Child Abuse Investigation Command – child protection update

Report: 11
Date: 8 June 2006
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report provides an update on the four key strategic projects managed by the Child Abuse Investigation Command (CAIC) to Safeguard London’s children and updates members on strategic partnerships through the London Child Protection Committee (LCPC). The four projects cover the MPS response to faith related abuse, child death, child trafficking and child abuse on the internet.

A. Recommendation

That Members to note this report. (It will be helpful to read this in conjunction with the reports submitted by SCD5 for 8 December 2005 Planning Performance and Review Committee (PPRC)).

B. Supporting information

Project Violet

1. Project Violet was initiated in early 2005 as a response to public and community concern about ritualistic and belief related child abuse. Work to prevent this type of criminality has focussed mainly on black majority Christian faith communities resulting in a number of initiatives:

• Inter-church meetings and high profile training sessions for pastors and church leaders (230 Congolese pastors were trained in February 2006).
• The publication of ‘safe and secure’ (a child protection guidance document specifically for black majority churches) in February 2006.
• A range of media broadcasts and publications targeting African and Caribbean Christians.
• Additionally, Violet is currently working in partnership to produce a training video for churches encouraging ‘safe prayer’ with children.
• Other Violet effort has been focussing on raising awareness and reassuring communities.
• Working with professional partners from the statutory and voluntary sectors, and with the London Child Protection Committee.
• A number of events held across London, not least a high profile conference for the Congolese community in North London (November 2005), and an event hosted by Assistant Commissioner Ghaffur for Christian church leaders (June 2005).

Violet Phase 2

2. Recognising the value of the ‘Violet’ brand in terms of its profile in the media and with child safeguarding professionals, and in the knowledge that the Violet strategy needs to develop beyond specifically focusing on Black Christian communities, to a broader focus on belief-related child-rearing practices in all distinct communities e.g. female genital mutilation.

3. The new strategy will adopt Violet as the overarching project title with a second phase of the Community Partnership Project becoming an important strand. The latter has already attracted much ministerial interest and government sponsorship to support an eight-borough project working directly with distinct communities to prevent and reduce child abuse. The London Child Protection Committee is coordinating this project with support from the Violet team. The Bridge, part of National Children's Homes (NCH) have been awarded the contract to manage this project.

Project Indigo

4. Indigo was implemented in April 2005 as a result of Baroness Helena Kennedy’s inter-collegiate report on Sudden and Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI), more commonly known as cot death. The Command already had the MPS lead for all suspicious child deaths in the home (on average about eight per year) and has positioned itself well for the implementation in 2007 of multi-agency Child Death Review Teams. The Command has worked closely with the Foundation for the Study of Infant Death (FSID) and the Royal College of Paediatricians to ensure a consistently high quality response to the investigation of child death in London, removing this responsibility from borough colleagues.

5. During the last year CAIC have attended 91 SUDIs and are the only agency in London with a clear picture of why children die in the home. With our unique expertise in the investigation of suspicious death and our analytical capability, we are planning two major prevention initiatives one on safer sleeping to reduce the number of overlays of babies and the second on shaken baby, (about 30% of child murders in London).

Operation Paladin

6. Our joint working team to safeguard children transiting London’s ports was launched in October 2005 and enhanced in early 2006 with an additional three detectives and three immigration officers bringing the total strength to nine. Social services have yet to secure the funds to free up staff to join the team. We have been unsuccessful so far in our bids to Reflex for the funding of three police posts. They remain unfunded. (See 14 below)

7. Strategically, we are working closely with the Home Office who are using our model as a proto-type for Paladin Teams at all UK ports. We have a permanent presence at Heathrow and Lunar House, Croydon (where 80 unaccompanied asylum seeking children per week are interviewed, most of whom have entered the UK overtly), and we support British Transport Police at Waterloo, Eurostar Terminal. In January 2006, the Command hosted a national conference with Crown Prosecution Service and law enforcement colleagues from across the UK to develop knowledge and understanding of this subject. We are also supporting the newly appointed ACPO lead for child trafficking, Jim Gamble the Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP). A project board has been formed to oversee the implementation of the Paladin Team for London and we are actively involved at a strategic level on the ACPO working group.

8. Operationally, the Team have made nine arrests since January for trafficking or related offences, accommodated 45 children with social services and carried out 22 presentations or training sessions for other agencies. The teams have also debriefed nine travelling sex offenders and their workload has increased incrementally month on month, as their presence becomes better known.

Operation Safety-net

9. This is the overarching name for the command’s internet based investigations to prevent child abuse on line and identify predatory paedophiles. The Child Protection High Tec Crime Unit moved in May 2006 to significantly improved accommodation, collocating with the MPS Computer Crime Unit. The team now enjoy enhanced technical capability and facilities and continue to develop cutting edge techniques in this field. Our team of covert internet investigators have recently been commended by the Chief Constable of Cambridge for supporting her force and have caused a number of significant arrests in London of men grooming children for sex. In the last financial year, the Command has arrested 142 men involved in internet paedophile activity.

10. We are working closely with the recently launched Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre and will soon be handing to them some of the national responsibilities we have held in the absence of such a unit. CEOP aims to protect children, families and identify paedophiles and other serious sex offenders, in particular from those seeking to exploit children online. We will be drawing up a memorandum of understanding with CEOP to work in partnership with them.

11. The Centre will incorporate the existing functions of the National Crime Squad’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT) and the National Criminal Intelligence Service’s Serious Sex Offender Unit (SSOU). As such, the Centre’s remit goes well beyond just the online environment and the Centre’s objectives include protecting children overseas from, for example, travelling sex offenders and providing specialist support and resources to local forces. The Centre will be police-led and have a strong law enforcement dimension. It will, however, be truly multi-agency in composition and approach. It will bring in staff from a range of different agencies and organisations and work closely with partners across the public, private and voluntary sectors. The Centre already includes a number of secondees from the NSPCC and other children’s charities, as well as from BECTA, Microsoft, AOL and other industry partners.

Partnership working

12. The Command continues to work closely with the London Child Protection Committee (LCPC), currently chaired by Christine Gilbert, Chief Executive of Tower Hamlets. They have taken the lead for the partnership element of Project Violet (see para 3 above) and have published a detailed work plan. The LCPC continues to co-ordinate our contributions to Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards, currently £5k per borough although it should be noted we have reduced our contribution to the wider projects fund by £20k to allow us the ability to fund joint initiatives with the voluntary sector. The LCPC is supporting us in our attempts to standardise multi-agency training across London and plan for the introduction of regional rather than borough based child death review teams.

List of abbreviations

AFRUCA

African Families Unite Against Child Abuse

CAIC

Child Abuse Investigation Command

CEOP

Child Exploitation and Online Protection

FSID

Foundation of Sudden Infant Death

LCPC

London Child Protection Committee

MPS

Metropolitan Police Service

POLIT

Paedophile Online Investigation Team

SSOU

Serious Sex Offender Unit

SUDI

Sudden and Unexpected Death in Infancy

C. Race and equality impact

CAIC are fully aware of the impact of both Paladin and Violet on London’s distinct communities. Both projects have representatives from the Safeguarding Children Independent Advisory Group on the board. The Command is working direct with community groups and we are improving our links with non-statutory partners such as African Families Unite Against Child Abuse (AFRUCA).

D. Financial implications

Paladin initiative remains only part funded and the Command is seeking further funding of £200k from the Home Office.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Peter Spindler, Det Ch Supt CAIC, MPS

For more information contact:

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

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