1.45 Policing safeguarding

This project, co-led by experts from the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Bedfordshire, brings together leading research, practice, and policy expertise in policing, safeguarding, child protection, and serious violence. Building on the team’s extensive experience and strong partnerships, the review seeks to provide an academically robust yet practically grounded understanding of how policing can more effectively safeguard children who are at risk of, or involved in, serious violence.

Using a mixed-methods approach, the project aims to identify what constitutes best practice in policing responses to vulnerable children—particularly in stop and search, missing children investigations, and incidents involving weapons. It will explore frontline officers’ knowledge and use of child-centred safeguarding, examine barriers and facilitators to effective practice, and assess racial and other disparities in current approaches. Ultimately, the project seeks to produce clear, evidence-based recommendations for improving policy, practice, training, and oversight to strengthen policing’s role in protecting all children from violence.