Urgent questions over treatment of black young people

A British Psychological Society working group has published its response to the Child Q safeguarding review, calling the findings appalling and disturbing. In 2020 child Q, a Black child, was strip-searched while at school without an appropriate adult present and without her mother being informed beforehand.

An independent safeguarding review stated that Child Q had been exposed to a traumatic incident and had 'undoubtedly suffered harm'. In its response to the case, the BPS working group, made up of psychologists from across disciplines, wrote that the police and school staff acted disproportionately and did not consider the likely trauma that a strip search would cause.

The working group explored the evidence from a psychological perspective and hopes to work in partnership with BPS advisory groups to produce a psychology-informed toolkit for those working with children and young people. They wrote that all schools should be a place of safety and security for young people, with safeguarding at the heart of school-based activities, actions and decisions.

'Given the level of trauma likely to have been suffered by Child Q, it is our view that the actions that day directly contravened the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child sections 3.1 and 3.2. The independent safeguarding report has indicated that racial profiling likely sat at the heart of the choices made that day, further damaging the levels of trust between the Police, education and Black and Ethnic communities.'

The working group also pointed to a report from the Children's Commissioner which highlighted the role of racial discrimination in strip-searching practices. 'We acknowledge that these figures currently only relate to The Metropolitan Police, but we are concerned that wider Police data may show similar trends. Recent data raises several urgent questions in relation to the ongoing treatment of Black young people and the lack of progress made since The Macpherson Report (1999) and the Lammy Review of 2017. At the same time, it raises significant and urgent questions around safeguarding practice in relation to the strip-searching of children and young people.'

The group commended Child Q and her family for coming forward and welcomed the intervention of the Children's Commissioner. 'We are mindful of the challenges faced in policing and education, and the difficult decisions all officers and teachers must make. Nevertheless, we also believe that any strip search of a child or young person must be accompanied by clear safeguarding rules that involve parents, guardians or carers. We also believe that transparent data and reasoning for all strip searches must be open to public scrutiny.'