Children in care homes being 'excessively criminalised'
A new report claims staff are resorting to calling the police. Cleveland Police were called out 2704 times in three years.
A new report claims children living in care homes are being criminalised because they're not getting the support they need.
The Howard League for Penal Reform's report found children in care homes are being criminalised at far higher rates than other children.
They suggest a 'systematic problem' across England and Wales that leads staff to resort to the police.
The report, called Criminal Care: Children's homes and criminalising children, found children aged 13 to 15 in care homes are twenty times more likely to take up crime.
Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “These children have been taken into care because they are in dire need and their parents cannot, or will not, look after them. “They are wonderful young people who have had a really bad start in life. They deserve every chance to flourish. “Private companies, charities and local authorities that are paid a fortune by the taxpayer should give these children what they need and deserve.”
The Howard League wrote to every police force in the region, including Cleveland Police, asking how many times they've been called out to care homes in the last three years.
Cleveland Police were called out 2704 times to children's care homes since 2012, working out at 2 or 3 calls a day.
Superintendent Alison Jackson said: "Any calls to care homes we do treat seriously and we do go out to because part of our primary responsbility is to keep people safe and that includes young people in our community.
"At the end of the day, we are a public service, sometimes the public services of last resort.
"People call us when they need us because they know that they will get a response from us.
"The majority of calls we get from care homes are to report children missing or absent.
"Yes we do get some where there are some criminal behaviour and if we need to take action, then there's that that we need to do."
Mark Braithwaite, from Middlesbrough Children Safeguarding Board, said: "It's everybody's job to try and look after our children and young people and keep them out of the criminal justice system.
"The minute anybody gets a criminal record, their life choices are going to be limited as a consequence.
"There's a lot of time and energy by frontline staff in the care community here looking at whether the police need to be called in the first place.
"If they don't, don't call them.
"If it can be dealt with without bringing that person into the criminal justice system then it's objective achieved."