Police and crime commissioner reassured by CSE progress

John Campion met with the chief constable of West Mercia Police, Pippa Mills

Improvements are being made to the way a police force deals with child sexual exploitation (CSE), its police and crime commissioner (PCC) believes.

John Campion, the PCC for the West Mercia force, said he had met with its chief constable, Pippa Mills, to discuss progress since an independent report into CSE.

It was published in 2022 and 13 of its 47 recommendations were for the force.

Mr Campion said he was "reassured", but more work needed to be done.

The report was the result of an inquiry into sexual exploitation which took place in Telford over the past 40 years and found failings in the way it was dealt with by a number of agencies.

It said West Mercia Police should have set up a specialist team to deal with CSE sooner and the issue "was not afforded sufficient priority".

It also said officers were aware of the issue, but intelligence was not acted upon and there was a culture of not investigating "what was regarded as 'child prostitution'" before 2007.

Hold to account

The report said West Mercia Police "did turn a blind eye, and chose not to see what was obvious".

The chairman of the independent review, Tom Crowther KC, said he believed the lack of police action "emboldened" the offenders and said if the force had "done its most basic job and acted upon these reports of crime" the unnecessary suffering of the victims could have been avoided.

The report also said the PCC could do more to hold the force to account on its handling of CSE.

Mr Campion said he questioned Ms Mills on a range of subjects and was told the force would publish a report on the way partnerships to tackle the issue in June.

He said he was reassured improvements were being made to the "quality of investigations" and that police officer training was being reviewed.

But he said more work needed to be done to train everyone, "particularly in longer serving officers".

Mr Campion said he wanted to reassure people in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire child abuse was being taken seriously.