20. Over the last 20 years there have been significant changes in the provision of support during criminal investigations, with a welcome movement by police forces towards prioritising the needs of victims and survivors.
21. Darren Martland, Acting Deputy Chief Constable of Cheshire Constabulary, told the Inquiry about a significant cultural change in policing. He explained that when he started his policing career in the early 1990s there was a focus on investigations and the conviction of offenders, with a lower emphasis on the care and support of victims. Any arrangements with social services, counselling organisations and therapeutic organisations were much more informal than is presently the case. He told us that victims are now put at the forefront of the investigation and that victim support and safeguarding is now a primary concern.[1]
22. This trend towards greater focus on the support of victims and survivors was evident in the earlier police investigations covered by the case studies. A number of these started before the provision of support was regulated by the Victims’ Code, which first came into effect in 2006 and is explained later in this section.
22.1. Evidence from North Wales Police was that policing culture prior to Operation Pallial,[2] which began in 2012, focused on evidential outcomes and not primarily on victim support and wellbeing.[3] There was some limited guidance in place. A staff briefing for an investigation in 1991 reportedly told staff to approach victims in a confidential manner, provide details of an NSPCC helpline and not pursue them overzealously to engage with the enquiry.[4] Strategies, such as they existed at the time, focused simply on supporting the victim to court.[5] Police would have relied on social services to provide support for the welfare of victims.[6] Neill Anderson, Temporary Assistant Chief Constable of North Wales Police, explained that the situation nationally was similar, as there was very little or no victim care contact in the senior investigating officer programme in the 1980s and 1990s.[7]
22.2. In the Operation Mapperton investigation into abuse at St Leonard’s,[8] the issue of assistance to victims and survivors was a matter of concern for Detective Inspector Daniel O’Malley, the senior investigating officer, from early on in the investigation.[9] He assigned individual officers to complainants from the outset so as to avoid the negative experience of seeing multiple officers throughout the investigation and prosecution process.[10] He also asked the Crown Prosecution Service for guidance on the provision of counselling and psychiatric support for the victims and survivors called as witnesses.[11]
22.3. Tower Hamlets Social Services also arranged and funded a system of support for victims and survivors of St Leonard’s. This was provided independently by the Tavistock Clinic in London.[12] The scheme was put in place to support witnesses in the criminal trials, and a number of claimants in the civil process also accessed its services.[13] Tracey Storey said that one client particularly benefited from it.[14] A review by the Tavistock Clinic reported their view that some patients really benefited from the service.[15] Richard Baldwin, the present Divisional Director for Children’s Social Care, London Borough Council of Tower Hamlets, told the Inquiry that he considered the arrangement between Tower Hamlets and the Tavistock Clinic to support survivors was “very forward thinking”.[16]
22.4. Devon and Cornwall Police records state that Operation Lentisk,[17] the investigation that covered abuse at Forde Park, had to create a system of witness care and support that was progressed by the senior investigating officer and two victim liaison officers. A network of support was used, with services provided by, among others, social services, counsellors, community psychiatric nurses, GPs, psychologists, prison liaison officers and the NSPCC. Operation Lentisk also required minimum qualifications for counsellors.[18]
23. Before the Victims’ Code, there was wide variation in practice in the provision of support between police forces investigating crimes. The provision of support could depend on decisions made by the individual police officers involved.
24. More recently, there have been efforts to ensure that the support needs of victims and survivors are provided for consistently across the criminal justice system. The minimum standards for services that must be provided to victims of crime in England and Wales are now set out in the Victims’ Code, which applies to a range of organisations, including Police and Crime Commissioners and all police forces in England and Wales.[19] The Victims’ Code identifies the kind of support that a victim of crime can expect, including access to information on the range of services available.[20] Victims of child sexual abuse fall within the definition of victims of the most serious crime and of both vulnerable and intimidated victims. They therefore have enhanced entitlements under the Victims’ Code, in respect both of support during the criminal process and the arrangements for giving evidence.[21]
25. From first contact with police, victims of crime must be offered information on where and how to get advice or support, including access to medical support and any specialist services (such as psychological support).[22] Victim support services are defined as “organisations providing emotional and practical support services to victims of crime”.[23] Victims of sexual offences are entitled to be referred to a specialist organisation where appropriate and available, and to receive information on pre-trial therapy and counselling, also where appropriate.[24] Police must seek explicit consent from victims of sexual offences before sending their details to victim support services.[25]
26. Detective Chief Superintendent Craig Turner, Operational Command Unit Commander for the Child Abuse Sexual Offences Command of the Metropolitan Police, told us that an adult alleging that they were abused as a child would be offered support from their initial contact with police and throughout the investigation.[26]
27. The Victims’ Code requires police to conduct an assessment of needs and vulnerability.[27] Melissa Case explained that this had two aspects: first, asking what a person needs to help them cope with, and recover from, the criminal injury they have suffered; second, asking what a person needs to cope with the criminal process itself.[28] In terms of the ‘cope and recover’ aspect of support, she identified that the Ministry of Justice would expect to see an assessment of what a victim of crime needs and signposting to specialist services, rape support and others, if they had not already been signposted there. They might also be sent to Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) if it was a recent incident of sexual abuse.[29]
28. There is flexibility in how the Victims’ Code is applied. Assistant Chief Constable Emma Barnett, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for victims and witnesses, explained that provision and funding of victim support services are arranged by local Police and Crime Commissioners and described a “whole catalogue … of support services in a local area”.[30]
29. The variation in provision of support services by forces was explained to us by officers[31] from the investigating forces involved in the case studies.
29.1. Support services within Operation Pallial are, in general terms, provided by the National Crime Agency.[32] The investigation entered into partnership arrangements with social services and a local authority, and appointed social workers to assist with finding documents and also signposting services for support.[33] Where a victim and survivor needed or wanted counselling support, the initial interviewing officer was responsible for making a counselling referral to a dedicated social worker.[34] The officer interviewing the victim and survivor was also the victim care officer, and would be their long-term point of contact after the interview.[35]
29.2. Assistant Chief Constable Deborah Marsden of Devon and Cornwall Police informed us that, since 2015, a Victim Care Unit has existed to provide a gateway to access multiple services commissioned by the Police and Crime Commissioner or voluntary services. Further, victims of sexual offences will be allocated a sexual offences liaison officer who performs both an investigative and support function, and they may also be allocated an independent sexual violence adviser employed by a SARC.[36]
29.3. Operation Midday, the investigation into abuse at Stanhope Castle, has a victim strategy drafted by the senior investigating officer. It is designed to show all staff the tone and support to be offered to victims throughout.[37] Under the strategy, “the needs of the Victim will come above anything else”. It requires that an Adult Abuse Investigation Team will offer support and counselling during their initial meeting with a victim or witness. All victims are to be provided with the details of the NSPCC for support, and referred to services where appropriate. If support is needed over and above that which can be provided by a victim’s GP, then the strategy requires that a referral should be made to the Victim Suite which will coordinate support services.[38]
30. The Victims’ Code is under review by the government. The Victims Strategy, published in September 2018, aims to set out the government’s intention to update, make more accessible and increase awareness of the Victims’ Code.[39] Melissa Case said that, although there was a statutory code in place through the Victims’ Code, there is not a robust framework for compliance with that Code. She said: “it’s a code we might characterise as wanting people to abide by the spirit of it but having no means of enforcing that or even checking what’s happening”.[40]
30.1. As noted in Part D, Melissa Case told us that awareness of the Victims’ Code is low and it is not “terribly accessible” for a layperson.[41] She observed that our investigation had heard evidence from police forces that awareness of the needs assessment or its provision is not what it should be. She told us that the Ministry of Justice is working with the College of Policing and others on guidance about the questioning of victims by police, including the way in which they can signpost specialist services.[42]
30.2. Melissa Case also described the challenges posed by the fragmented commissioning of care, with services commissioned by various bodies such as Police and Crime Commissioners, NHS England and the Ministry of Justice.[43] She observed that victims are not provided with a joined-up experience,[44] and described the risk of victims going through the system “on a wild goose chase from agency or service to service”.[45]
30.3. HM Government acknowledges that victims may not always receive the entitlements contained in the Victims’ Code and also that there is a lack of data to evidence where the key issues are.[46] Melissa Case also explained that the Ministry of Justice considers that the monitoring of statutory agencies meeting the Code should be via the Police and Crime Commissioners, as they have local oversight of the criminal justice system. Data from those Commissioners is received by the Criminal Justice Board, whose members include the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Justice.[47]