NORTH Yorkshire Police’s investigations of child protection cases - including missing children and child sexual exploitation - are ‘poor’ and need to improve.

So says Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) in a critical new report published today.

The report says the force is not effectively safeguarding children in the region and improvements are needed.

It says officers and staff working on child protection are committed and dedicated, while often working in difficult circumstances but the standard of investigations is poor.

The inspectorate also found that North Yorkshire Police doesn’t prioritise safeguarding and child protection highly enough.

It said specific areas for the force to improve included:

*Speaking to children, recording their behaviour and demeanour, listening to their concerns and views, and using that information to make decisions about their welfare;

*Supervising investigations to make sure the force pursues opportunities and avoids delaying cases unnecessarily

*Promptly sharing information with safeguarding partners.

Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke said the force’s senior leaders wanted to protect children and give them better outcomes and the inspectorate found some good examples of the force protecting children in need of help.

“But in too many cases, practice is inconsistent,” he said.

“Officers don’t always share information quickly enough with safeguarding partners. We also found that supervisors don’t oversee investigations well enough, mainly because they lack the training, skills and experience.

“The force knows it needs to do more to help its officers better understand how to safeguard children.”

He said the inspectorate had made a series of recommendations which, if acted on, would help improve outcomes for children.

Chief Constable Lisa Winward said it was 'extremely disappointing' that while the Inspectorate found examples of good practice, it also found a lack of consistency in the force's treatment of children.

“We fully accept the findings of the Inspectorate and I offer my deepest apologies to any child that we have let down or could have protected more effectively," she said.

"We haven’t always got it right and we know that is not good enough for the children of North Yorkshire."

She said the force had been 'working at a pace' to address the issues identified in the report and its plan for improvement had already been submitted to the Inspectorate.

“We welcome the recognition by the Inspectorate that our officers and staff, who manage child abuse investigations, are committed and dedicated despite working in difficult circumstances.

“I can assure all our communities that we absolutely recognise that protecting children is one of the most important things that we do.

"We are working to ensure that we have the right systems and processes in place to support our officers and staff to protect and safeguard every child.

“Doing the right thing for the children in our county requires us to work closely with our partners in health and across our councils."