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Children’s charities have criticised the lack of priority given to child protection in the first national policing plan, warning that that it will lead to many cases of child abuse going undetected, writes Sally Gillen.

The plan, which sets out the priorities for local forces over the next three years, mentions child protection just once in a single paragraph under the heading of  "other policing responsibilities", between terrorism and roads policing.

It does not feature as a priority area or among the 31 key milestones to be achieved by the police.

Barnardo’s principal policy and practice manager Tink Palmer said that its lack of emphasis would see forces allocating resources to tackling abuse on an ad hoc basis after other crimes had been dealt with.

She also cast doubt on how effective the police would be in tackling the changes around abuse of children outlined in the sexual offences bill without the necessary resources.

NSPCC policy adviser Christine Atkinson said the charity would like to see child protection made a national priority for all police forces, adding that it should not be "left to individual police forces to set their own priorities as this could lead to inconsistent practices across the country".

The plan, which lists four priority areas – anti-social behaviour and disorder; reducing the volume of street, drug-related violent and gun crime; combating serious and organised crime; and increasing the numbers of offences brought to justice – has also attracted criticism from within the police.

Terence Grange, lead officer on child protection for the Association for Chief Police Officers, said the plan identified children as "problems" early on with its emphasis on anti-social behaviour.

"Child protection is tagged on the end," Grange said. "It hasn’t got the proper emphasis, and will be seen as something that needs to be dealt with after about 20 things."

A home office spokesperson said that it regarded child protection as among its highest priorities.

She added that £500,000 had been made available to help the 43 police forces in England and Wales put together child protection strategies.