Police Car in front of The Bank of England, UK.

Child Centred Policing


March 2023 saw the official launch of Greater Manchester Police’s Child Centred Policing (CCP) Strategy. The event was held in Central Manchester and co-chaired by the then GMP CCP lead Detective Chief Superintendent Michaela Kerr and Glenn Nash (GMCA Senior Policy and Partnership Officer). In attendance were colleagues from across GM’s statutory and non-statutory child facing agencies.

The event provided opportunities for GM partners to input into the design and development of the CCP Strategy. The strategy consists of nine pillars, these include Prevention and Diversion, Police Custody, Violence Reduction, Stop and Search, District Policing, Training, Engagement and Communication, Missing Children, and Child Related Investigations.

Since then, the work has continued to grow, with partnership working and collaboration at the core of everything we do. Partners include GM colleagues from GMCA, GMP, the VRU, Youth Justice, Complex Safeguarding, Youth Work, Voluntary and Community Groups, Education and Health.

In November 2023 Superintendent Richard Timson took over as GMP’s Strategic Lead for CCP and it is safe to say things have really taken off as a result. This has included developing a more detailed and thorough Strategy and Delivery Plan that focuses on the following four elements: 

  • Prevention and Engagement

  • Alternatives outcomes to arrest (Pre-Custody)

  • Custody

  • Post Custody/ Investigations

CCP crosscuts across all aspects of policing. The CCP Strategy and Delivery Plan aligns existing child focused work into one coordinated approach. In particular the CCP strategy is focused on getting up-stream in collaboration with partners to strengthen prevention and early intervention opportunities. The aim of this is to mitigate children and young people coming to the attention of the police, preventing them from being exploited, and trying to reduce them from entering into the criminal justice system.

Integral to this is working collaboratively with our statutory and non-statutory partners in having a shared vision, and effectively sharing information, expertise, practice, and provisions.  The CCP strategy and delivery plan aligns with other child focused GM strategies, including the Violence Reduction Unit ‘Greater Than Violence Strategy’; the Complex Safeguarding ‘Adolescent Safeguarding Framework’, and the GM ‘Police and Crime Plan’.