Inspectors have said North Yorkshire Police “still needs to improve” following a highly critical report into how it safeguards children.
An inspection report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, published today, found the force had made some improvements since its previous report in March.
However, inspectors added progress still needed to be made to “provide consistently better outcomes for children”.
Today’s report comes after the watchdog published a highly critical inspection of the force where it found child protection investigations were poor and that the force did not prioritise safeguarding and child protection highly enough.
In a follow-up visit in December, which is the subject of today’s report, inspectors praised North Yorkshire Police for making progress in areas such as identifying children’s vulnerability and making good safeguarding referrals.
However, they added that supervision of investigations were not always effective and there were “excessive delays” in obtaining digital forensic evidence for officers.
The report, which was published today, said:
“North Yorkshire Police still needs to improve some areas of its work to provide consistently better outcomes for children. There has been some progress, particularly in the way the force has trained its workforce to identify children’s vulnerability and make good safeguarding referrals.
“Staff in the force control room have also made improvements so they are better at identifying risk and providing the right level of response to help vulnerable children.
“Despite progress against some of our recommendations, the force has yet to make all the progress necessary to complete its action plan.
“The force is developing performance monitoring and its governance systems, so it is clear leaders fully understand what still needs to be done.”
‘Police have let the public down’
In response to the report, Zoe Metcalfe, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said:
“North Yorkshire Police have had a year to progress their action plan following the first HMICFRS report on child protection. My team and I were regularly assured that all concerns would be tackled head on and improvements made at a significant pace but instead, 12 months later, the force is not in the position I expected them to be in. Not enough has been done and there is simply no excuse – North Yorkshire Police have let the public and the most vulnerable in our society down.
“As commissioner and a mother of two children, one of whom is vulnerable and has complex needs I share the frustration, deep disappointment and upset many people will be feeling. I know that it is my responsibility to increase the accountability of and pressure on the chief constable, to demand answers and not accept anything other than immediate and significant improvement.
“Whilst a debrief provided by the inspectorate in preparation for this report revealed North Yorkshire Police still had areas to progress, this progress has been much slower than anticipated – as a result, I am making arrangements for an additional layer of scrutiny – I expect evidence in relation to any assurances I am given.”
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Ripon abuse survivor writes book to help others
Jade Kelly’s book ‘The Bad Room’ is a true story of survival.
In it, she shares details of the emotional, physical and mental abuse she suffered as a child.
Jade, is an ambassador for the Maggie Oliver Foundation, which supports survivors of abuse.
The foundation was set up by the police detective turned whistleblower, Margaret Oliver who resigned from Greater Manchester Police and exposed the now infamous Rochdale grooming scandal.
Jade, has rebuilt her life and has been manager of The Navigation pub since moving to Ripon in 2019.
Author Jade Kelly hopes that experiences shared in her book will help others
Following publication of her debut book, she has been invited to speak with professionals across the UK involved in child safeguarding and protection issues.
Jade told the Stray Ferret:
“I hope that by sharing my experiences, I can help them identify tell-tale signs of emotional, physical and mental abuse.”
She added:
“Now that the covid lockdown is lifting, I will be allowed to visit academies and other organisations to talk with them and answer questions.”
For Jade and three other young girls placed in the ‘care’ of a foster mother in Lancashire, the abuse suffered was relentless.
Over six years, their shared bedroom became ‘The Bad Room’ where they were shut up for 16 hours at a time.
They were not allowed to speak and beaten if they made a sound.
The children were banned from using the toilet and often wet the bed, going to school the next day stinking of urine.
They were starved and had to get by on titbits of stolen food.
For Jade, who had previously suffered abuse at the hands of her birth mother and stepfather, the move to foster care when she was ten, should have brought salvation.
However, after a year of being well-treated, the abuse began as soon as the visits of social workers became less frequent.
She said:
“The foster mother was very calculating and would find ways of making it look as though everything was fine for me and the other girls.
“We were too frightened to say anything to the social workers, because we knew it would result in more beatings.”
Jade was kicked, punched, and had hair pulled out.
But there was always a plausible reason given for bruises, cuts and other injuries suffered.
During her GCSE year, the foster mother destroyed all her artwork and English coursework.
Jade, pointed out:
“I had eight weeks to replace a year’s worth of work, but I did it.
“She could destroy my work, but I wasn’t going to let her destroy me.”
When the authorities eventually realised what had been going on, Jade was placed with a caring family and subsequently found justice.
The Bad Room, published by Harper Collins, is available at The Little Ripon Bookshop, Waterstones and WH Smith.
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