Force revamps public protection unit to cope with rising demand
Police chiefs in Staffordshire have reorganised the county's public protection unit(PPU) in an effort to improve services for vulnerable residents.
The move involves the introduction of a new team structure with a focus on adults and children, and more staff - replacing the former investigations and safeguarding unit.
The force said officers will be more focused on the children and adults it is protecting as part of the unit’s work, while it makes efforts to expand existing teams and recruit more specialist staff so it can cope with increasing demand.
PPU development boss Detective Chief Superintendent Jen Mattinson said: “The key underlying message for all of this is continued close partnership working in our communities and we’re committed to continuing to do that.
“Matching demand by providing more capacity to our teams and improving the service we provide to victims in Staffordshire are two key goals that we hope this new structure and ongoing developments will provide.
“Only by working with our communities and partners will we be able to improve our adult and child protection services to better serve those who need us across Staffordshire.”
The next stage will see new look child protection teams and new multi-agency safeguarding hubs (MASH) arrangements with partner agencies, such as councils and health services. The force will also aim to working more closely with local harm reduction hubs (HRH) to enhance our offender management and intervention work.
It added that the revamp will co-incide with ongoing force improvement work. A damning report last year which said public safety in the county was being put at risk due to ineffective police investigations and that call operators were failing to properly identify and assess victims’ vulnerability at first contact.
The force has since introduced a new local policing model increasing the number of response teams from three to 10 in a bid to tackle the issues raised by the Inspector of Constabulary Wendy Williams. She said there were serious concerns about the force response to the public and while she was reassured by efforts to redress them, its performance was being closely monitored.
