AYJ’s Interim CEO Saqib Deshmukh reflects on the Casey Review’s findings

In response to the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met police officer and other deeply troubling incidents, the Metropolitan Police Service (the Met) appointed Baroness Louise Casey to lead an independent review of its culture and standards of behaviour.

“The Casey Review revealed what many of us already suspected: the Met police is dysfunctional, and harbours a culture in which racism, misogyny and homophobia are rife. Whilst the Review contained little reference to children and young people specifically, we know that trust and confidence amongst this group towards the police - particularly children who are Black or racially minoritised – is low. The report raises that “despite startling findings” from the 2016 HMIC report into child protection and the Metropilitcan police, its recommendations “continue not to be addressed”.

The Review examined the Met's approach to community engagement, and the work of the IAG's, Safer Neighbourhoods Teams and the 'menu' of interventions (many of which are aimed at children and young people). Rightfully, it also highlights that very little of these activities build trust and confidence amongst the public -  but there is no analysis focusing on why this is needed.

There was an absence of the voices of children and young people in the report, and any review of culture and standards needs to be fully inclusive; especially in the context of London, which is a particularly young city (p37). Overall we concur with the reviews findings that the Met are continuing to be unwilling to interrogate how they treat black children and issues to do with “race, desensitisation and systemic bias.”

We agree wholeheartedly with the review’s recommendation to create an overarching children’s strategy to address “long-standing concerns about its child protection and safeguarding practices”. Casey recognises the significance of how children and young people are often treated as suspects, when they can in fact be also be victims in contexts relating to criminal and sexual exploitation. The call for providing adultification training for all officers who work with children is important. However, it’s also vital that police who are working in child protection are properly trained in safeguarding practice, as the report estimates that “50% of its child abuse officers had not attended the advanced safeguarding course.” We suggest that in the absence of proper training records and continued oversight of this process, the tactic of simply giving more training to police officers should be rethought.

The recent HMICFRS (His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services) inspection referenced in the Casey Review confirmed that key issues in child protection still have not been addressed. The Casey Review highlights that overall there remains “a lack of specialism, lack of training and under resourcing”. I know from my recent work in Hackney that it was difficult to even have a meeting with the senior police officer who had a safeguarding responsibility.”

Issues related to policing will be further explored in the AYJ’s policy influencing priorities ‘Rethinking Policing’ and ‘Reframing Violence’. Our project studying the experiences of young people in transitioning into the adult justice system will also focus on the themes of racial disparity, and safeguarding and vulnerability.