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The Metropolitan Police is changing the name of its child abuse unit because it is struggling to recruit good quality staff, it was alleged last week, writes Amy Taylor.

The Met has confirmed that its Child Protection Command will change its name to the Child Abuse Investigation Command in September 2004 but denies that it is to tackle recruitment problems.

However, speaking at a conference on the Children Bill last week, Ian Angus, Met detective inspector on the multi-agency London Child Protection Committee, said the change had been fuelled by staffing problems because some officers are under the impression that it is a protection focused unit rather than investigative.

“That’s [child abuse] our core business. It’s really an internal marketing issue - we want to change the perception about what our core business is,” he added.

Detective chief superintendent, Peter Spindler, head of the Command said the name change was to “better define” what it did. “We don’t actually protect children we investigate the crimes against them.”

He denied the command was having difficulties recruiting but said he hoped the name change would improve its image and increase recruitment.