SURREY Police has been rated “inadequate” in the way it protects the vulnerable, particularly children, by official watchdog Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).

Because of the “serious concern” arising from its inspection of child protection in June, HMIC has asked Surrey Police to take “immediate action” and provide evidence it has made progress in vital improvements by January 31.

Surrey was one of four forces rated “inadequate”, 27 were judged requiring improvement and only 12 were graded as good, in the police watchdog’s reports on child protection and vulnerability, released on Tuesday,

Inspectors reported the force had recently strengthened its strategy for child protection to provide better oversight and scrutiny and improve performance.

But they were concerned to find child abuse investigations being undertaken by insufficiently skilled and knowledgeable staff and a lack of understanding of the signs of child sexual exploitation and sexual abuse on children. They found:–

• Protection of some children who regularly go missing from home was inconsistent

• Early intervention and long-term inter-agency planning was often ineffective

• There was ineffective management of the risk posed by suspects, in some cases of child abuse.

HMIC assessed 31 case files relating to children and found the force’s approach to protecting children was inadequate in over half the cases.

The report stated: “Seventeen of the cases left HMIC with serious concerns that children were not being adequately protected and we requested the force take immediate action to ensure the safety of the children involved. Inspectors were concerned to find cases that displayed a lack of investigative action, unnecessarily long delays and little evidence of any meaningful supervisory oversight.

“Because of the nature of the failings identified in the inspection, HMIC had concerns about the force’s ability to protect children who are at risk in Surrey.”

The county’s police and crime commissioner Kevin Hurley said he was “saddened to say” the report held no surprises for him.

He said: “I have been aware of these failings for many months which is why I immediately took action earlier this year to assess the full scale of the problem.

“I found matters of serious concern in which the force had failed many victims of child sexual exploitation, rape and domestic abuse.

“In June, I required the Chief Constable to prepare a plan for a formal scrutiny panel showing how she would overcome these failings. The plan was unsatisfactory and I declined to accept it.

“Thereafter, I sought immediate help from HMIC asking for their advice and guidance. I then formally wrote to the Chief Constable expressing the gravity of my concern and seeking any further comment she may wish to make on this matter.

“The Chief Constable has now presented me with a good recovery plan. She is aware I require immediate improvement in all key areas to meet the needs of our most vulnerable victims. While I am satisfied current plans are now on track to address the issues I identified and am pleased there has been improvement in the numbers of these crimes that are being solved, I will continue to closely monitor progress.”

Responding to the reports, Surrey Police said it was investing an extra £4.9million to protect the vulnerable and ensure its response to victims of sexual offences, domestic abuse and child abuse continues to improve.

The extra funding will mean an increase of more than 90 officers and staff working in these specialist areas to protect the vulnerable, safeguard the public and ensure the relentless pursuit of offenders.

Surrey Police said it had struggled to keep pace with the dramatic increase in public protection crime over the last three years, with sexual offences up 122 per cent, domestic abuse up 34 per cent and child sex abuse up 82 per cent. It was also responding to increased reports of concern for the welfare of vulnerable people, with reports of missing adults up by 45 per cent and missing children by 43 per cent over three years.

The force acknowledged the service it delivered had been inconsistent in some areas and recognised it needed to improve.

Chief Constable Lynne Owens – who leaves the force in early January – said:“ As the HMIC report recognises, their inspection was a snapshot in time and substantial work had already been underway to improve our capacity and capability to keep the vulnerable safe and bring offenders to justice.

“Our recent announcement of a multi-million pound additional investment in this area demonstrates how serious we are about continuing to make improvements and being able to respond effectively to the continuing increased reports of these types of crimes.

“We want the public to feel confident to report what are some of the most horrific and insidious crimes, and know they will get the support they need from us.

“The increased reporting particularly of non-recent child abuse and sex offences and positive feedback we have had from Surrey’s Outreach services suggests we are making progress, we are not complacent and continue to make significant improvements.

“These changes are already seeing results, for example this year we have already solved over 80 more child sexual exploitation cases than the same period last year. We will continue this progress until we reach our ambitious aim of making Surrey Police a leader in public protection through quality safeguarding, investigations and the effective targeting of perpetrators.”

*Sussex Police was rated “good” overall by HMIC for effectiveness in identifying and protecting the vulnerable, but Hampshire Police “requires improvement”.

HMIC reported Hampshire would have been assessed as “good” were it not for significant weaknesses in the way the risk to some victims of domestic abuse were assessed over the phone instead of face to face.

Sussex was commended for amalgamating its separate child protection, domestic abuse and sexual offence investigations into three integrated Safeguarding Investigation Units (SIUs), covering East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton and Hove back in October.

• For full details on the reportsgo to: www.justiceins pectorates.gov.uk/hmic