SURREY Police has improved how it protects vulnerable victims following an ‘inadequate’ rating last December, but “still has work to do” according to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).

The force was heavily criticised by the government inspectorate in December 2015 for the way it handles child abuse and missing people inquiries - and though “good progress” was reported following HMIC’s latest inspection in April, it added the problem of missing children was still not fully understood.

During the inspection, HMIC found that the force:

• has made good progress to improve its child abuse investigations by allocating more staff to public protection roles and ensuring it has good governance and audit processes in place so staff have lower caseloads and better supervision;

• has improved how it deals with cases of child sexual exploitation and provided training to and raised awareness of all staff;

• has improved its missing person investigations with staff understanding the importance of assessing the risk thoroughly and taking appropriate safeguarding action, however further work is needed to understand the scale of the problem;

• does not monitor its compliance with the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime, and needs to ensure that victims are receiving the service they should expect in line with the requirements outlined within the Code; and

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

HM Inspector Zoe 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 has 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.

“Surrey Police is making good progress in achieving the necessary improvements. HMIC has always said that the force is on a journey and although it is not there yet, the signs of improvement are evident and encouraging.

“The force has improved its missing person investigations; however more work is required if it is to fully understand the nature and scale of this issue across the county. Most staff now understand that assessing and dealing with vulnerable people, especially children, is a force priority.

“The force has worked hard to secure these improvements; we found strong leadership on the part of the chief officer team to refocus the force on protecting the most vulnerable and action has been taken to invest additional resources in specialist detectives. Thanks to additional training, officers and staff have a better understanding, so are better placed to take the right action to protect the most vulnerable members of the community.

“There are undoubtedly areas that need further work. The force recognises this and I am pleased to see that 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 that 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.”

Surrey Police 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 that the inspectors have found that 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.”

David Munro, Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, added: “I am pleased with this 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 and partners 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 that 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.

“Partnership work to protect victims of crime and to help them move forward in their lives following abuse is crucial and we need to promote joint working and continuous improvement.”

The full report can be found online at www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic