Child Sexual Exploitation: Serious Case Review slams police and council

The publication of the report following two Serious Case Reviews in the borough has heavily criticised Greater Manchester Police, Rochdale Council and 15 other agencies involved in the care and protection of vulnerable children.

The publication of the reports, by the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board, has identified failings in key areas including inadequate policies and procedures, the absence of high quality supervision coupled with management failings. Lack of resources and what it describes as ‘unhelpful policies, culture and attitudes that lacked a ... 'quality of practice or understanding of the child’s journey through services and outcomes’.

At a media briefing held yesterday at GMP headquarters in Newton Heath, journalists were told by the Chief Constable, Sir Peter Fahey, that over a one year period, over 4,000 complaints alleging child neglect, cruelty or abuse had been received and admitted that Rochdale had been less able to deal with abuse cases than they were in neighbouring Oldham and Manchester.

Sir Peter went on to explain the great difficulty that the police had in getting victims to come forward and pursue a complaint. Many did not initially see themselves as victims. It was important to see the complaints as victims and not as criminals themselves as had happened in the past.

Although progress was said to have been made, there was a far greater need for the seventeen agencies involved in child protection to work together and share information. The briefing was attended by representatives from the Council, GMP, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Safeguarding Board plus representatives from the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, Pennine Acute and Pennine Care NHS Trust.

The briefing itself was declared a ‘farce’ and a ‘shambles’ by several senior journalists present as, in a departure from normal practice, no copies of the report were available for them to study prior to the question and answer session. Despite assurances being given that copies of the report had been sent to the heads of news organisations the evening before, none of those present, including Rochdale Online, had seen these.

Journalists present also drew attention to the fact that publication of the report was timed for the Friday before many council staff began their Christmas break making it impossible to contact them for comments or to answer questions.

MP Simon Danczuk, who has apparently been able to view the report, said, “My concerns about police lacking the right “soft skills” to win over the trust of victims have been vindicated."

The report acknowledged that the use of untrained CID officers to investigate child sexual exploitation cases was a significant concern. It also acknowledged there was a clear knowledge gap and that “a lack of response to the young people was in part a result of discriminatory attitudes towards them.

“This highlights exactly the concern I raised earlier this year when I said there needed to be a change of culture within GMP in tackling child abuse. I have also said judgments were made against young people on council estates because of their background and class, and this report confirms this. The approach has been completely wrong. Senior police officers keep talking about deploying more resources, but they’re sending out untrained officers who cannot win the trust of victims. We need better leadership on this issue."

He went on to say, “It is disappointing to see the report ‘sneaked out’ on the last Friday before Christmas... “It worries me that the reports show there is evidence of a focus on performance targets, which has meant that child sexual exploitation is not a police priority,” he said. “This crime has done a huge amount of damage to our town and the police have to give it more attention.”

Further evidence to support this lack of police interest is shown in the admission that of 40 child protection conferences for one of the victims there is no record of police attendance or involvement.

The author of the report argues “this represents a serious weakness for the police” and that concerns around police attendance were raised back in 2009.

Speaking for the Crown Prosecution Service, Mr Nazir Afzal confirmed that many more cases of what he described as ‘historical abuse cases’, going back to 2002 were being investigated and that further prosecutions were likely. He also said that that the decision on whether or not to prosecute would no longer be based solely on the victim’s perceived ability to endure the lengthy process which can take several years to come before the courts followed by rigorous cross examination by defence council.

He told the briefing that recent changes in the way these cases were processed now meant that prosecutions were at their highest levels ever and that the CPS was, totally committed to bringing perpetrators to justice.

Talking to Rochdale Online after the briefing, Gladys Rhodes-White, who had been Interim Director of RMBC Children's Services during the preparation of the SCR, said that she believed that although she could never be complacent about issues involving child protection, she felt that much work had been done to improve the safety of children in the town and that RMBC were now being contacted by other local authorities for advice in this area.

Speaking about the high number of reported cases of neglect and abuse, Mrs Rhodes-White pointed out that high levels of social deprivation due to economic factors had undoubtedly had an impact.

Asked about the racial connotations about many of the recent cases, she pointed out that child abuse takes places in all cultures and classes and it would be wrong to target resources on any specific group.

A spokesperson on behalf of the Rochdale borough NHS said: “The reports identify system-wide issues across the NHS and local agencies, which did not sufficiently protect or prevent young people from being sexually exploited. We accept these findings and apologise unreservedly to the young people concerned. We are committed to moving forward and working together to make improvements.

“We have already implemented a number of actions, including undertaking a significant amount of staff training to enable staff to better understand and identify CSE early, and importantly how best to intervene and protect young people from harm.

“Improving how we share information between agencies has also been a key focus. Whilst confidentiality of information is very important, safeguarding of children and young people is paramount. We are reviewing our policies and procedures to ensure that NHS staff can feel confident and well supported to share information with colleagues appropriately as part of a safeguarding investigation.”

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