This month (May 2021), Cumbria Constabulary’s Child Centred Policing Team (CCPT), are running a campaign full of educational information, guidance, and support. The campaign, titled Did you Know? Is focused on providing policing and wellbeing information relevant to parent and carers and young people.
About Cumbria’s Child Centred Policing Team:
The CCPT were implemented by Inspector Gemma Hannah and Detective Chief Inspector James Yallop in 2020, following extensive research into childhood offending, conducted with the support of partner constabularies.
A child centred approach to policing aims to improve the quality of policing for children by acknowledging their differences, recognising their vulnerabilities, and meeting their needs. By doing this we can prevent the unnecessary criminalisation of children, signposting them to relevant support services and providing opportunities for positive interventions.
CCPT officers have been trained in specialist areas including, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma Informed Care.
The teams, who are stationed across the whole of Cumbria, work closely with a network of agencies, charities and partners who provide support services for children.
Since the implementation of the Constabulary’s Child Centred Policing Teams, they have made a great deal of progress:
• The Constabulary is now a Trauma Informed Organisation
• All of Cumbria frontline officers have complete Adverse Childhood Experiences training, looking at the negative effects of adverse childhood trauma
• Enhanced standardised policing procedures for when the victim or suspect is a child
• Worked with partner agencies, educational establishments and charities to provide consistent support to vulnerable young people
• Worked with in excess of 750 young people across Cumbria
• Visit and communicate regularly with educational establishments
• Provide support and work with care settings and partners to improve outcomes and prevent the unnecessary criminalisation of children in care.
You can keep up to date with information on the team and the work they are doing by visiting www.cumbria.police.uk/youth or following the #CCPT on the force’s social media pages.
About Did You Know?
During the month of May, the team will be sharing, youth centric, information via the Constabulary’s social media accounts. Information will be for parents and carers to help them and to share with their young people.
• Violent crime
• Indecent image sharing
• Consent
• Personal safety
• Dispelling common crime myths
• Drugs
• Personal safety
• Crime reporting
Inspector Gemma Hannah, Child Centred Policing Lead said,
“The purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness and provide advice and guidance for some of the issues which may impact on a child’s life.
“The policing of children is an incredibly important part of the service we deliver. Children represent our future society and what we do now will influence the confidence they have in us to make them feel safe, supported and engaged for generations to come.”
“Bringing a child centred policing focus to the force has already created results. We have witnessed many success stories, with young people making positive choices, improving their life chances and wellbeing.
“Being able to dedicate our work to supporting children through the Child Centred Policing Team is hugely rewarding.”
“Anyone under the age of 18 is a child. Their emotional and physical maturity is different from adults and needs to be understood – in particular, distress and trauma manifests itself differently in a child’s behaviour.”
“Our child centred policing teams are focus on the ‘why’ of behaviour and that is very effective; what does life look like for the child, have they suffered any trauma, do they have any unmet needs? From abuse, conditioning, bereavement to fear, if we can understand the ‘why’ and provide the right support plan, then we have a real opportunity to stop negative behaviour, creating a life-changing opportunity. That possibility for every child, from our intervention, is really important to me.”
Cumbria’s Child Centred policing team is part of a national strategy led by the National Police Chief’s Council. The national strategy for the policing of children and young people includes five priority areas:
• Children in care and care leavers
• Youth offending and criminalisation
• Police custody
• Prevention of harm
• Engagement and relationships
The national strategy sets a range of force level actions, which aim to ensure that the vulnerability of children and young people is identified and responded to, to protect them from harm.
To find out more about the national initiative visit: Child Centred Policing – Safe4Me .
To find out more about Cumbria Police’s Child Centred Policing Team visit: www.cumbria.police.uk/youth.
To report a crime contact: Cumbria.police.uk/reportit | Tel 101 | Tel 999 (emergency number).
If you are a young person and would like to support without police involvement please contact: Childline | Childline | Tel 0800 1111.
If you are worried about a young person and would like to support without police involvement please contact: NSPCC | The UK children’s charity | NSPCC | Tel 0808 800 5000.
