North Yorkshire Police leaving children at risk "unnecessarily"- report
A new report has called on the force to make further improvements
A watchdog has called on North Yorkshire Police to make improvements in the way it handles cases involving children.
The report, from His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, said of 33 investigations it looked at, 14 were inadequate.
It found managers weren't making the best use of data to allocate resources to deal with problems quickly.
The inspectorate also raised concerns about the force's digital forensic unit, which looks at cases like online abuse, saying delays in investigations meant children remained at risk unnecessarily.
It follows a similar report in 2021, which recommended 10 areas of improvement the force could make.
Inspectors recognised some progress has been made, including in staff training, but are now urging the force to invest more money into digital systems.
Roy Wilsher, from HMICFRS, said: "What's letting North Yorkshire down more than anything is their investment in IT, their performance management, their planning.
"It's process things rather than the people, and I'm sure once they get those things right, they'll improve further more."
Assistant Chief Constable Scott Bisset, North Yorkshire Police’s lead for vulnerability, said: “We fully accept the findings of the Inspectorate.
“Throughout the past year we have worked across all the areas that HMICFRS previously highlighted for improvement, and while our action plan has not been fully delivered we have made progress in all areas.
"Our objective is to ensure that the improvements we put in place to better protect vulnerable children are truly embedded and sustainable in the long term."
The force said it had spent £400,000 on reducing backlogs in the digital forensics unit, and has also invested £1.17 million to increase specialist roles in the central safeguarding team.
A general inspection of the force will be carried out at the end of the year.