Putting a Safeguarding perspective on the police practice of Stop & Search

Haringey Council’s Children’s Services and the North Area Basic Command Unit (BCU) of the Metropolitan Police Service jointly held a ‘Stop & Search through a Safeguarding lens’ conference at Haringey Sixth Form College on Tuesday afternoon (12 December 2023).

Following some opening remarks by the local authority’s Director of Children’s Services, Ann Graham, and the North Area BCU’s Borough Commander, Caroline Haines, it was over to the council’s Assistant Director for Children’s Safeguarding and Social Care, Bev Hendricks, to present findings from a four-year pilot project on the police practice of Stop & Search.

The abiding recommendation is that Stop & Search should be utilised more as an early intervention measure in Safeguarding terms for impressionable children and young people, rather than a punitive action that can have long-lasting psychological and traumatic effects for those youngsters who experience it.

This groundbreaking work has been instigated and spurred on by the council’s Children’s Services team and it is now hoped that this approach can be rolled out beyond Haringey, across the capital and even further afield.

Local professionals from across the sector and the young people in attendance were then split up into four workshops, where facilitators and guest speakers helped them explore broad topics such as: ‘The Voice of Parents and Carers,’ ‘The Voice of Young People,’ ‘The Impact of Trauma on Adolescent Development’ and ‘The Met Police Stop & Search Pledge.’

There then followed the launch of the Missing App by the INEQE Safeguarding Group’s Director of Operations, Hannah Paul, and Head of Creative Visual Design, Tory Gaston, prior to a presentation from the deep:black Director Trupti Magecha on how ‘Conflict can be Creative.’

Beverley Hendricks duly shared some of the snapshot feedback from the four workshops to all of the attendees before some closing remarks from Haringey Council’s Cabinet Member for Children, Schools & Families, Cllr Zena Brabazon.

Here’s Cllr Brabazon reflecting on the main takeaways from an insightful and thought-provoking event.