National child protection inspections

We inspect the child protection work of every police force in England and Wales. Our inspection findings aim to provide information for the police, the police and crime commissioner (PCC) and the public on how well forces protect children and meet their needs.

We also encourage forces to use our findings to help improve their child protection work.

Background

Between October 2011 and March 2013, we contributed to a number of multi-agency child protection inspections. These highlighted strengths and effective practice, as well as areas for improvement such as the quality of joint investigations, risk identification, dealing with domestic abuse, and the detention of children in custody.

To address these issues, we decided to conduct a programme of single-agency inspections of all police forces in England and Wales.

Our inspections

The national child protection inspection (NCPI) programme:

assesses how effectively police forces safeguard children at risk;
makes recommendations to police forces for improving child protection practice;
highlights effective practice in child protection work; and
drives sustainable improvements in child protection arrangements.

Our inspections focus on the outcomes for, and experiences of, children who come into contact with the police when there are concerns about their safety or wellbeing.

Methodology

In our inspections, we:

carry out case file reviews;
interview and hold discussions with police personnel and staff from other safeguarding agencies; and
examine data, reports, policies and other relevant written materials.

The NCPI methodology was last updated in February 2024. The current version of the methodology builds on lessons learned from the first ten years of the NCPI programme.

Findings

We publish a report containing our findings for every inspection.

Each report will address whether:

the force has effective leadership of its child protection arrangements;
the force works effectively with safeguarding partners to help safeguard, protect and promote the welfare of children;
the force effectively responds appropriately to help safeguard children at risk;
the force effectively assesses risk to children and makes appropriate referrals; and
the force effectively investigates all reports of sudden and unexpected death, abuse, neglect and exploitation of children.

Post-inspection follow-up activity

When we issue causes of concern, we require the force to provide us with an action plan. It must do so within 28 days of receiving the draft inspection report we send out for pre-publication checks. The force should specify in its action plan how it intends to address the causes of concern and associated recommendations.

We require the force to provide us with an updated action plan within eight weeks of our report being published. This updated action plan should also include details of how the force will address any areas for improvement.

When we issue areas for improvement only, we require the force to provide us with an action plan within eight weeks of our report being published.

We review the action plan before visiting the force at a later date. During this visit, we discuss the force’s progress and how it is implementing its action plan. If we identify any concerns, we give the force feedback. In exceptional circumstances, we may reinspect the force.

Our methodology for post inspection visits can be found below:

NCPI methodology – post inspection follow-up activity

Reports

We have also published two reports summarising findings from across the NCPI programme of work.

These are:

‘In harm’s way: The role of the police in keeping children safe’, which summarises findings from all the NCPI reports published between August 2014 and February 2015; and
our national child protection inspections thematic report, which brings together NCPI findings from 2015 to 2019 along with other child protection report findings.