New pilot scheme to disclose information about child sexual offenders in Warwickshire
Parents, carers or guardians of children can request information about individuals who have significant access to their children
Parents, carers or guardians of children can request information about individuals who have significant access to their children
New arrangements to give parents, carers or guardians of children in Warwickshire the opportunity to seek information about individuals who have significant access to their children are being piloted for twelve months from Monday 15 September 2008.
Assistant Chief Constable Bill Holland, Director of Protective Services for Warwickshire Police said:
“This pilot scheme allows parents, carers and guardians the opportunity to raise any concerns they may have about individuals who have significant access to their child and seek information about them.
“The routes through which concerns can be raised – at a police station, by telephone or via email – will be visible and accessible. Any parent who has concerns about an individual, perhaps that they may be a child sexual offender, can request information from the police.
“With our partners we will fully investigate every concern raised and, if disclosing information will increase the level of protection for a child or young person, we will share information with the child’s main carer,” added Bill Holland.
Although full checks on named individuals across a number of agencies will take some time, any urgent or life-threatening risks brought to the attention of the police will be dealt with immediately.
Warwickshire Police will always provide immediate advice to anyone raising a child protection concern. This will tell them what actions they can take to minimise the risk of harm to a child regardless of the outcome of checks.
The pilot scheme, co-ordinated by the Home Office, will run for twelve months before being evaluated. While, it is specifically for parents, carers and guardians, any other family member or members of the public who have concerns about the safety of a child can still report the matter to the police. All concerns will be investigated.
However, where it is considered necessary and appropriate to release information about an individual, such information will only be made to the child’s parent, carer or guardian directly.
This ensures that information is given to the person best placed to use it to protect the child from harm. Anyone given personal information is required to give an undertaking that they will not share it with anyone else without permission.
Andy Wade, Assistant Chief Officer, Offender Management for Warwickshire Probation Service said:
“Robust procedures are in place to manage sexual and potentially dangerous offenders in Warwickshire and others who have left prison after completing their sentence for serious crimes.
“All requests for information about named individuals will be discussed by the police, probation and safeguarding children staff in order to determine whether the release of information will provide additional protection.
“The decision to disclose such information will always be taken under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) or safeguarding children procedures.”
Dr Vic Tuck, Warwickshire Safeguarding Children Board, Development Manager said:
“The police will be taking steps to verify all applications to ensure they are genuine. We will ensure that any disclosure of information is made only to those people in a position to directly protect children from harm. Every case will be considered individually and, while disclosure is not guaranteed, the key determining factor will always be whether doing so provides additional help to safeguard children.
“It is also important to remember that we have already disclosed information to parents, carers and guardians of children who were at risk in Warwickshire. This pilot simply makes such procedures more visible and more accessible and we welcome the trial.”
Philip Robson, of Warwickshire Police Authority said:
“The Authority welcomes the fact that Warwickshire Police volunteered to take part in this high-profile pilot, because of the additional protection for children and young people a more visible and accessible system might provide.
“It must be absolutely clear that we are not piloting the American Megan’s Law, which involves the automatic disclosure of sexual offender details to the general public, nor Sarah’s Law, the campaign being run by a national paper, following the tragic death of Sarah Payne, to give parents the right to know if a child sexual offender is living in the area.
“This pilot schemes ensures that appropriate checks and balances remain in place but, where disclosure will assist to protect children, there is a presumption in favour of its managed release.”
Public services in Warwickshire have made great strides in improving public protection in the past two years by focusing on protecting people from the most serious harms, one of which is protecting people against sexual offenders.
The pilot scheme builds on existing processes to proactively manage Registered Sexual Offenders under the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA).
Warwickshire Police will work closely with the Local Safeguarding Children Board, Children’s Services at Warwickshire County Council, the Probation Service and MAPPA, as well as local and national child protection charities.
The 12-month pilot, co-ordinated by the Home Office, is also being trialled in areas of Cambridgeshire, Cleveland and Hampshire and is called the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Pilot.
Contact details
Warwickshire Police has a dedicated public helpline for the scheme - 01926 415899 and email address keepingchildrensafe@warwickshire.police.uk
Applicants can call the dedicated telephone line, send an email or attend their local police station front desk where details of their enquiry will be taken. More information is available at www.warwickshire.police.uk/keepingchildrensafe.
Further information about recognising the signs of child sexual abuse is available by calling the Stop It Now! helpline on 0808 1000 900.
Definition of ‘Significant Access’ : Any person who has unaccompanied, unsupervised or ongoing access to a child for a period of time is considered to have significant access. A babysitter, a private tutor or a new boyfriend or girlfriend could all fall into this category. Cases will be assessed on an individual basis.
For further information please contact Hazel Nicholas, Warwickshire Police Press Office on 01926 415065.
