SURREY Police has made good progress but “still has work to do” after being graded inadequate last December at protecting the most vulnerable members of the community.

Official watchdog Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) reported last December it had “significant concerns” about the capability and capacity of Surrey Police to safeguard vulnerable people, including child abuse victims and missing children, and investigate crimes committed against them.

Following a re-examination to see if the force had improved in April, HMIC reported last week that the force was making progress in its management of vulnerability – but further work was needed. It found:–

• Good progress to improve child abuse investigations by allocating more staff to public protection roles and ensuring good governance and audit processes so staff have lower caseloads and better supervision

• Improvement in handling cases of child sexual exploitation and provision of staff training and raised awareness

• Improvement in missing person investigations with staff understanding importance of assessing the risk thoroughly and taking safeguarding action, however further work was needed to understand the scale of the problem

• No monitoring of compliance with the code of practice for victims of crime, and needed to ensure victims were receiving the service they should expect.

• Improvement in training so staff in the control room and contact centre now have a better understanding of how to assess risk.

Inspector Zoë Billingham said: “Our inspection in 2015 raised a number of concerns about how Surrey Police approached protecting vulnerable victims.

“I am pleased to say that since this inspection, Surrey Police have shown a very strong commitment to improving this vital area of policing.

“The force has accepted our recommendations and is acting on all of them. There are undoubtedly areas that need further work.

“The force recognises this and I am pleased to see there are plans in place designed to secure further improvements.

“During the revisit, we were told about several new initiatives that had started or were about to start.

“The force needs to ensure it achieves these in order to continue to improve the service it provides to vulnerable victims.

“We look forward to seeing further progress during our effectiveness inspection in autumn 2016.”

Responding, Surrey Chief Constable Nick Ephgrave said: “HMIC’s previous findings have been a concerning part of our recent history because despite the dedication of our staff, ultimately, we were not protecting the vulnerable as well as we needed to. I’m really pleased the inspectors have found all our significant public protection improvement work and investment over the last year, is now really starting to see results.

“This is really encouraging because it means we are making the county safer and delivering a better service to the people who most need us. However we aren’t complacent and have always said we’re in this for the long haul.

“We have more progress we still want to make and will continue the drive and improvements that are starting to deliver results.”

Surrey’s new police and crime commissioner David Munro said: “I am pleased with the report which is realistically as good as I could have expected. There is still a way to go, but I am confident that the measures put in place will bring about continued improvement.

“I congratulate Surrey Police in getting this far in a short period of time and the progress reflects the hard work and considerable effort of individuals and teams to put things right.

“As we move to the future this is a priority area for me and I want to see improvement embedded within Surrey Police and to ensure vulnerable victims have a greater voice.

“I am also mindful that we balance resources and that other areas of policing delivery don’t suffer while Surrey Police quite rightly focus on this area for improvement.”

• The full report can be seen at www.justiceinspect orates.gov.uk/hmic/