Wiltshire – National child protection inspection post-inspection review

Introduction

Our 2022 inspection

In March 2022, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) inspected how well Wiltshire Police keeps children safe.

We made 13 recommendations in the Wiltshire – national child protection inspection report.

The 2023 post-inspection review

In April 2023, we returned to the force to carry out a post-inspection review.

During this inspection we:

• examined force policies, strategies and other documents;
• interviewed senior leaders, managers, supervisors, officers and staff; and
• audited 30 child protection cases (12 cases were good, 4 required improvement and 14 were inadequate).

Summary of findings from the post-inspection review

We were pleased to see that Wiltshire Police has committed considerable time, resources and energy to improving outcomes for children and making changes in line with our recommendations.

It has carried out a review of its trained investigators and reallocated officers and staff based on risk. This has led to more investigators dealing with child abuse investigations. The force has also provided specialist training to support these officers and staff.

Investigations involving child protection have improved in terms of quality, timeliness and supervisory oversight.

Specialist training has been given to the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) staff to improve decision-making and risk management in the protection of children. And it has provided training to frontline officers and staff on the importance of listening to children. This has improved the information recorded and given to children’s social care services.

The force has also improved data collection and performance management processes to better understand the quality of service and help improve outcomes for children.

The force has made multiple meetings dealing with vulnerability more efficient by combining them into a single meeting. The vulnerability tactical oversight meeting gives personnel an improved focus on vulnerability and child protection. We found Wiltshire Police has improved in many areas, particularly:

• taking prompt and effective action when dealing with child abuse investigations;
• the work done by the Sentinel team, which is responsible for dealing with child sexual exploitation; and
• frontline police personnel better identifying risks to children.

However, we found the following areas still require improvement:

• the force’s response when children are reported missing is still inconsistent;
• domestic abuse incidents are investigated by personnel who aren’t appropriately trained; and
• the management of registered sex offenders and the required supervision remains inconsistent.

Terminology in this report

Our report contains references to ‘national’ bodies, strategies, policies, systems, responsibilities, processes and data. In some instances, ‘national’ means applying to England and Wales. In others, it means applying to England and Wales and Scotland, or the whole of the United Kingdom.

Leadership, management and governance

Recommendations from the 2022 inspection report

We recommend that Wiltshire Police immediately works with its multi-agency safeguarding partners to escalate and resolve problems that are reducing the effectiveness of arrangements to safeguard children.

We recommend that within three months Wiltshire Police reviews how it collects, assesses, and presents information about crime, vulnerability, and risk. This is to make sure that leaders and managers are given good-quality data to support their decision-making for effective safeguarding responses.

We recommend that within three months Wiltshire Police reviews the training it gives its workforce. This is to make sure all staff have the right skills to support them in their duties to investigate crime and protect vulnerable children.

We recommend that within three months Wiltshire Police reviews the voice of the child (VoC) training it gives its personnel in all roles. This is to develop awareness of the importance of engaging with children and understanding their perspectives. This is designed to improve safeguarding activities and support better end results for those children.

Summary of post-inspection review findings

The force has worked with its multi-agency safeguarding partners to create escalation policies to resolve disagreements about the level of intervention for children at risk of harm.

The force also has a better understanding of vulnerability. Consistent quantitative data is produced through the force performance dashboard. The force audit team produces qualitative data to support this.

The force has provided considerable training to officers and staff involved in safeguarding. However, this lacks the strategic co-ordination needed to understand and address the force’s training requirements.

VoC training has been given to most frontline officers and staff and this is resulting in more interactions being recorded. However, although the quality has improved, these remain inconsistent in relation to incidents where children either weren’t spoken to, or their views weren’t recorded.

Detailed post-inspection review findings

The force has worked with statutory safeguarding partners to resolve problems with safeguarding decisions, but more needs to be done to make sure these processes are being used effectively

Soon after our last inspection, the force worked with its partners in both local authority areas to introduce an escalation policy for professional disagreements about levels of need and thresholds for safeguarding children.

A tracker was created to record when this process is used and to help identify any recurring issues that can be addressed at a partnership level. At the time of our inspection, no disagreements had been recorded on the tracker. We were told that disagreements that had happened were minor and were resolved quickly. However, if disagreements aren’t recorded on the tracker this means that the reasons aren’t available and instead the force relies on anecdotal evidence. This wouldn’t be robust enough to hold partners to account or provide an ongoing record of learning or improvements made. The force needs to be assured that these policies are fit for purpose and used appropriately.

A MASH oversight board has been introduced in each local authority area. These aim to provide appropriate scrutiny to make sure the partnership is working effectively to safeguard children.

Processes are now in place to give leaders the data they need to make better decisions about safeguarding children

The force recognises the importance of quality assurance and as a result has its own audit team. We were provided with documents ahead of our inspection which showed previous audit activity and future planned activity in specific thematic areas, such as missing children, child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation. This qualitative approach provides the force with a good understanding of how well they protect children and identifies gaps in delivery. The force produces detailed numerical and statistical information on crime trends and geographical areas affected. This is good quantitative data that can be used alongside the qualitative audit activity and gives senior leaders insight into whether the strategic intent of the organisation is leading to effective frontline delivery.

However, the force could use the business intelligence team more effectively to better understand some areas of performance. For example, the force has been slow to shift the team’s focus to provide the data needed by the public protection department (PPD). Changes have now been made which should help the force understand how well it is managing vulnerability and child protection.

Following our last inspection, the force reviewed the meeting structures which address vulnerability and child protection. Many meetings were attended by the same people and covered similar themes. This was inefficient and repetitive. The force has created the vulnerability tactical oversight meeting to replace these meetings.

The vulnerability tactical oversight meeting started in January 2023. It is jointly chaired by the geographical superintendent and the PPD superintendent. Not only has this reduced the time needed to attend multiple meetings but it has given the force a better focus on, and oversight of, vulnerability.

Officers and staff have received training to help them improve how they protect children, but this lacks co-ordination at a strategic level

Following our last inspection, Wiltshire Police has provided extensive training to address the recommendations made. It has also reviewed good practice in England and Wales. For example, it has used training from other forces to help officers and staff improve service performance and outcomes for children.

MASH personnel have been given training topics including neglect and strategy meetings with statutory safeguarding partners and their role. As a result, personnel are more confident about the processes they should follow for strategy meetings. In turn, the number of strategy meetings resulting in section 47 child protection decisions has increased. The force told us that some of these may previously have resulted in a lower level of intervention where a child is in need.

It is clear that officers and staff are taking a more active role in strategy meetings. We also noted that the detail recorded on police systems is better. Since April 2022, Domestic Abuse (DA) Matters training has been given to 1,079 frontline officers and staff. It is also provided to new recruits.

However, there is no co-ordination of training requirements at a force level. This means the force may be missing opportunities to understand gaps in knowledge and to produce appropriate training plans. For example, much of the training about vulnerability has been identified, organised and provided by managers within the PPD without the involvement of the learning and development team.

The recording of police interactions with children are improving but remain inconsistent

The forces uses public protection notifications (PPNs) to inform children’s social care services about concerns of risks to children. It has given training about PPNs to all frontline officers and staff. This covers why the quality of information recorded on PPNs is important and the need to effectively record the voices of children.

The force has introduced the AWARE principles to help frontline officers complete PPNs. Frontline officers and staff were positive about this training and the overall training they had received on vulnerability, particularly more recently. Officers told us they understood the importance of speaking with children and recording the conversation appropriately. This helps with decision-making.

Unfortunately, the quality of the recording of interactions with children remains mixed. We saw some good examples where children were seen, listened to and their views were considered in decisions. But we also saw incidents where children weren’t spoken to, or their views weren’t recorded.

The force’s own audit work shows that recording the VoC is improving. But it also recognises that further work is needed to make sure these interactions, and the standard of recording, are consistent. This is also reflected in our inspection findings.

Initial contact

Recommendations from the 2022 inspection report: Initial contact

We recommend that Wiltshire Police immediately improves its arrangements and ways of working for responding to incidents of missing children so that:

• force control room staff identify risk and vulnerability, and assign the correct response priority to incidents involving these;
• flags, warning markers and trigger plans are accurate and used appropriately;
• supervisors review decisions and open incidents, and escalate responses when necessary; and
• an audit process is in place to identify concerns and ways to improve.

Summary of post-inspection review findings: Initial contact

The force control room still doesn’t appropriately consider vulnerability and risk and this affects the initial response to children who are missing.

Flags and warning markers are applied and maintained appropriately. But the content of trigger plans still isn’t consistent and these aren’t being used to inform activity to trace children who are reported missing.

Control centre supervisors are slow to review decisions about open incidents and aren’t escalating risks in line with force policy and procedure.

Force audit activity has provided a rich understanding of performance in this area and yielded recommendations for improvement.

Detailed post-inspection review finding: Initial contact

Control centre staff don’t always consider known risks to missing children, supervisors are slow to review decisions and so the response can be delayed

Personnel receive extensive training before they are deployed to the force control room. This includes training about missing children and child sexual exploitation (CSE). Force incident managers also receive training about the assessment and grading of children reported missing. Despite this, there are still significant issues with the way the force handles the initial stages of reports of missing children.

In September 2022, the force produced a missing persons process map to help decision-making about levels of risk. This clearly outlines force expectations during the initial period a child is missing, from receiving a call to classification of risk and the activity carried out to trace the child.

However, there is an option in this guidance to categorise a missing person under the ‘concern for safety’ tag on the police command-and-control system. This can be used by call handlers before the force incident manager registers a child as officially missing. This should only be used when a parent or carer hasn’t yet made reasonable enquiries to find the child or when there are exceptional circumstances. If ‘concern for safety’ is used then the circumstances must be fully documented with a supporting rationale.

All the child missing episodes we reviewed in this inspection were initially categorised as a ‘concern for safety’. It wasn’t appropriate in any of the incidents and no rationale was recorded for using ‘concern for safety’ instead of recording the child as missing. This breaches force guidance.

Children can remain in this category for many hours without any meaningful co‑ordinated activity to trace them. This means that the force may be missing opportunities to safeguard children.

There is a tracker that can be used to complete the missing log and direct initial activity to find a child. But this wasn’t used in any of the incidents we reviewed.

The use of flags and warning markers has improved but trigger plans remain inconsistent

We found flags and warning markers are consistently used on child information records. However, in the cases we reviewed, the use of these didn’t always affect decision-making or the force’s response.

Trigger plans still aren’t being referred to consistently in the initial stages of a missing episode involving a child. Staff in the control centre said that the plans often have too much information to read through when they are dealing with competing demands.

We reviewed ten trigger plans to assess their content and usefulness. We found that the plans often lacked explicit actions that need to be taken in the initial stages to trace a child. This information should be taken from prevention interviews, return home interviews and other missing episodes. It should then be used to create a set of actions that appear on the first page of the trigger plan. These should be used to complete the missing report and direct immediate action to trace the child.

Force audit activity is providing a good understanding of performance and recommendations for improvement

The force has a robust and effective audit function, which it uses to understand the quality of its performance. In November 2022, the force carried out 50 audits of missing episodes involving children and in March 2023, produced a report on the findings. This showed the ‘concern for safety’ classification was rarely used during the period covered by the audit. And, although there were some delays in marking reports as a missing incident, there was evidence that activity to trace the child had started. However, it showed half the prevention interviews conducted lacked detail.

The audit also found that trigger plans weren’t always referred to and strategy meetings weren’t convened when appropriate. In only 6 of the 50 missing episodes was the return home interview shared with the force.

In 42 of the 50 missing episodes, a PPN was submitted. But the information contained didn’t always reflect what was in the missing report. This means children’s social care services had to make decisions based on incomplete information about risk.

The audit was a good piece of work and led to a comprehensive action list being set to improve practice within Wiltshire Police and the wider partnership.

Our findings from this inspection mirror the majority of what the force found. However, our audits also identified that the ‘concern for safety’ classification was still being used.

This audit work provides some reassurance that the force recognises there is still work to do in dealing with missing children. Efforts are also being made to improve the knowledge of its personnel through training.

As a result of feedback we gave to the force during our inspection, the force told us it intends to immediately remove the option of ‘concern for safety’ for missing children.

Assessment and help

Recommendations from the 2022 inspection report: Assessment and help

We recommend that within three months Wiltshire Police reviews its assessment and information-sharing practices so it can more effectively:

• identify vulnerable children at the earliest possible stage; and
• refer those children without delay to the most appropriate level of support.

We recommend that within three months Wiltshire Police reviews with its partners its ways for identifying children at risk of CSE. This is so that there are effective strategic and operational responses to reduce this risk for those children.

We recommend that Wiltshire Police engages with its partners and community to reduce the risks to children who go missing, including:

• implementing the Philomena Protocol; and
• making sure all children are quickly contacted after they are found, for return-to-home and prevention interviews so that the VoC is clearly recorded.

We recommend that within six months Wiltshire Police introduces a process to review all its PPNs:

• to check the information is complete;
• to check that any immediate safeguarding action is in place;
• to include any other relevant information from police systems for context;
• to check that crimes are recorded; and
• to check that it is necessary and proportionate to forward the information to the other organisations.

Summary of post-inspection review findings: Assessment and help

Frontline officers and staff are consistently submitting PPNs when appropriate. But there are still delays in referring children to children’s social care services.

The force has reviewed and revised CSE oversight meetings at a partnership level but further improvements are required.

At a tactical level, the Sentinel team does some positive work with children to mitigate risk from CSE. But reduced staff numbers has limited the team’s effectiveness.

The force has worked to put the philomena protocol in place with care homes but more needs to be done to make sure it is properly used and managed.

Officers consistently conduct prevention interviews with children who have been missing but the recording of their voice varies.

The force has trained all frontline officers and staff on PPNs and this is helping to identify children at risk. It has also introduced processes to provide better supervisory oversight on the submission and quality assurance of PPNs.

Detailed post-inspection review findings: Assessment and help

The force has put new processes in place to identify children earlier and more consistently

The force has increased the number of supervisors in the MASH. This additional resource means supervisors are now able to dip sample PPNs. They now review at least four PPNs per decision-maker per month to check the accuracy of threshold decision-making, incident recording and information sharing processes.

Many of the personnel we spoke to said that PPN compliance and quality has improved but they recognise more work is needed to make sure the quality is more consistent.

The force has provided MASH personnel with extensive training and learning opportunities. For example, staff have visited other forces to learn best practice. Strategy meeting training has been provided to 80 percent of MASH personnel. Other training includes neglect, child cruelty, sexual offences, information sharing and how to escalate issues with safeguarding partners. All staff we spoke to commented positively on the level of training they have received and told us it is helping them identify and assess risk.

Each MASH has different processes which creates delays in making referrals to children’s social care services

The Swindon and Trowbridge MASHs have different approaches to triaging PPNs before sharing these with children’s social care services. In Trowbridge, the triage process is complex and leads to delays in referring children to children’s social care services and interventions to safeguard children early.

Child protection concerns, as well as medium and high-risk domestic abuse incidents, should be handled within a 24-hour period. However, at the time of our inspection, 195 PPNs were awaiting assessment. Of these, 121 cases were initially graded as standard risk domestic abuse incidents. The oldest was a week old.

These delays raise the following concerns:

• There is no way of easily identifying which of the ‘standard’ domestic abuse incidents in the backlog affect children.
• The force has previously identified that initial risk levels can be incorrect.
• There is the potential for there to be more than one incident of domestic abuse affecting a child before they are assessed, and the early identification of cumulative risk may be delayed or missed.
• Disclosures are being made to schools days after the domestic abuse incident, or potentially after multiple incidents. This means Operation Encompass (used to inform schools of the children in their care who have been affected by domestic abuse) can’t be fully effective.

The force recently increased the number of decision-makers in both MASHs. It is also planning a new rota to increase cover at weekends, which should help reduce backlogs on a Monday morning. However, the force needs to make sure it fully assesses demand to understand the appropriate staffing levels.

The force and its safeguarding partners are working to improve oversight of CSE on a pan-Wiltshire level

The force has made attempts to improve the strategic response to CSE, although this has led to some challenges.

For example, there had been issues with focus in the pan-Wiltshire exploitation group due to the volume of exploitation of both children and adults. The force recommended this was disbanded and replaced with two separate subgroups, one for children and one for adults. Both groups report to the pan-Wiltshire all age subgroup. However, there has been a lack of attendance and meaningful activity, and therefore there is still an issue about what these can achieve.

The force has now recommended that one group should be created for adults and children, with robust oversight arrangements in place. This needs to be accelerated with safeguarding partners to make sure the oversight remains effective and identified improvements can be made.

The Sentinel CSE team is working well but reduced staffing levels may be limiting its effectiveness

Since our last inspection, PIP 2 trained detectives have been transferred from the Sentinel team to the criminal investigation department and the PPD to manage volumes within the child abuse investigation team (CAIT). This has significantly reduced the force’s ability to be proactive with CSE incidents and enquiries.

Despite the reduction in numbers, the Sentinel team provides a focused response to make sure incidents of CSE are identified and the force is made aware of this information.

The force and its safeguarding partners attend a monthly child exploitation tactical meeting. The meeting assesses and monitors children identified as being at significant or moderate risk from exploitation within the community. It uses a contextual safeguarding approach to mitigate the risk to children. However, the reduction in staffing in the Sentinel team may limit the force’s ability to implement actions from this meeting.

The force has created a problem profile, which highlights opportunities for responding to victims, offenders and locations where child sexual abuse and exploitation is prevalent. This is a good product and an important tool that can help in shaping the force’s response to such exploitation. The force could improve the problem profile further by including partnership information. This would provide a richer data set to understand the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of strategic safeguarding plans.

In the CSE investigations we reviewed, we found consistent records of the team’s work with the child concerned, and plans to reduce future risk.  However, the team’s reduced capacity means it is unable to carry out enough intervention work that may identify and reduce risks to children. For example, by doing more one-to-one work with children or by carrying out disruption activity at locations where CSE is known to be prevalent.

We found examples of good investigations conducted between the Sentinel and CAIT teams. In these, children were at the centre of all decision-making, broader risks were considered, other children at potential risk of harm were identified, and perpetrators were dealt with.

The Fortitude team works proactively using intelligence and much of their work has been focused on county lines and modern-day slavery. Children who are at risk of criminal exploitation may also be at risk of sexual exploitation and vice versa. The force would benefit from its specialist teams working more closely together.

Work has been done to implement the philomena protocol with care homes but more needs to be done

There are 24 children’s homes in the force area. The force uses a tracker to record which children’s homes have signed up to use the philomena protocol. The tracker shows 13 of 24 homes had signed up. However, this was last updated in August 2022 and at this time only 13 children’s homes had been given training about the protocol. It isn’t clear whether the remaining 11 children’s homes haven’t signed up to the protocol or been given training, or whether this information hasn’t been recorded. The force needs to update the information to better understand this area.

We found control centre staff and frontline officers are aware of the implementation of the protocol and the requirements placed on care homes before reporting a child as missing.

Prevention interviews are conducted more consistently but the recording of the VoC is variable in content and quality

The force consistently carries out prevention interviews with children who return from missing episodes and these are recorded on police systems. The VoC clearly features in this process but the quality of the recording is mixed. The force needs to do more work to improve in this area.

Processes are now in place to check the quality of PPN submissions

Since our last inspection, the force has worked to improve the quality of PPN submissions. MASH personnel gave PPN training to all frontline officers. This included an overview of the statutory guidance and the importance of understanding thresholds. The training materials are accessible to all personnel so they can be used for reference when required.

During this inspection we found frontline officers consistently submit PPNs when appropriate. The force has introduced three layers of risk assessment on PPN submissions. The initial submitting officer will make a judgment on risk level and this will be reviewed by their supervisor. It will then be reassessed within the MASH before it is shared with children’s social care services.

In March 2023, the force introduced the AWARE principles to the PPN template. This is now available on officers’ mobile data terminals and includes specific questions that officers need to ask when dealing with children. It provides a more consistent approach to understanding risk and decisions linked to safeguarding.

As the process has been recently introduced, it is too soon to fully assess its impact on interactions with children. But we would urge the force to assess this in the near future so they can understand whether there has been any improvement.

There has been a significant increase in the recording of crimes of neglect. In the period June 2021 to April 2022, a monthly average of five neglect crimes were recorded. The force provided training in identifying neglect. And, in the period May 2022 to February 2023, the average rose to 20 recorded crimes per month. This represents a 300 percent increase. The rise doesn’t necessarily mean there has been an increase in the instances of neglect. Instead, it may be due to improved understanding of legislation and officers being better able to identify the risk to children as a result of their training.

The force has robust audit activity to test the quality and validity of PPN submissions. Errors identified are fed back to individuals, and leaders use this information to see if wider learning is required.

The force has stressed the importance of recording ethnicity to frontline officers and staff. But, despite this, we found many examples where it wasn’t recorded. The recording of schools attended by children also remains inconsistent. These issues mean that the force is missing opportunities to understand the context of offending in specific crime types and this can also affect the effectiveness of processes such as Operation Encompass.

Force quality assurance processes have identified improvements in compliance in relation to crime data integrity. This appears to be as a direct result of training given to MASH personnel identifying additional crimes through the new compliance and quality assurance processes.

Investigation

Recommendation from the 2022 inspection report: Investigation

We recommend that Wiltshire Police immediately improves child protection investigations by making sure:

• it effectively supervises investigations, with reviews clearly recording any further work needed;
• the VoC is clearly recorded and included in decision-making;
• it appropriately supports joint multi-agency investigations;
• it assigns investigations to officers with the skills, capacity and competence to take them forward effectively;
• it regularly audits the quality of its ways of working, including how effective safeguarding measures are; and
• it focuses on achieving the best end results for children.

We recommend that within three months Wiltshire Police establishes clear terms of reference for all its investigation capability, so all its staff are certain about which team is responsible for investigating the crime allegation being made.

We recommend that within three months Wiltshire Police reviews the staffing levels of its investigation teams so that they have the capacity to effectively investigate the crimes they are allocated.

Summary of post-inspection review findings: Investigation

The supervision of CAIT investigations is generally good and provides the direction needed for investigations. The VoC is recorded and considered in decision-making.

As a result of training, police personnel are supporting multi-agency investigations more effectively. And a high proportion of CAIT staff have received specialist child abuse investigators development programme (SCAIDP) training. This national learning programme equips CAIT staff with the skills and knowledge to make their investigations professional, objective and thorough. The SCAIDP training is having a positive impact on the quality of the force’s investigations.

The force audit function is robust and informs actions to improve provision. Staffing levels have improved in investigation teams and this has increased capacity.

But the allocation of investigations could be better, particularly for domestic abuse cases. We found officers and staff are dealing with investigations they aren’t trained to handle.

Detailed post-inspection review findings: Investigation

Supervisory oversight of investigations is generally good

The force has clear oversight of CAIT investigations. It uses ‘enhanced hierarchical case reviews’ to make sure investigations are progressing appropriately. This means that cases are first reviewed by a detective sergeant and then by a detective inspector. As well as ensuring compliance, these reviews provide a qualitative assessment of the investigation and safeguarding. The force is able to access this information on Niche to give a data set about compliance and identify themes on what works well and what doesn’t. This provides senior leaders with some reassurance about the performance of their personnel. If training needs are identified, this is given at an individual or team level as appropriate.

In the inspections we audited, it is clear that CAIT investigations are generally of a good standard. There is good supervisory oversight throughout and regular updates from the investigating officer. The VoC is also considered in decision-making.

The force has identified a need to improve how it records the VoC

The force regularly audits its child protection practices. In January 2023, the force produced a report of an internal audit titled ‘Has the voice of the child been heard and has the best outcome for the child been considered?’ This reviewed 50 incidents involving child victims of various offences between 1 December 2022 and 30 January 2023. It also considered how effective the investigations were.

The outcomes were graded good, requires improvement or inadequate. Overall, for the VoC, 16 were graded as good, 23 graded as requiring improvement and 11 graded as inadequate.

The force uses this audit work, and other qualitative assessment, to identify areas for improvement and take action.

It has also produced a VoC training package and this is part of all vulnerability training given to officers and staff. Investigations carried out by specialist teams tend to record the VoC to a higher standard. But, in general, the force still needs to improve its recording of the VoC and it has plans in place to do so.

Trained investigators handle investigations, which is improving joint working and outcomes for children. But more work is needed to fully understand demand

Due to the redistribution of PIP 2 trained staff, there are only two vacancies in the CAIT. The force is recruiting to fill these posts. Most of the team are SCAIDP trained, and the force has plans to train those that aren’t. This is having a positive impact on the quality of investigations and joint working. However, where the course is provided locally, it doesn’t have the additional achieving best evidence (ABE) module that we see in many areas of England and Wales.

This means that some specialist staff aren’t trained to interview children. This can place unnecessary demand on those who are trained. The force needs to make sure there is a reasonable spread of trained officers to cover this important function.

In October 2022, following our recommendation, the force published a new version of its crime screening and allocation policy. However, staff in the volume crime team (VCT) and the CAIT still aren’t clear about which crime types they are responsible for investigating. For example, VCT staff should only work on lower risk domestic abuse investigations. However, they are regularly dealing with much higher risk incidents. Staff told us they aren’t comfortable with this and don’t feel they are trained well enough to handle that level of risk.

This means high-risk domestic abuse incidents can be left without appropriate activity or investigation and can in turn create delays in joint working.

Investigation teams don’t always have the appropriate capability, training and confidence to deal with investigations effectively

We saw evidence of delays in many investigations held by the VCT. We also found the main focus appears to be on the victim’s welfare and not on the children affected. This means that opportunities to safeguard children may be missed or delayed. This is concerning.

We have also seen investigations that have been split between teams. For example, one investigation involved the rape, stalking and harassment of a single victim. The rape was investigated by CID, yet the VCT dealt with the stalking and harassment allegation. This meant there were two investigating officers for the same victim in what were largely the same circumstances.

CAIT staff told us they were also confused about their core responsibilities. Staff described some investigations such as sextortion (webcam blackmail) and CSE as ‘grey areas’. And they gave different views about whether it was right for CAIT to deal with these incidents with its current demand and resource levels.

The force needs to make sure investigations go to the teams that have the appropriate capability, training and confidence to deal with them effectively.

Investigation teams have improved staffing levels, which has increased capacity

In January 2023, the assistant chief constable chaired a detective resilience oversight board to address problems with the split of resources between the PPD and other teams. At that time, there were only 35 out of 60 full-time equivalent officers in the PPD.

The force decided to move resources from other departments into higher areas of risk such as CAIT.

The force also reviewed all flexible working arrangements within the PPD. This led to changes being made to some of those arrangements to better balance the needs of the individual and the force.

Although the movement of officers into this area is positive, some officers made their views known about not wanting to work in CAIT. This, along with the introduction of more intensive performance monitoring, has led to increased referrals to occupational health. The force is managing this and supporting officers to adjust into these important roles where possible.

Despite these steps, the force still doesn’t fully understand the demand on CAIT. This affects the force’s ability to create an effective long term resourcing model. The force is in negotiation with the College of Policing to provide this.

Managing those posing a risk to children

Recommendation from the 2022 inspection report: Managing those posing a risk to children

We recommend that within three months Wiltshire Police reviews its arrangements for supervising sex offenders. This is to improve the consistency of decision-making for registered sex offender management, and the resilience and effectiveness of home visits to risk assess offenders.

Summary of post-inspection review findings: Managing those posing a risk to children

The management of sexual offenders and violent offenders (MOSOVO) lacks co‑ordination and appropriate oversight needed to drive activity.

The force needs to review how it allocates registered sex offenders to offender managers to make sure it is using resources effectively.

The MOSOVO team needs to better use force systems to make sure it is managing workloads appropriately. The force also needs to review performance data to make sure it has effective oversight.

Detailed post-inspection review findings: Managing those posing a risk to children

The force should review how it allocates registered sex offenders to offender managers to make sure visits are appropriate and resources used effectively

Since our last inspection, the force has made its expectations clear that offender managers should follow national guidance which is provided by the College of Policing for visits. This states two offender managers should be present on each visit.

This is a positive step. However, the force allocates registered sex offenders to offender managers according to demand rather than location. This means offenders can be spread across a large area of the force. It would be more efficient to allocate registered sex offenders to offender managers according to location. This would mean multiple visits could be completed on the same day.

The current approach makes it difficult to plan multiple visits and increases the time needed to conduct visits in pairs. As a result, some registered sex offenders are visited by a lone offender manager.

This poses a risk to officer safety and there is a danger that a registered sex offender may try to control or manipulate the offender manager. We saw evidence of this happening for example where a registered sex offender was dictating when he would accept being visited rather than the police deciding when it would happen and conducting additional unannounced visits.

There is a current average of nine visits per month per offender manager. This is an acceptable level. Changing the allocation of registered sex offenders by location could further improve this.

There is a lack of understanding about the MOSOVO role

Frontline officers have a lack of understanding about the MOSOVO role. Some officers we spoke to weren’t aware of MOSOVO. We were told about an incident where an officer was trying to alert probation services about the risk a sex offender may present in the community but this person was already being managed by the MOSOVO team.

When risks to children are identified, PPNs are submitted and offender managers attend strategy meetings

We saw offender managers regularly submitting PPNs when a risk to a child from a registered sex offender is identified. We also note that offender managers are involved in strategy meetings when children are identified as at risk. This provides a vital insight and understanding of risks to the child concerned.

The MOSOVO team needs to use systems more effectively to manage workloads

The MOSOVO team isn’t currently using ViSOR effectively to manage its workloads. Instead, it is using a spreadsheet to manage work. This is poor practice and should be avoided. ViSOR is multi-functional and, when used correctly, can help manage workloads and offenders. The use of the spreadsheets means it is difficult for supervisors to understand the current position regarding outstanding visits, risk management plans or active risk management. This information needs to be understood and readily accessible. It is essential for the effective oversight needed to drive activity of individual officers, staff and the wider team.

The MOSOVO team also doesn’t use the notify function in Niche to alert it if a registered sex offender has come to police attention while the team was off-duty. Instead, the team looks through incident logs on a daily basis. This isn’t an efficient use of officer time.

Regional ViSOR user group meetings take place across England and Wales and report into the national ViSOR user group. These forums are used to improve the ViSOR system and provide an opportunity to share good practice between forces. Wiltshire Police is part of the southwest region which doesn’t have a user group. This means there is no representation on the ViSOR national user group. We highlighted this gap during our inspection. The force recognises the benefits this meeting can bring to improving practice in dealing with registered sex offenders.

There is a lack of any meaningful performance management information within the MOSOVO team. This means senior leaders can’t be assured that registered sex offenders are being managed effectively.

Next steps

Wiltshire Police has made some good progress in response to our 2022 recommendations. But the force recognises that it still needs to improve in some areas to provide consistently better outcomes for children.

As a result of internal quality assurance processes and review we are confident that the force understands where it needs to improve. We are also satisfied senior leaders have plans to make these changes and monitor progress.

As part of our routine monitoring of all police forces, we will continue to evaluate Wiltshire Police’s performance in relation to these recommendations and instigate closer scrutiny if necessary.

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Wiltshire – National child protection inspection post-inspection review