CHILD protection has become one of the issues that many people have put at the top of the agenda with regards to the action police should be taking.

The issue has, no doubt, received much more attention in the wake of several high-profile court cases in recent months, both those involving celebrities and also gangs of men accused of “grooming” young girls.

As a result of the increased awareness of the issue, police forces are finding they need to spend more time and resources on investigating such matters – which is exactly how it should be.

As such a prevalent part of modern policing, it is also only right that forces’ responses to child protection matters should be properly rated by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.

One such report by the watchdog has just been released following a survey of West Yorkshire Police’s handling of child protection cases. And while there is much that is positive in the report – the force is said to be “clearly committed” to improving child protection – there is also work to be done.

HMIC points to delays when dealing with difficult cases, inconsistent responses, poor recording on police systems and cases of children being detained in police cells overnight as areas which need attention.

The point of such a report, of course, is not to punish failings but to flag up those parts of the service which can stand to be improved, and that is hopefully what will happen.

Our police have limited resources, but child protection must be identified as one of the most important areas of modern policing and needs to be funded and staffed as such.