IOPC investigation into police contact prior to the death of Alfie Steele concludes
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Earlier today (Tuesday 23 June) the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) announced it had concluded its investigation into West Mercia Police’s contact before the death of Alfie Steele.
Alfie Steele, who was 9 years old, died at his home in Droitwich in February 2021. In June 2023, his mother, Carla Scott, was found guilty of manslaughter and her partner, Dirk Howell, found guilty of murder.
After a referral by the force the IOPC carried out an independent investigation into the force’s contact with the pair between March 2018 and February 2021.
The IOPC investigation found no indication that any officers had breached professional standards, but that the force did not sufficiently train frontline officers to identify child abuse.
Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Jones said:
“The loss Alfie’s family has experienced is immeasurable and we continue to extend our deepest condolences to those who knew him and will forever miss him.
“Alfie died after he was inflicted with indescribable abuse at the hands of his mother and her partner and both are now serving considerable prison sentences for his death.
“The death of a child in such horrific circumstances is abhorrent and in the immediate aftermath of Alfie’s death we carried out a review. This led to significant changes and training put in place for our frontline officers and staff to ensure the signs of child abuse and vulnerability are fully understood.
“To ensure an independent assessment and that appropriate scrutiny was applied, in June 2023, we referred our contact with the family prior to Alfie’s death to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
“It is essential we do everything within our powers to keep children safe, and that our communities have faith that we will do everything to keep children safe. There is no doubt protecting children is one of the most important things we do.
“Since then, we have extended this training to raise awareness to all officers and staff the importance to capture the voice of the child – using professional curiosity to speak and listen to children and understand their fears and concerns. Or what they don’t say.
“It has been our mission to share Alfie’s life with our entire workforce to highlight the importance of this and how vital it is we get it right. We must put safeguards in place to make sure no child ever suffers like that again.
“It is with the greatest sadness we will never be able to undo the dreadful abuse Alfie suffered and our thoughts remain with his family, friends and loved ones.”
Recommendations
Worcestershire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership - have written, produced and circulated a partnership practice briefing.
West Mercia Police have delivered: -
- Voice of the Child Campaign
- Contextual Safeguarding Training
- Professional Curiosity Training for Detectives
- Child Safeguarding Package to all front line using the Alfie Steele CSPR as a case study
- Child safeguarding presentations via local briefings to all LPA front line staff including the voice of the child and myth of the invisible man.
Mandatory Professional Curiosity training to Detectives and Harm Assessment Unit (HAU).
Confirmatory bias features as a learning point in the child safeguarding package. This training has been delivered to front line officers.
Those individuals managed by Probation, should be discussed as part of any strategy discussion, and probation should be invited accordingly. Probation have an automated list which is sent to West Mercia Police. This is held on police systems, so any police check against an individual will identify whether they are probation managed. This allows police to share information with partners and for probation to be invited to child safeguarding meetings where necessary.
Police intelligence is rarely shared outside of Policing. However, Intelligence would be disseminated to internal police partners to be divulged, if graded appropriately, in this case via the strategy meeting process.
More widely, data to identify suspects and victims who present a disproportionate risk continues to be developed. These cases are discussed at local tasking and problem-solving meetings which drive activity.
The training delivered by West Mercia Police is highlighted at Recommendation 1 (above).
West Mercia Police have revised our Harm Assessment Unit’s to ensure that Detective Sergeants complete strategy discussions.
Work has been undertaken by Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership to ensure that Child Protection Medicals are discussed at Strategy Meetings.
The Voice of the Child campaign encourages officers to look beyond the actual voice of the child (though still record it). AWARE is mnemonic that is compulsory for inclusion in child risk assessments. This is monitored and tracked for adherence and quality as part of the vulnerability force governance structure.
The training delivered by West Mercia Police is highlighted at Recommendation 1 (above). The child safeguarding package training was designed to cover the issues outlined by this recommendation.
The training delivered by West Mercia Police is highlighted at Recommendation 1 (above). The child safeguarding package training was designed to cover the issues outlined by this recommendation.
West Mercia Police have delivered Community Protection Notice (CPN) training to all front-line staff designed to identify CPN thresholds and encourage applications to manage concerning individuals/incidents
Review of local tasking processes to identify those within the community who would be eligible / suitable for such management.