London airport staff lack child protection training, say inspectors

A lack of training in child protection was a chief concern of the HM Inspectorate of Prisons team when it visited the airport earlier in the year.

No detention staff interviewed by inspectors had received recent child protection training and only some escort staff had received this training. 

Inspectors found it had failed to achieve 16 out of 30 recommendations made in 2008 following a previous inspection. A further 20 recommendations, including ensuring that all staff in contact with children have child protection training, have now been made.

Of the 23 people held at the short-term facility over a three-month period before the inspection, three were children, including two unaccompanied young people.

The facility, which is managed by private firm Tascor, was also failing to keep single men, women and families separate. On one occasion, a young person was held in a holding pool with “a potentially unrelated male detainee”, said the report.

Inspectors also discovered that a 15-year-old Albanian national had been held for 24 hours at the facility, well above its average five-hour stay.

Another concern was a lack of a child protection policy developed with the local safeguarding children board - inspectors said this is vital to ensure the facility has clear links with children’s services and protocols in place over information sharing.

The inspection report stated: “Detention staff were unaware of, and unable to produce, a child protection policy and were not familiar with an agreed procedure for reporting concerns.”