No children strip-searched in Hackney in past 14 months - report

Protests were held over the teenager's treatment

No children were strip-searched in Hackney in the past 14 months, says a report, after it emerged last year racism was "likely" to have been a factor in the strip-search of a girl.

The update came as part of a report on Child Q, who was strip-searched in school in the London borough in 2020.

"Not a single child" was strip-searched in 14 months, says independent child safeguarding commissioner, Jim Gamble.

He added there had been a 45% reduction in the searches in London.

Following the Child Q incident, according to Met Police figures that were analysed by the children's commissioner for England, it was revealed that 650 children were strip-searched by police in London between 2018 and 2020.

Mr Gamble, from the City and Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership, said engagement was needed with communities.

He was speaking as his updated report on the Child Q scandal was published on Tuesday.

During the incident in December 2020, Child Q, a 15-year-old black girl, was taken out of an exam to the school's medical room and strip-searched by two female Met police officers, who were looking for cannabis, while teachers remained outside.

No other adult was present, her parents were not contacted, and no drugs were found.

The girl's intimate body parts were exposed and she was made to take off her sanitary towel, according to a review.

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• Schoolgirl strip-search 'not isolated issue'

The safeguarding report, published in March 2022, found that the search was unjustified, and that racism was "likely" to have been a factor in the incident - sparking protests over the student's treatment.

Mr Gamble has now issued a further 13 recommendations, including that the police consider arresting children if they feel a "more intimate search exposing body parts" is necessary, so it can be carried out at a police station.

'Weight on her shoulders'

"Strip-searches should never take place in schools," he stressed.

He added what the teenage pupil had experienced remained "a weight on her shoulders".

"Child Q is still asking herself, 'Why was it me?'" Mr Gamble said.

He said since the scandal had come to light in March 2022, there was "limited" evidence of significant positive impact on the ground.

But he added that the fact no children in Hackney had been subjected to a strip-search in 14 months was "an immediate positive".

Scotland Yard apologised and said the strip-search at the girl's school in 2020 without another adult present "should never have happened".

Protests were held in London following reports about Child Q

Responding to the update, Hackney Council says it recognises that the report "concludes that concerns about safeguarding, racism and disproportionality extend to all statutory services, and that all bodies and organisations need to work together in a coordinated way to embed change".

Det Ch Sup James Conway, who leads policing in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, said: "The report correctly identifies the need for a child-centred approach and the crucial need for police to be careful and proportionate in the use of all of our powers.

"The experience of Child Q should never have happened and I am sorry for the trauma that we caused her, and I am also sorry it took an event like this to highlight that we were overusing this type of strip-search on children."

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