Two reports from a programme of research, 'Children and Policing in England and Wales: Adopting a Child First Approach' have been published drawing together the evidence and identify opportunities to strengthen child-centred approaches across policing.
Rob Street, Director of Justice at the Nuffield Foundation, said: "This comprehensive new research provides vital evidence on how children experience contact with the police. It highlights the importance of approaches that recognise children's needs, prioritise their welfare, rights and outcomes, and sets out important recommendations to ensure that systems designed for adults are adapted to better support young people."
Rob Street, Director of Justice at the Nuffield Foundation
The work is co-led by Dr Miranda Bevan, Lecturer in Law at King's College London and Dr Vicky Kemp, Principal Research Fellow and quantitative analyst Dr Hope Kent, both of the University of Nottingham.
Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, and working collaboratively with four police forces, Greater Manchester Police, the Metropolitan Police, Surrey Police and South Wales Police, they examined how policing approaches can be changed to make them more child-centred, piloted and evaluated. The recommendations in the reports are therefore tried and tested, and practically implementable.
The research involved extensive observations of frontline and police custody practices, interviews with police officers, custody staff, lawyers, partner agencies and children, as well as analysis of police custody record data. The findings reveal a policing workforce that is often deeply committed to safeguarding children and securing positive outcomes for them, but which frequently operates without sufficient child-specific training, guidance and support.
The report highlights concerns about the impact of police custody on children, finding that detention can be a difficult and potentially damaging experience. One young person said that all children who are detained in the police station for any length of time should be given therapy, so profound is the impact of the experience. In the last year 58, 000 children were arrested and detained by the police, the equivalent of 160 children every day. The quantitative analysis indicates that only a third of those children will be charged or receive an out-of-court resolution. For many a highly traumatic experience leads to nothing - no justice outcome but no support either. The report proposes reforms of the legal framework to ensure that police custody is only used where necessary and for the shortest appropriate period.
One significant finding highlights that a high level of police contact with children arises from welfare-related issues rather than criminal behaviour. The report argues that this underlines the importance of effective multi-agency responses and stronger collaboration between policing, children's services, health and other partners to help reduce the unnecessary criminalisation of children, while still enabling police to respond effectively to incidents and concerns.
Dr Vicky Kemp, of the University of Nottingham's School of Law, said: "It is hard to overstate the importance of this work. For the vast majority of children, engagement with the police is the limit of their experience of the youth justice system. The guiding principles of that system - treating children as children, adjusting to meet their needs and capacities, and diverting them from the criminal justice process whenever appropriate - must shape not just the later stages of the process, but police interactions with children as well."
"Children's voices are central to this research and highlight the exclusionary impact of policing approaches that do not treat them as children first, listening to them and enabling them to understand what is happening and why. As one child participant explained police should: "Approach us like we are people instead of criminals straight away… give us more explanation about what they are doing.'"
Dr Miranda Bevan of King's College London, added: "All the forces involved have been genuinely and highly committed to improving the way they interact with children. The research revealed that children are predominantly policed by young-in-service officers with little, if any, child-specific training. The pilots have shown that where officers are given the tools, the training, and the institutional backing to do things differently, the results are striking."
The project has already influenced practice in participating police forces. Several forces have introduced or piloted measures designed to reduce children's detention in custody and strengthen child-centred decision-making. Among the most notable developments is the adoption of a recommendation first set out in the project's 2023 report for an initial 12-hour maximum detention period for children, replacing the standard 24-hour period. Four police forces have now implemented this approach, while a number of others are actively considering its introduction.
The report concludes that embedding Child First principles more consistently across policing has the potential to improve outcomes for children, support frontline decision-making and ensure that police responses are both effective and proportionate. Researchers hope the findings will contribute to the government's programme of reform of the youth justice system set out in the White Paper Cutting Youth Crime. Changing Young Lives and to ongoing national discussions about how policing can better recognise children's developmental needs, support safeguarding objectives and minimise unnecessary contact with the criminal justice system.
