Katie Croft

1. 1. investigation of child abuse by inexperienced officer

   “The inquest was told that GMP followed their own guidance which accorded with that of the College of Policing into the level of expertise of the officer allocated to investigate [the deceased]'s allegations. As a result of this the case was not dealt with by an experienced Public Protection or specialist sexual offences trained officer. It was allocated to a probationary police constable with approximately 6 months experience. The officer did not seize the phone which contained key social media contents”

2. 2. use of agency social workers causing incomplete assessments

   “The Local Authority at the time were using a substantial number of agency social workers. As a result the Child and Family Assessment was not completed in accordance with best practice and not shared in accordance with expectations around best practice”

3. 3. inadequate representation at safeguarding meetings

   “At the safeguarding strategy meeting an officer allocated to attend such meetings on behalf of GMP attended rather than an officer allocated to the case”

4. 4. child's voice not fully heard

   “lt was accepted by witnesses for both the Local Authority and GMP that the voice of the child was not fully heard throughout their investigations”

5. 5. lack of school access to assessment information

   “A further concern identified was that there was no mechanism for the school to be formally be aware of information within the Child and Family Assessment”

6. 6. curriculum content triggering vulnerable student

   “On the day [the deceased] committed suicide she had attended a GCSE , English class. The exam board required poetry syllabus was being studied that day. The lesson included a poem where the contextualisation of it included the use of suicide”

Linked reports

No published response was found on judiciary.uk.