New child protection systems will create tension within police, senior officer warns

A senior police officer has raised doubts about police involvement
in structural changes outlined in the Children Bill,
writes Sally Gillen.

Detective superintendent Chris Bourlet, deputy head of child
protection at Scotland Yard, told a child protection conference in
London today that there were “tensions” within policing about the
way that child protection should be delivered.

Following Lord Laming’s report into the death of Victoria Climbie,
which made scathing criticisms of the police, child protection has
become a specialist area within the metropolitan police, meaning
all 32 London boroughs are guided centrally.

But Bourlet said in other areas of the country child protection was
still organised locally, and both specialist and local models would
need to interact with children’s trusts. This would be a
“complicated” process, he added.

“I am concerned about how the Local Safeguarding Children Boards
will hold the police to account when it is the chief constable who
reports to the Home Office,” Bourlet said.