The Metropolitan Police Service’s handling of the sexual and criminal exploitation of children: Causes of concern – revisit

Foreword

Following our 2023 inspection of the Metropolitan Police Service’s handling of the sexual and criminal exploitation of children, I said children are among the most vulnerable in society. Most children grow up in loving, caring families and reach adulthood unharmed. But some don’t – they fall prey to people who coerce them into criminal enterprises or exploit them for sexual gratification. Children who don’t grow up in loving, caring families face heightened risks, as do children who go missing from home. These things are well known.

Public services, including the police, have a shared responsibility to look for the warning signs, be alert to the risks and act quickly to protect children.

But when we inspected the Metropolitan Police Service in 2023, it wasn’t doing enough when children were suffering from, or at risk of, exploitation. The balance of negative evidence from that inspection far outweighed the positive. We issued three causes of concern.

I am therefore pleased to report that the senior leadership response to the issues we raised has been positive, and we have closed the causes of concern.

The force’s children’s strategy now sets out the commissioner’s ambition to adopt a ‘child first’ approach. This aims to make sure officers and staff recognise that children are different to adults and should be treated differently because they have different needs and vulnerabilities.

Through a renewed focus on child exploitation, its links to missing children and the language the force’s officers and staff use, the force has made positive progress.

The changes the force has implemented are also now providing better outcomes for children in London.

On 23 January, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, Sir Andy Cooke, returned the force to our default phase of monitoring, which is known as Scan. This decision was supported by the fact that we were able to close the three causes of concern issued in our 2023 inspection.

However, the force still has more work to do to improve further and to provide a consistently good service in areas we discuss in this report.

HMI Lee Freeman KPM

Summary

Children reported missing

We found the force has improved its policy and guidance on missing children. It has also provided additional training for those officers and staff who are responsible for assessing risks to these children.

It has considered the best way to improve its practice in the long term. As a result, it has carefully assessed different operating models before restructuring resourcing in this area. This stage had just begun when we carried out our revisit in September and October 2024.

We found the force has better oversight arrangements for its response to missing children and is using innovative techniques to help find them more quickly.

It has also improved how it shares its concerns about children with its statutory safeguarding partners. In some cases, this has resulted in better joint planning, so the force could find those children sooner if they did go missing.

Overall, we found an improvement in the force’s response when children are missing from home. But it needs to do more.

We saw several examples when the risk to children was high, but the case was graded as medium. In some cases, the force didn’t do enough, or act quickly enough, to find children.

A new IT system gives the force many opportunities to improve its understanding of the nature and scale of exploitation in London. It also helps the force to understand risks to children more quickly. But it will take time to see the full benefits of this system. And we continued to see problems with the accuracy of flags and information the force records about the risk to children.

The force still needs to improve how it works with its safeguarding partners to prevent children going missing. It also misses some opportunities to escalate its concerns about children at risk.

Investigation of child exploitation

The force is more focused on tackling the exploitation of children. The senior leaders, managers and frontline officers and staff we spoke to have a good understanding of how to recognise and deal with child exploitation. Most told us that tackling child exploitation was a priority for the force.

The force has designed and provided training about child exploitation to many investigators and its frontline officers and staff.

It has increased the number of officers working in child exploitation teams and clarified their terms of reference.

We saw an improvement in the force’s investigation of all types of child exploitation. We found better supervision of cases, fewer delays to starting investigations, investigations which focused on the child, increased activity to disrupt offenders and better communication with child victims.

However, we still saw too many missed opportunities to follow lines of enquiry to trace offenders.

We also found the force still has problems in complying with the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime. It rarely carries out initial victim needs assessments. This can have a negative effect on the service a victim receives throughout the criminal justice system.

Victim-blaming language

We were pleased to see the force has completed a substantial amount of work to try to stamp out victim-blaming language.

It has included sections about victim blaming in many aspects of its training. It has created a blog and a podcast for its officers and staff about the importance of language.

The force encourages its officers and staff to challenge victim-blaming language. It has also checked for its use in all its audit activity throughout 2024.

Most officers and staff we spoke to recognised victim-blaming language and understood the negative effect it can have.

We saw much less victim-blaming language in our case file reviews, than during our last inspection. This is a positive step forward.

Introduction

About us

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) independently assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of police forces and fire and rescue services to make communities safer. In preparing our reports, we ask the questions that the public would ask, and publish the answers in accessible form. We use our expertise to interpret the evidence and make recommendations for improvement.

Background

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

We carried out the inspection in September 2023.

We issued three causes of concern and made 11 recommendations (see Annex A).

Methodology

We revisited the force between 30 September and 18 October 2024 to review its progress.

During our inspection, we carried out:

• a document review, including policies, procedures and other material;
• interviews with senior leaders, managers, supervisors and frontline officers and staff;
• focus groups with both specialist and frontline officers and staff;
• reality testing across London; and
• an examination of 120 investigation case files involving child exploitation offences and children reported missing between June and September 2024.

Children reported missing

The force has improved its policy and guidance

On receipt of our cause of concern, the force reviewed its missing people policy and guidance. It made many changes to provide greater clarity about what it expects of its officers and staff. In particular, the policy now describes the definition of ‘high risk’ in more detail. The description is consistent with the College of Policing’s authorised professional practice (APP). The guidance also focuses more explicitly on risks to children, including the links between missing children and exploitation.

The guidance reiterates that when officers and staff assess exploitation as a risk factor, they should promptly allocate the case to specialist resources. These resources should lead the enquiries to trace the child. This is the case whether the risk level is medium or high.

The force has also set the expectation that prevention interviews with children should be prioritised over those with adults. When children are at risk of exploitation, the force expects that officers and staff complete the interview in person.

The force has published its guidance on a new public protection portal on its internal SharePoint site. It is in an easy-to-read format, with supporting documents which summarise the key points.

The force has provided additional training

The force designed new training to help its officers and staff understand the changes to its guidance. The training also sets out what the force expects of its officers and staff. The force presented this training to those assessing the risk and responding when children are reported missing. Those officers and staff work mainly in risk and demand teams. The training aims to make sure they understand what ‘high risk’ means, the links between missing children and exploitation, the consequences of using victim-blaming language in their assessments, and the importance of finding children more quickly.

The force has also tried to make sure it keeps the same officers and staff in its risk and demand teams. But this hasn’t been possible in all cases. This is because the force sometimes temporarily places those on restricted duties within these teams. We did find that some officers and staff, covering for short periods of time, didn’t receive any training before starting in the role. They were expected to learn on the job with guidance from others and by accessing information on the public protection portal. This means officers and staff are still carrying out risk assessments without the necessary skills and knowledge.

The force has carefully considered the best way to improve its practice when children are reported missing

During our 2023 inspection, the force told us it planned to create a central vulnerability hub, which would be responsible for assessing, grading and responding to cases of missing people.

In February 2024, the force carried out a pilot. It found the hub had many benefits, including improved risk assessments and officers and staff having a better understanding of child exploitation. However, creating one large team located in one place caused logistical problems, such as having insufficient office space. The hub also still needed local resources to find missing people.

The force decided that a local model, with resources based in each basic command unit (BCU), would be a better solution. In June 2024, it carried out a pilot in one BCU. The force’s assessment was that this model would provide better outcomes for children. It helped them to find children more quickly. In six cases, the force located children at such high risk it had to use its protection powers to keep them safe. The force’s assessment also revealed that maintaining staffing levels 24 hours a day would improve the model. It has spent time considering the skills officers and staff would need, as well as designing and consulting on an appropriate shift pattern.

During our revisit, the force was beginning to implement this model, called a ‘local missing hub’. It intends to have a hub in each BCU by the end of May 2025. Therefore, we were unable to assess them in this visit.

We saw improvement in the force’s response when children are reported missing

We were encouraged to see that the force has improved its response when children are reported missing. We compared the force’s data from June and July 2023 to data from June and July 2024.

We found that in 2023 the force graded 5 percent of cases of missing children as high risk. In the same period in 2024 it graded 10 percent as high risk. The officers and staff we spoke to in BCUs told us there was a noticeable increase.

Our case file reviews show that officers and staff assessing risk are now better at recognising exploitation as a risk factor. We saw examples where they clearly explained the reasons for the grading.

We also saw examples where supervisors identified and recommended lines of enquiry. When these enquiries were carried out, they resulted in the force quickly finding children.

The force is better at planning for when children at risk of exploitation are reported missing, but more work is needed

When a child is at risk of exploitation and is missing often, it is useful to have a plan in place to help find them quickly. Many forces call this a trigger plan. The Metropolitan Police Service calls it a missing response plan.

The force has introduced guidance to help its officers and staff understand when they should complete, review and use missing response plans. The guidance includes an example and instructions about where officers and staff should store them.

All the cases we reviewed related to children who had been reported missing multiple times in a short period. The force knew they were at risk of exploitation. We would expect to see missing response plans for those children. But many cases didn’t have them.

These plans should be clearly visible on the relevant IT system, so that those assessing risk can decide how to respond. The force expects these plans to be on its new, centralised IT system called Connect. But we found that some were stored on standalone systems.

The force uses innovative methods to help find children

In our 2023 inspection, we saw that the force used the expertise and investigative tactics of its Operation Orochi officers and staff. They helped find missing children who were linked to county lines drug dealing.

In this inspection, we were pleased to see that the force has considered how it can use the same methods to help find other children. Operation Atlas aims to provide training and equipment to child exploitation teams and missing people units to carry out similar investigative activity. The force intends to train four officers in each of those teams in each BCU. It estimated it would have trained them all by the end of November 2024.

Where the force had already provided this training, the officers and staff we spoke to commented favourably on it. They said it provides more opportunities to help find children quickly, and to help understand who may be exploiting children and where.

The force has better oversight when children are missing

During our 2023 inspection, we found those attending the force’s daily pacesetter meetings usually only discussed a missing child if the incident was graded as high risk. As many incidents were incorrectly graded, leaders had insufficient oversight of the force’s response to missing children.

Since then, the force has introduced pre-pacesetter meetings in all BCUs. These allow sergeants and inspectors to discuss the ongoing issues affecting their teams and allocate appropriate resources. They can decide whether they need to ask for more resources at the pacesetter meeting.

During our revisit, we found the risks to children who are missing, and the force’s response, are discussed at the pre-pacesetter meeting, regardless of the risk grade. Then, if necessary, they are discussed at pacesetter meetings.

In addition, each BCU keeps an online whiteboard, which has up-to-date information about missing people. This allows leaders to understand who is missing at any time and what the risks are. This in turn helps them to act quickly if the risks aren’t being managed properly, and direct resources if necessary.

Some high risk cases were graded as medium

Overall, we found the force is better at identifying and assessing risk when children are reported missing. In most cases, the force correctly identified the risk of exploitation and passed these cases to specialist resources. This, along with the force’s improved oversight, provides some assurance that efforts would be made to find those children.

But we continued to see examples where the risk to children was clearly high but was graded as medium. Of the 30 cases we reviewed, 13 were graded incorrectly. The case study below is an example of this.

It is important the force grades risk accurately in all cases. This is because it makes it easier for leaders to see where they need to prioritise their resources, to quickly find the children most at risk. It also helps to explain the force’s concerns when it shares information with its statutory safeguarding partners. And it gives the force a better understanding of its demand. This will help to make sure it provides adequate resources to each local missing hub.

The force doesn’t always do enough to find missing children

In our 2023 inspection, we often found limited activity took place to find children in the first 48 hours they were missing. We were pleased to find that wasn’t the case during this inspection. The cases we reviewed showed a better understanding that known risks to children, rather than the length of time a child is missing, should guide the force’s response. Officers and staff assessing risk and making decisions were clear that a 48-hour period of being missing wasn’t a key consideration in their decision-making.

However, we continued to see some delays in the force’s response. In some cases, the force didn’t try to find missing children. We saw several examples where officers and staff used the frequency with which children went missing as a reason for minimising risks to them.

We also saw a reliance on care providers carrying out some enquiries, such as searching the child’s bedroom.

Some officers and staff told us that conflicting priorities can affect their ability to carry out timely enquiries. Some missing people investigators told us they don’t have access to police vehicles, so rely on others to make in-person enquiries. In addition, missing people units have experienced an increase in their workload because of the force’s improvements in response to our causes of concern.

When introducing local missing hubs, the force should take account of the demand in each BCU. This will help it to achieve a consistent level of response for children across London.

We found wide variances in the number of children reported missing in each BCU. The cases we reviewed related to children reported missing between 1 June 2024 and 22 September 2024. Two BCUs each had less than 50 reports of children missing, while two others each had over 500 in the same time period.

The force has improved how it shares information with its safeguarding partners

In 2023, the force told us it intended to increase the staffing levels in its 32 multi‑agency safeguarding hubs (MASHs), adding an extra sergeant and constable in each. That is a total of 64 officers. Since then, the force has made good progress, with 55 of those officers in place at the time of our revisit.

The force has also been working with its safeguarding partners to improve how the force describes its expectations when sharing information. We were pleased to see the force now makes a clear distinction between what it ‘notifies’ the local authority about and which cases it is ‘making a referral’ about.

If the force shares information with a local authority as a notification only, there is no statutory requirement for that authority to provide feedback. If the force refers a case to children’s social care services, the local authority should tell the police what action and decisions it has taken. This means the force can challenge decision-making when it believes children remain at risk.

The force has recruited 12 additional police staff to monitor that feedback and escalate concerns if necessary. It has agreed a process for this with its local authority partners. The force told us the staff would be in post by the end of November 2024.

Officers and staff usually understand the new process for sharing information, but they need further training and guidance

In the cases we reviewed, officers and staff usually understood the difference between referral or notification to a local authority. But we saw some gaps in their knowledge, particularly when children were exploited online. In those cases, the trauma children suffered, even when combined with a disability or added vulnerability, didn’t prompt the force to make a referral when it should have.

At the time of our revisit, the force was developing a training programme for officers and staff working in the MASHs. The force’s target to complete the provision of this training is May 2025.

In the interim, the force had arranged for those working in a MASH to receive multi-agency training about the local authority’s thresholds for service in each borough. However, some MASH officers and staff told us they haven’t received that training.

Flagging and recording information about the risk to children remains a problem for the force

In our 2023 inspection, we found that the force’s systems didn’t allow individual items of information to be linked together, or to people and places. Flags were also missing in many cases.

In February 2024, the force introduced a new IT system called Connect. This brings together functions which were previously separate. For example, crime reports, intelligence, concerns about children and missing people information are all recorded on Connect. This allows the force to create links when it couldn’t before. This is positive but it will take time to have an effect.

At the time of this revisit, we found an example of multiple records being created for the same person because of various spellings of their name being used. This meant all the information about that person was not stored in one place. In addition, often the person inputting the information didn’t create a link between people and places when they should have done.

We also found that, rather than flags being missing from records, often officers and staff added an incorrect flag. For example, we saw many cases where officers and staff flagged reports as criminal exploitation when it was sexual exploitation.

In addition, we found that officers and staff often recorded ethnicity on one part of a record and not on another. For example, some recorded the victim’s ethnicity on the person’s record, but not on the record of a crime they have reported. This means that analysis of types of crime and their victims may be flawed.

When the force identified that a person had a disability or a special educational need, often this wasn’t recorded in the correct place on the system.

These problems are contributing to delays in the force sharing information with its safeguarding partners. In some cases, officers and staff in MASHs spend time correcting errors before they can share information.

They also affect how well and how quickly the force can carry out risk assessments when it receives reports children are missing.

At the time of this revisit, Connect was still relatively new to the force’s officers and staff. It will take time for them to become familiar with it. The force was aware of these issues and was working to correct mistakes and improve the quality of the information its officers and staff add to the system. A large team of around 50 members of staff was working to reduce duplicated or incorrect information. The force’s intranet also has a facility for officers and staff to report issues so the team can deal with them promptly.

The force was also updating its training so that users can better understand Connect.

The force misses some opportunities to escalate its concerns about children at risk

When a child already has an allocated social worker, the force usually sends the social worker any new information it receives about the child as a notification. It doesn’t carry out further research about incidents involving the child or about any changes in the family that may affect the level of risk. This is appropriate in many circumstances. For example, where the social worker already has information that the force has previously shared, this reduces demand on the MASH teams and the time it takes to process the information.

However, this doesn’t take account of circumstances where the risk has changed or increased. For example, the force shares information about children reported missing as a notification. Strategy discussions usually take place only after a child is missing for an extended period. Consequently, when a child is missing numerous times, the force rarely escalates its concerns. It therefore misses opportunities to work with its safeguarding partners to agree plans to reduce risks to those children.

Officers and staff in some missing people units told us they have regular meetings with their local safeguarding partners about children who are reported missing many times. But this wasn’t consistent across the force; we saw limited evidence of formal escalation in our case file reviews.

The force still needs to improve how it works with its safeguarding partners to prevent children going missing

We saw evidence that prevention interviews with children were being given priority and carried out face to face. But this wasn’t happening consistently. Some were carried out by care providers with little or no obvious direction from the force about the intention of the interview.

Some BCU officers and staff told us they didn’t have the resources to carry out prevention work. They hadn’t worked with their partners to help them to understand why children repeatedly went missing. Although some told us they were trying to work with care providers and the local authority.

There remain many opportunities for the force to work with its partners to understand the needs of these children. Understanding why they are going missing and working together to address those reasons would reduce the risks to them.

We were encouraged to see that a focus on prevention is part of the local missing hub plan.

Investigation of child exploitation

The force is focusing more on safeguarding children

In September 2024, for the first time, the force published a children’s strategy. It sets out the force’s plan to improve how it safeguards children by adopting a ‘child first’ approach. In the strategy, the commissioner sets out his expectations. Among them is the expectation that officers and staff will recognise children have different needs and vulnerabilities to adults and should be treated differently. He pledges to improve work with the force’s safeguarding partners and to adapt its approach to recognise the needs of children.

This is an important step. If followed, the strategy should inform the force’s policies and culture and the attitudes of its officers and staff. In turn, this should provide better outcomes for children.

We found the force had already reviewed many of its policy and guidance documents. It had made sure they draw a distinction between risks to children and risks to adults.

It has designed a public protection portal on its intranet so that officers and staff can easily access guidance documents, videos and other material.

The force demonstrated to us a new ‘child to notice’ data dashboard. It planned to roll this out across the force by the end of November 2024. It was using the dashboard in one BCU at the time of our revisit. It allows supervisors and senior leaders to quickly see which children have come to the force’s attention in the previous 24 hours. The information includes why they have come to the force’s attention and whether any other BCUs are aware of them. This tool should be useful to inform daily responses to children at risk.

Tackling the exploitation of children is a higher priority for the force

In 2023, we said there was insufficient focus at a senior level on addressing the exploitation of children. During this revisit, we were pleased to find that has changed.

On receipt of our causes of concern, the force promptly appointed an experienced detective superintendent as a full-time lead responsible officer (LRO) for exploitation. The LRO can now spend more time considering improvement measures and putting them into action. The exploitation improvement group continues to provide oversight of improvement activity.

We saw evidence of the influence of the LRO in the development of the ‘child to notice’ dashboard. We also saw it in improved oversight of child exploitation teams (CETs) through regular meetings of CET supervisors and managers across the force.

The LRO’s influence was also evident when the force introduced the Connect IT system. It was impossible to transfer all the information from the old system to Connect, although officers and staff can still access that information. However, the force made sure it transferred information and intelligence about children believed to be at risk of exploitation. This information was known as a 588 record; a separate, non-crime report that an officer or staff member created when they recognised exploitation. The force took all the relevant information from each of the active 588 records and created a similar record in Connect called an NC12. This meant it could respond more effectively to those children as soon as Connect became active.

We saw some good examples of the NC12 being used to document the risks to children and in work with safeguarding partners to mitigate those risks.

We also found that, since our 2023 inspection, the work of the force’s own dedicated inspection team has focused on child exploitation and missing people. The force has closely monitored the effect of its efforts, with regular and detailed audit activity. Findings from its most recent audits largely mirror ours.

The force has trained many investigators in child exploitation

Following our 2023 inspection, the force used experienced and knowledgeable officers and staff to quickly design training about child exploitation for investigators. We found the training covered recognising exploitation, the effects of childhood trauma, disruption tactics and the consequences of victim-blaming language, among other topics.

By March 2024, the force had trained 1,200 investigators, targeting those who work in teams most likely to be allocated exploitation cases.

The force has worked with the College of Policing to improve the specialist child abuse investigation development programme. The force has added detailed sections about child exploitation which weren’t previously included in the college’s training package.

It has also introduced an induction day for those officers appointed to child exploitation teams. This gives them an initial understanding of child exploitation and an introduction to child protection procedures.

The force has increased the number of officers working in CETs and clarified their terms of reference

In 2023, the force told us it intended to double the number of officers working in CETs, adding an extra 72 officers. At the time of this revisit, it had appointed 50 and was working to have the other 22 in their roles by November 2024.

CETs are a mix of accredited investigators, those working towards accreditation and police constables. All the force’s accredited investigators in CETs are either specialist child abuse investigators or working to complete their specialist accreditation.

The force told us it intends to make all police officers in CETs accredited investigators, which means officers in 44 posts will become accredited. Once that is complete, all CET officers are expected to become accredited specialist child abuse investigators.

The force has also published terms of reference for these teams. This should help the wider workforce understand what CETs do, which cases they are responsible for and who to go to for help. The force hasn’t yet shared the terms of reference with its safeguarding partners. Doing so would also help partners to understand these things and encourage closer working relationships.

The force has trained frontline officers and staff in child exploitation

In addition to the training for its investigators, the force has designed awareness training for its frontline officers and staff. This powerful 30-minute presentation uses real-life examples to highlight key points about exploitation. It covers how to report exploitation and the importance of avoiding victim-blaming language.

Between the start of June 2024 and our revisit, the force had presented it to almost 8,000 officers and staff. The force has comprehensive records of who has completed this training and who hasn’t.

It has used feedback from training events to gauge its effectiveness. This feedback showed most of those attending had an increased confidence in recognising and reporting child exploitation.

Consequently, the officers and staff in the BCUs we visited had a better understanding of how to recognise and deal with child exploitation. Most confirmed that tackling it was a priority for the force.

We saw fewer delays in starting investigations

In 2023, we saw numerous delays in starting investigations, with crime reports passed from team to team before anyone took responsibility. During our revisit, we were encouraged to see fewer examples of this. Supervisors were clearer about the roles of their respective teams and usually passed investigations to their officers and staff promptly.

At the time of our revisit, the force was about to introduce crime management units in each BCU. These units will decide which team should handle which investigation. This should help to further improve the timely allocation and effective management of investigations.

Specialist investigators provide more support in online child exploitation investigations, but more improvement is needed

We were encouraged to see that the specialist online child sexual abuse and exploitation (OCSAE) operations desk now reviews some cases of online exploitation when they are reported. This allows specialist officers to make an early assessment and provide advice. It also means they can see complex cases sooner and allocate them to specialist investigators.

We saw the benefit of these reviews in some cases. We saw examples of specialist officers adding comprehensive investigation plans to crime reports. They resulted in thorough investigations by non-specialist investigators.

We saw the reviewing officer also provided contact details so the investigating officer could go to them for further advice if needed. The force told us of examples where OCSAE teams investigated cases they wouldn’t have previously seen.

This is positive, but there remains room for improvement. For example, the reviewing officer’s advice was often generic and didn’t focus on safeguarding the child. We also saw that local supervisors didn’t always understand the suggested enquiries or make sure they were carried out.

We continued to see cases where the investigating officer didn’t seize devices or follow lines of enquiry to trace an offender. These cases failed to consider the risk the offender continued to pose to other children.

In one case when a child was extorted for money after sharing naked images, a call handler treated it as fraud. The OCSAE operations desk didn’t see the case because the search terms it used didn’t necessarily pick up crimes of blackmail. This means others could also be missed.

The force was completing a restructure of the command of its OCSAE teams during our revisit. It said that once this is complete there will be capacity for ongoing oversight of investigations by specialist officers or supervisors. The Connect system also allows for joint allocation of crimes. This will help specialist investigators to influence ongoing investigations.

The force had also appointed an additional 24 digital forensics practitioners to support the examination of digital media devices. This means officers and staff should find it easier to get devices examined when they seize them. This is positive but we continued to see many missed opportunities to seize and examine devices. Therefore, the force hasn’t yet seen the full benefits of this additional resource.

Investigation of child sexual exploitation has improved, but there are still delays and missed opportunities to trace suspects

During our 2023 inspection, the force told us of its plans to increase the number of officers and staff in roles relating to public protection. They included extra officers and staff to deal with domestic abuse, rape and other sexual offences. (Rape and other serious sexual offences are dealt with by Sapphire teams.) The plans also included personnel in CETs, MASHs and digital forensics. At the time of our revisit, the force had most of the Sapphire personnel in place. It was confident all would be in their posts by the end of November 2024.

This means that Sapphire teams have more manageable workloads and therefore more time to consider the needs of victims. This is important because those teams often deal with child sexual exploitation. In these cases, it is often difficult for a child to understand their abuse or to trust the police. Allowing time to build trust with children offers the force a better opportunity to protect them and pursue offenders.

In the sexual exploitation cases we examined, we saw an overall improvement.

We saw examples of good initial supervisor reviews with detailed investigation plans. Investigators followed lines of enquiry more often. When the child didn’t feel they could provide witness evidence, investigators more regularly considered evidence-led prosecutions (which don’t rely on the victim giving evidence).

We saw some good use of NC12 reports to record ongoing work with children. We also saw several approaches used to communicate with children when appropriate, including text messages.

When investigators attended strategy discussions with their safeguarding partners, we saw some examples where the outcome was clearly recorded and visible to others in the force. But there wasn’t a consistent approach to where investigators recorded this information. The force responded quickly to our feedback. While our fieldwork was ongoing it published guidance on the public protection portal about where officers and staff should record this information.

However, we continued to see examples where the investigation wasn’t good enough. In some cases, we saw delays in starting investigations. In some, when children didn’t feel able to provide witness evidence, we saw clear lines of enquiry to trace suspects weren’t followed.

We also saw examples where supervisors didn’t sufficiently direct and progress the investigative activity.

The force needs to do more to make sure it builds on the progress it has made.

Investigation of child criminal exploitation has improved, but further improvement is needed

We also saw an improvement in the force’s investigation of criminal exploitation of children. We found that investigators were better at recognising exploitation. They also had a better understanding of how they could protect children and pursue those who exploit them.

We found that when a child was part of several investigations, there was better co‑operation and communication between teams to keep investigators focused on the child’s needs. Their contact with the child was more co-ordinated.

We also saw some good supervisory oversight by CET supervisors. Although, when cases were allocated to local investigation teams, the supervision was less consistent.

Investigators were better at trying to encourage children to trust them and talk about their experiences. We saw examples of investigators looking for safe ways to speak to children in person. We saw only one case where an investigator tried to contact a child by writing to them. Writing to children was common in the cases we reviewed in 2023.

But we also continued to see some cases where the force missed opportunities to pursue offenders and safeguard children. Almost all of them were those that were allocated to local investigation teams. They had less oversight or advice from the CETs and lacked effective supervision.

In these cases, we saw delays to action being taken, poorer joint working with the force’s safeguarding partners and less understanding of criminal exploitation.

The force continues to work with its safeguarding partners to make multi-agency child exploitation meetings more consistent and effective across London

In our 2023 inspection, we found that multi-agency child exploitation (MACE) meetings weren’t working as well as they could to help protect children.

The children discussed at meetings weren’t necessarily the ones the force was focusing on. This was because the force and its safeguarding partners assessed risk in different ways. This meant the force and its partners might work together to protect a child in one area but not in another. This happened even when the risk level was similar.

Also, information affecting the children who were discussed at those meetings often wasn’t on the force’s systems or known to CETs.

Just before our 2023 inspection, to achieve a more consistent approach, the force and its safeguarding partners had set up a regular meeting of MACE chairs. But, during this revisit, we found many police officers who chair MACE meetings didn’t turn up for this meeting.

Since our 2023 inspection, the force has clarified and published the CETs’ terms of reference, so there is more consistency in the types of case each team deals with. But the force hasn’t shared those terms of reference with its safeguarding partners.

We saw some evidence that CET officers were aware of discussions in MACE meetings, but this was limited. Some investigators working on child sexual exploitation cases didn’t know what MACE was.

At the time of our revisit, the force was working with its safeguarding partners to refresh the pan-London exploitation protocol. This protocol sets out how agencies, including the Metropolitan Police Service, identify and address child sexual exploitation to provide a consistent response across London. The force hopes this will lead to a more co-ordinated approach.

We continued to see some examples where MACE meetings were effective. For example:

• Some meetings agreed and co-ordinated activity to disrupt offenders.
• We saw evidence that the safeguarding partnership shared important information to make sure children at risk were flagged on all its systems.
• Meetings set out clear joint safety plans for children.
• We saw good communication between agencies working with the same child.
• Meetings considered risks to other family members and any additional support they needed.

However, this wasn’t the case across London. Improved consistency of the MACE arrangements is needed to make sure it provides opportunities for London’s safeguarding partners to co-ordinate their activity. This will help to better protect children at risk of exploitation.

Compliance with the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime is still a problem

In this revisit, we found investigators were better at communicating with children in some cases. We saw examples of investigators taking the time to discuss the best way to keep in touch with child victims. In some cases, they contacted them directly and regularly updated them about the progress of investigations.

But most investigators didn’t carry out victim needs assessments at the start of investigations. This means it often wasn’t clear if the victim had additional needs or what the force had done to help them communicate. Nor had the force agreed how or when children wanted to be contacted. The assessment should also explore the best way to record the child’s evidence and how it will be presented at court.

Many officers and staff we spoke to said they weren’t sure if the Connect system was set up to deal with the Victims’ Code requirements. Some investigators used a contacts tab on the system, while others recorded their contact in the investigation log. This makes it very difficult for the force to analyse its performance.

Victim-blaming language

The force has carried out substantial work to try to stop victim‑blaming language

Since our 2023 inspection, the force has spent a lot of time designing and presenting training to its officers and staff. This includes the training already mentioned in this report. It also includes new training for frontline leaders (sergeants and police staff equivalents) and “mid-line” leaders (inspectors and police staff equivalents), detective sergeants and detective inspectors.

The force also intends to train all officers and staff in the A New Met for London strategy, which will focus on culture and values, among other things.

In all its training, the force has considered victim-blaming language and included sections about it. This includes language which may not appear to blame a victim but tends to minimise the risk to an individual. For example, the phrase ‘regular missing child’ may lead a decision-maker to think, consciously or not, that going missing is normal. This may lead them to fail to consider that someone may be coercing the child to go missing and exploiting them.

In addition, the force has published a ‘language matters’ blog on its public protection portal. Accompanying the blog is a podcast in which leaders discuss victim‑blaming language and why the use of language is important. This helps officers and staff, who haven’t yet been trained, to understand why it’s a problem. The blog provides examples of alternative language which officers and staff could use. It is also a useful reminder to those who have attended training.

The force has also provided additional training across the force to help officers and staff to become ‘language matters’ champions. They can then provide advice and promote better use of language among their colleagues.

This work has generated much discussion in the force, which is positive.

The force encourages its officers and staff to challenge victim‑blaming language

We saw evidence that officers and staff at all ranks are willing to challenge victim‑blaming language when they see or hear it.

In all its audit activity, the force’s dedicated inspection team looks out for victim‑blaming and inappropriate language. When it sees it, it provides feedback to the relevant officer or staff member and to their supervisor.

Officers and staff we spoke to in MASHs also look out for it in the reports they share with their safeguarding partners. They also provide feedback when they see it.

In addition, we saw evidence that senior leaders challenged each other when they saw victim-blaming language in a daily crime bulletin.

Most officers and staff recognise victim-blaming language and understand its negative effect

In our conversations with operational BCU officers and staff, almost all showed an understanding of victim-blaming language and the effect it can have.

We saw much less victim-blaming language in our case file reviews. In our 2023 inspection, we saw it in 55 of 244 cases. In our revisit, we saw it in a lower proportion of cases: only 15 of the 120 cases we reviewed. When we did see victim-blaming language it tended to be related more to minimising risks, rather than overt blaming of child victims for what happened to them.

This is positive and demonstrates the effect of the work the force has done to date.

Next steps

We are satisfied that the force has made enough progress to address our causes of concern.

There is still work to do, but we are reassured by the plans that the commissioner has put in place to continue making improvements.

We will continue to monitor the Metropolitan Police Service’s progress as part of our police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy (PEEL) programme.

Annex A

On 6 October 2023, we issued two accelerated causes of concern to the force, as a result of its failure to:

• identify and assess risks appropriately, and to respond adequately, when children are reported missing; and
• carry out sufficiently effective investigations when children are at risk of, or harmed by, criminal or sexual exploitation.

We published our full report on 9 February 2024 and issued a further cause of concern with a total of 11 recommendations.

Further recommendations

Back to publication

The Metropolitan Police Service’s handling of the sexual and criminal exploitation of children: Causes of concern – revisit