West Mercia Police: Accelerated cause of concern

With immediate effect, the force should make sure it understands the risks that the backlog poses to vulnerable people and their families, and to offenders, so it can appropriately prioritise referrals to statutory partners.

With immediate effect, the force should make sure that officers and staff working in the vulnerability hub have the right skills, training and experience to make prompt safeguarding referrals that help manage and reduce the risk to vulnerable people.

With immediate effect, the force should put in place a governance structure with oversight from senior leaders to promptly identify any increase in safeguarding referrals that exceed the vulnerability hub’s capacity.

With immediate effect, the force should work with statutory partners to create and implement a plan to clear the backlogs and make sure it assesses referrals without further delays.

With immediate effect, the force should work with statutory safeguarding partners to assess the vulnerability hub’s capacity and capability to create a sustainable safeguarding referral system that meets all statutory duties and creates timely support for vulnerable people.