Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps police forces are taking to develop primary prevention strategies to reduce child maltreatment; and what discussions police forces have had with other services on how to develop those strategies.

A. ‘Working together to safeguard children’ sets out the statutory duty for all agencies, including the police, to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Police forces engage with relevant partners and services at a local level to fulfil this duty.

On a national level, Chief Constable Simon Bailey, the National Policing lead for Child Protection and Abuse Investigation, has published a National Child Safeguarding Action Plan which sets out a comprehensive set of actions for the police to tackle all forms of child sexual abuse and neglect including child maltreatment. The action plan has a strong emphasis on the importance of working with partners to ensure early identification of child maltreatment; better data collection and information sharing; promotion of best practice and learning; and prevention of re-victimisation.

Additionally the National Multi Agency Child Neglect Strategic Work Group, which includes senior representatives from the police, Department for Education, Public Health England, and Ministry of Justice, has published guidance to support practitioners, including the police, who come into contact with children at risk of maltreatment.