North Yorkshire Police pledge to do more to protect young people from exploitation
It's after the National Child Protection Inspection found some responses by the force were "poor"
North Yorkshire Police say they're determined to prevent more children from harm, after a report found their investigations into exploitation were poor.
The National Child Protection Inspection in November 2021 found the force’s child protection arrangements weren't consistently providing a good enough response to effectively safeguard children.
It also found the standard of investigations in child protection cases, such as missing children or child sexual exploitation, was poor.
Of the 73 cases that were examined by the National Child Protection Inspection, 13 cases were seen as good, 34 cases needed improvement and 26 cases were seen as inadequate.
Lisa Winward, chief constable at North Yorkshire Police, has apologised to all those who feel let down by the force at a North Yorkshire scrutiny meeting.
She said:
"I'd like to reiterate my sincere apologies to any child or any family that feel they haven't received that high standard of service that we would want as a police service to provide in such important circumstances.
"We are committed as a service to the upmost importance of protecting children and preventing harm to their children in the first place and unfortunately if harm has happened, the prevent any further harm and to investigate and support those children and young people.
"This is not about responding to an inspection to tick a box and get a better outcome. Our purpose as a public service is to keep our community safe and more importantly to prevent them from coming to harm in the first place.
"If we can prevent that harm from happening that has to be a better outcome for our communities. Yes we want to deliver an exemplary service when something bad happens but if we can stop it happening in the first place and protect those communities, that it so important to us.
"To prevent that harm we need to know what is going on in our communities. We are disappointed in the report and we can see that it might have knocked the trust and confidence in our service but we need the intelligence and information to put the services in the right places to prevent that harm, so I would urge anyone with information to reach out to us.