommendations that would increase funding to Area Child Protection Committees and multi-agency projects.
• 450k to fund the forensic analyst and equipment growth of the Child Protection Group’s Hi-tech crime unit as computers and the Internet is now a prominent feature of child protection policing.
• 360k to purchase vehicles as the CPU’s only possessed six official vehicles at the time of Victoria’s death.

In addition a separate Metropolitan Police Authority initiative provided a 500k infrastructure fund (for each financial year 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 total 100,000k) that has been set up to cover the following areas in 2003/004:

• Employ two outreach workers to link with African and Asian community groups and establish an Independent Advisory group (60k).
• Counselling for staff twice a year (80k),
• Project Amethyst – hospital based one-stop shop pilots (200k).
• Additional vehicles (120k),
• Additional work to IT infrastructure (40K).

Historically the MPS Area Child Protection Committee contributions ranged from £400 to £2,000.00 per annum across London’s 32 London boroughs. Total contributions were approximately 45k for all boroughs at the time of Victoria’s death. All Area Child Protection Committees are now producing budgets that involve employing full time co-ordinators and trainers. Demands on the MPS this year are typically rising to between £11,000.00 to £25,000.00. A dedicated budget line exists for £300k but this can be supplemented from the Laming recommendation contingency fund. The emerging business plans indicate that the costs involved will continue year on year.

Additional demands are now being made on the MPS as a result of Government decisions to implement identification, referral and tracking systems that link all agencies in the concept of the ‘virtual team’. Currently four London boroughs and the Association for London Government each think they are the pan London pilot lead to purchase IT systems. There is a fear that such an approach will be extremely costly and may result in the MPS being asked to invest in potentially incompatible IT systems in different boroughs that cannot communicate to each other. For instance the London Borough of Brent has asked the MPS for an 85k capital start up commitment with as yet undefined revenue costs. The start up financial commitment if replicated across the London boroughs would amount to approximately £3,000,000.00.

In the aftermath of the evidence giving stage before Lord Laming and attendant media reporting the public criticism of senior Local Government officers and elected members rises in referrals occurred in the four Climbiè boroughs and those surrounding them. This involved fourteen of London’s boroughs and represented a 17.5% increase in workload for Child Protection Units. Recommendation 98 states that social services must refer all crimes to the police service which has not been the general practice to-date. The Child Protection Group estimates that 2004/2005 will see a significant rise in the remainder of London as the new pan London multi-agency procedures are in put in place, Children’s Trusts start to develop and new training for all officers and front line civil staff is rolled out.

A parallel issue that must be taken into account with the ‘Victoria Climbiè’ factor is overall growth in police numbers generally. The MPS has been growing by 1,000 officers per year. The introduction of additional uniform police officers on patrol duty has seen an increase of submissions of contact reports where children, other than by way of a direct crime report, have come to the notice of police. These rose in 2002/3 from the previous year’s total of 80,000 to 90,000, an increase of 12.5%. These transmit into additional crime reports in a ration of 4.5 contact reports to one crime report increasing workloads within Child Protection Units.

The development of the MPS response to safeguarding children required an enormous amount of project work, staff and external consultation and seminar/workshops. The MPS Internal Consultancy Group over the last three years has provided the Child protection Group with three hundred and five days of support across a range of projects that was costed out at £135,137.00. External consultants were engaged to undertake crucial work at a total cost of £160k. 150k over three years has been spent in funding seminars.

Capability

Recommendations 100 and 103 deal directly with the MPS failure to train front line child protection police officers fit for purpose. Crucially such officers also failed to receive normal generic training. Opportunity costs through training abstractions have been significant as the almost the whole workforce had to be retrained whist still engaged with rising workloads. Increased overtime, travelling and associated costs have not been separately tracked. Core training was delivered at Hendon thus travelling time for most officers was two to four hours a day.

A £300,000 external training budget line has been created this year to ensure that staff receive the best professional development training by attending courses and conferences within and without the police service. Top medical and other experts have been brought in to provide training and where capacity allows partner agencies are brought into events. This is an increase on previous years where In 2001 – 2002 4.5k and in 2002 – 2003 95k was spent on this professional development area.

Abstractions through training are summarised as:

• Mandatory training.
  The total staff abstractions between January 2001 and the present day, and includes officer safety training (1 day), emergency life support (1 day), community race relations (2 day) and policing safely (1 day).
  1,450 staff days.
• Capability training.
  The total staff abstractions between January 2001 and the present day and includes Detective Training School Child Protection Initial Course (15 days), Detective Foundation course (30 days), Investigator’s Foundation course (20 days), CID course (10 days), Child Protection Foundation course (5 days), Joint Investigation / Achieving Best Evidence course (10 days), ABE conversion course (1 day), Designated Officer course (1 day), Senior Investigating Officer’s training (15 days), HOLMES training (various lengths), PROtect course (1 day), Forensic Awareness for Supervisors (1 day).
  7, 620 staff days.
• Developmental seminars.
  Between January 2001 and the present day - 1 day seminars including Shaken Baby, Leadership, Understanding Sex Offenders, Parental Abduction, Fabricated Illness, RIPA, Child Abuse and the Internet, Multi-Agency Protection Panels, Forensic Science submissions, and Health, Welfare and Stress.
  760 staff days.

Total training abstractions = 9,830 staff days

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