Child abuse and child protection issues

Protecting children is one of the most important things the police do.

Police officers investigate suspected crimes involving children and arrest perpetrators. They play a significant role in monitoring sex offenders. They can take a child in danger to a place of safety, and they can seek restrictions on offenders’ contact with children. They also play a key role, working with other organisations, in ensuring children’s protection and wellbeing in the longer term.

Our child protection inspections

We inspect the child protection work of every police force in England and Wales. We do this through:

• national child protection inspections in England and Wales;
• joint targeted area inspections (JTAI) in England;
• joint inspections of child protection arrangements (JICPA) in Wales; and
• thematic reviews of key issues.

National child protection inspections (NCPI) – England and Wales

Our national child protection inspections assess the child protection work of every police force in England and Wales. The findings aim to show how well forces protect children and meet their needs.

Joint targeted area inspections (JTAI) – England

We carry out joint targeted inspections (JTAI) in England with Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Together we inspect various areas where different agencies work together to provide support for vulnerable children, such as identifying risk or criminal exploitation.

Joint inspections of child protection arrangements (JICPA) – Wales

We undertake joint inspections of child protection arrangements (JICPA) in Wales with the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW), Health Inspectorate Wales, Estyn and HMI Probation. Each inspection focuses on a theme, such as the multi-agency response to child abuse and neglect or child exploitation.

Thematic reviews

Our thematic reviews bring together themes from across our force or local area level inspections into broader reports. They consider progress, areas for improvement and emerging themes at a national level.

We have also conducted focused inspections about specific aspects of police work.

The Metropolitan Police Service’s handling of the sexual and criminal exploitation of children – 9 February 2024

In June 2023, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime in London commissioned us to inspect how well the Metropolitan Police Service responds to the sexual and criminal exploitation of children. We inspected how well the Metropolitan Police Service:

• understands the nature and scale of child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation;
• responds to child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation; and
• supports and safeguards victims and survivors.

While we found some examples of good work to protect children, the balance of negative evidence far outweighed the positive. We made 11 recommendations to improve outcomes for children at risk of or experiencing exploitation.

Group-based child sexual exploitation – 8 December 2023

Between September and December 2022, we inspected the police and other law enforcement bodies in England and Wales and considered how effectively they respond to victims and perpetrators of group-based child sexual exploitation.

During our inspection, we focused on three broad areas:

• the nature and scale of offending;
• the police’s attitude towards victims; and
• the quality of investigations and wider outcomes.

We made 9 recommendations aimed at improving how effectively the police plan investigations, engage with victims, and work with partner agencies to disrupt and prevent group-based child sexual exploitation.

Online sexual abuse and exploitation of children – 5 April 2023

We inspected the police response to online child sexual abuse and exploitation between February and August 2022.

Our terms of reference addressed the following question:

• How effective are police forces, the National Crime Agency and regional organised crime units at identifying and safeguarding children affected by online sexual abuse and exploitation?

We made 17 recommendations aimed at improving the consistency of the police’s approach and the timeliness of their investigations, reducing the availability of child sexual abuse material, and getting better outcomes for children.

National Child Protection Inspection programme evaluation – 27 February 2020

In 2014, HMICFRS started a rolling programme of inspections in every police force in England and Wales, looking at their response to child protection.

To better understand the impact of these inspections on policing activity, we commissioned NatCen to carry out independent evaluation of the programme. This evaluation is the first study of its kind commissioned by HMICFRS.

The evidence from this data collection allowed researchers to explore the perceived impact of the NCPI programme on policing practices since 2014, as well as the experiences of people in inspected forces, and the inspectors themselves.

Online and on the edge: real risks in a virtual world – 2 July 2015

In 2012, we carried out fieldwork as part of an inspection into how police forces prevented online child sexual exploitation that is facilitate and enabled by the internet. As a result of our findings, Operation Notarise was established to coordinate law enforcement activity to apprehend perpetrators across England and Wales. We postponed our inspection work to avoid jeopardising current operations.

In 2014, we carried out further fieldwork. And, in 2015 we published our report bringing together our findings from our fieldwork and inspections in 2012 and 2014.

In harm’s way: the role of the police in keeping children safe – 2 July 2015

Between January 2014 and June 2015, we conducted 21 inspections of different aspects of the police approach to child protection issues such as online exploitation and domestic abuse.

In 2015, we published a report summarising the findings from all these inspections. This provides a comprehensive overview of children’s experiences and highlights both good practice and areas for improvement.

Mistakes were made: HMIC’s review into allegations and intelligence material concerning Jimmy Savile – 12 March 2013

In March 2013, we published a review of the allegations made against Jimmy Savile during his lifetime. It found mistakes were made by the police. And it raised serious concerns over why so many victims felt unable to speak out and report what had happened to them.

In 2014, following on from this report, we started a programme of work examining the police response to child abuse and child protection.

Future inspections

As well as our rolling inspections for child protection, we are continually developing how we work in this area. We will publish updates on our child protection work here, as relevant.

If you have a question or would like to comment on any area of our child protection work, email contact@hmicfrs.gov.uk.

If you would like to seek advice on any of the issues raised in these reports, please contact the NSPCC.

Related reports

Knife crime: safeguarding children and young people in education