Child Protection

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/25/002914/I

 Version Date: 11/03/2025

The Performance Analysis Department and Public Protection Unit have provided the following information.

1)    From 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024 - How many instances have there been of a child being taken into Police Protection in your force?

72

2)    For each instance, please provide the length of time in hours that the child remained in Police Protection.

Information not held. This information is not recorded.

3) We are also keen to understand if any children have been subject to multiple instances of Police Protection over the stated period. As such, from the 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024 how many individual children have been subject to Police Protection? For each child, please tell us the number of times they were subject to police protection in the given period

81 children were subject to police protection.

4 of these children were subject to police protection twice.

4)    What are the current arrangements, within your force, to appropriately accommodate a child under Police Protection? For example, where do children sleep or eat when at the Police station awaiting suitable accommodation.

Dorset Police recognises that protection is a potentially significant and traumatic event in the life of a child. Therefore, unless exceptional reasons exist officers must speak with both children's social care and an Inspector to assess whether there are alternative less intrusive options that can be utilized first prior to taking out Police protection powers. This may include accepting the assessment of risk of partners to mitigate risk through alternative means to police protection. Officers must have an active discussion with children’s social care and Inspectors to assess these options and mitigate risk and escalate conversations where necessary.

The Safeguarding Referral Unit is then informed as soon as possible after those powers have been exercised so that a referral can be made to Children’s Social Care or, if out of hours, the investigating officer must ensure that out-of-hours Emergency Social Care is contacted immediately, and accommodation sought.

Police powers of protection allow for a child to be removed to a safe place or to prevent the removal from a safe place for up to 72 hours. The safe place is normally accommodation as directed by Children’s Social Care but whether this is local authority accommodation or an approved extended family member, the child will be accommodated at the address under the police protection power. Both Police and CSC will work together to ensure that accommodation is appropriate and that the child’s needs are met, including access to food. The 72-hour police protection period gives Children’s Social Care the opportunity to either apply for an Emergency Protection Order (EPO) Section 44 of the Children Act 1989 or to safeguard the child by other means e.g. being accommodated elsewhere with the parents’ consent. It is therefore imperative that children’s social services are informed immediately after a child has been taken into police protection so that the next steps can be considered at the earliest opportunity given the 72-hour time limit.