Agenda item

Consideration was given to a report submitted by the Police and Crime Commissioner detailing the findings of the independent review by Professor John Drew in respect of South Yorkshire Police’s response to child sexual exploitation (CSE). The Commissioner also set out his response to the review findings.

It was noted that the review had been announced in March 2015 and the following areas for review were identified:

1)    Has the police response to safeguarding children and young people from child sexual exploitation been adequate in the past?

2)    Has South Yorkshire Police (SYP) understood and acted on the findings of and recommendations in previous reports and inspections, in the media and during parliamentary questioning?

3)    Is the police response to safeguarding children and young people from child sexual exploitation adequate now?

It was reported that Professor Drew’s overall judgement was that the police response to safeguarding children and young people from child sexual exploitation in the past was inadequate, especially in Rotherham where he simply repeated the criticisms already made in the Jay and Casey reports. Professor Drew was satisfied that South Yorkshire Police had understood and acted both on the general direction of previous criticism and also on most of the specific recommendations of previous scrutiny activity of its performance. Furthermore, Professor Drew believed that the police response to safeguarding children and young people from child sexual exploitation was now adequate. Indeed, it was noted that some recent work undertaken by South Yorkshire Police appeared to be of high quality. 

Panel Members noted the eleven recommendations from Professor Drew and the response of both the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Chief Constable to the review. The Panel welcomed the Commissioner’s commitment to continuously hold South Yorkshire Police to account in delivering on the review’s recommendations.

Discussions range from the need to continue rigorous scrutiny of South Yorkshire Police and local authorities to how the nature of CSE was moving from the streets to an online problem. Reference was made to the review of licensing policies in the authorities across South Yorkshire and the introduction of mandatory training on identifying CSE.

In view of the recent changes in personnel at the top of South Yorkshire Police, the Panel sought assurances that recommendation 9, in respect of a standard operating procedure for the investigation of CSE, had been progressed. The Police and Crime Commissioner indicated that the Interim Chief Constable had been tasked with reviewing this, as part of a thorough review of practices and operations at South Yorkshire Police.

In response to further questioning, the Police and Crime Commissioner explained that a lot of work was ongoing within South Yorkshire Police to raise consciousness of CSE and to improve the sharing of intelligence with other public bodies, such as local authorities.

The Panel recommended that the Police and Crime Commissioner submit reports providing updates on progress on a regular basis in respect of the implementation of the recommendations from the Drew Report.

Resolved:-

1.    That the Drew Report and response of the Police and Crime Commissioner be received.

2.    That the Police and Crime Commissioner be requested to provide update reports on the implementation of the recommendations arising from the Drew Report to future meetings of the Panel.