FOI Children at Risk (0199-2022/23)

Request

The National Child Protection Inspection of North Yorkshire Police was conducted by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services in November 2021.

During our inspection, 73 cases were examined with children had been at risk. 13 cases were seen as good, 34 cases requiring improvement, 26 cases as inadequate.

Please could you confirm the following:

1) Has North Yorkshire Police undertaken any analysis on the impact on the children at risk in the cases  that "needed improving or were inadequate". That is the Impact post North Yorkshire Police's involvement, and meaning death, emotional or physical abuse or involvement with North Yorkshire Police or other support services ?

2) If analysis has been undertaken, please could I have the statistics of the number of incidence of death, emotional or physical abuse within that group following the involvement of North Yorkshire Police.

3) Of the "requires improvement/ inadequate cases", what action has North Yorkshire Police taken towards those involved ? Specifically, has North Yorkshire Police made contact with each of those in each case, and reworked the cases ?

Response

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police. I can confirm that part of the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you which was obtained from Staff and  Officers involved in the inspection.

1) Analysis has been completed. At the time of conducting the inspection HMICFRS highlighted to NYP any cases where they believed there may be immediate safeguarding concerns by the provision of an ‘Annex C’ report setting out concerns following a review of a case. 10 of these were provided to North Yorkshire Police and assessments conducted as to any immediate safeguarding required, and where necessary, appropriate measures put in place. Of the remaining cases the fact an Annex C was not supplied meant that no immediate safeguarding concerns were identified. Other cases not subject of Annex Cs were analysed and, where necessary, additional work completed. However no specific analysis has been conducted on impact post NYPs involvement.

2) As above, no specific analysis has been conducted on impact post NYPs Involvement and to report on the data requested i.e. the statistics of the number of incidence of death, emotional or physical abuse within that group following the involvement of North Yorkshire Police; would involve a manual review all the cases again, then a review in detail of all occurrences since, to ascertain any impact. To conduct this process under the FOIA would take a time far exceeding the 18 hour appropriate limit as stated with the Section 12 - Excess Cost provisions.

3) Of the ‘requires improvement’ / ‘inadequate’ cases, North Yorkshire Police have reviewed those cases referred to them by HMICFRS by way of Annex C as per point 1, and where appropriate put in place remedial or additional measures or activity. No ‘blanket’ contact has been made with “each of those in each case”. The specific and wider issues raised form part of NYP’s comprehensive plan in response to the NCPI.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.