‘SERIOUS deficiencies’ have been found in Gloucestershire Constabulary’s child protection work by the police watchdog including one case where numerous reports of two young girls being assaulted were received yet no action was taken.

Inspectors from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) examined Gloucestershire Constabulary’s child protection work in February and found it to be “inconsistent” which was leaving children “exposed to risk” and said it “requires significant improvement”.

Over 11 days in February, the way police interacted and treated children as well as leadership of children’s services was assessed.

A total of 89 cases were also examined and while 14 were deemed to be ‘good’, 75 were rated as ‘required improvement’ or ‘inadequate’.

In one of the cases, two girls, aged four and one, had been identified at being at risk of domestic abuse and placed on a child protection plan and despite numerous reports that they had been assaulted, inspectors found no evidence of police action or that the reports had been recorded as crimes.

The report, published today outlines “Limited strategic oversight by senior leaders and a lack of effective supervision of child protection investigations” which was felt to be ‘undermining’ the force’s ability to safeguard children.

Inspectors also found that Gloucestershire Constabulary’s approach to tackling child sexual exploitation was “inconsistent” with delays in the attendance of incidents and the “timely arrest of suspects” and that, as a result, children were left exposed to risk.

Recommendations from a 2015 review in relation to the issue were also found to have not been implemented, “which suggests an absence of leadership in the critical area,” the report says.

Also outlined in the report was the force’s approach to missing or absent children which ‘requires significant improvement’.

One case examined by inspectors involved a 15-year-old girl who was deemed to be at high risk of child sexual exploitation and who had been reported missing 16 times between November 2016 and February 2017.

In January she disclosed previous sexual contact with a 25-year-old man and it took five days to allocate the crime to an investigator “by which time forensic opportunities had been missed” and no evidence could be found of any attempts to arrest the suspect, the report says.

In the report, inspectors said that while they recognise Gloucestershire Constabulary is committed to protecting children, there were “serious deficiencies in a number of critical areas”.

A number of recommendations are made in the report to improve child protection work by the county’s police force.

HM Inspector of Constabulary Wendy Williams said: “I was pleased to find that Gloucestershire Constabulary has dedicated staff who demonstrate a strong commitment to improving services for children.

“However, while we found areas of good work, this commitment is not yet translating into a consistent service for children.

“We were seriously concerned to find that the approach to missing and absent children is not consistent.

“Children who are at risk of sexual exploitation are not being identified quickly enough and in some cases there was no evidence that children had been looked for when reported missing.

“We found a concerning case involving two young victims of domestic violence.

"We expect to see the force build on the progress it has made in certain areas, and ensure the recommendations we have made are swiftly addressed."

In a statement, Gloucestershire Constabulary said it is “working hard to address shortcoming” identified in the report: “Child protection staff from Gloucestershire Constabulary are described as “knowledgeable, committed and motivated” in the report by HMIC.

“The report also praises the establishment of the multi-agency child sexual exploitation team and a good approach to the management of sex offenders.

“However it criticises the constabulary for a lack of supervision of investigations into child sexual exploitation and missing and absent children, an inconsistent approach to training and not identifying the vulnerability of children who go missing regularly quickly enough.”

Assistant chief constable Julian Moss added: “The report clearly states that our 'initial response to high risk investigations is generally good' and that 'children are at the centre of decision-making when officers attend incidents'.  

“This is reflective of the ethos across the organisation that we are here to keep people safe.

“HM Inspector of Constabulary Wendy Williams also refers to our work with schools and healthcare providers and encourages other police forces to study our effective approach.

“The criticisms are valid and we are working hard to address these. The report itself refers to changes we were making as the inspection was taking place but I can expand on this.

“We’ve put more detectives into the child protection team and more police staff into our central referral unit, we’ve merged three IT systems we were using into one and we have changed our shift system to increase the coverage we have.

“Anecdotally the changes are already having real benefits and I’m hopeful the next report will reflect this.

“The last few years have been incredibly challenging for our officers with the number of child protection referrals almost doubling year on year.

“Let me be clear though, we are dedicated to protecting every vulnerable person in the county and we will consider how we can best use these recommendations. 

“We have already submitted an action plan to HMIC and will welcome the inspectors back in six months’ time to show them the improvements we have made.”

Publication of the report comes days after a damning report which heavily criticised Gloucestershire County Council's children's services.