Scheme to keep youngsters safe

Stockton Borough Council and Cleveland Police have joined forces to keep children safe with Operation Stay Safe.

The scheme comes into force on June 12 and will see police officers and council enforcement officers patrolling the streets to identify children who are at risk.

The evening patrols will be responding to calls from the public, as well as monitoring known trouble spots, and will take unsupervised children who may be at risk of significant harm to a specially designated safe place. The child’s needs will then be assessed by children’s services before the child’s parent or guardian will be contacted to come and collect them.

Mike Batty, Stockton Borough Council’s head of community protection, said: "One thing we need to make clear is this is not some sort of curfew.

"This is about protecting the often very young children who are out at night, often with older children, and being exposed significant risk such as drinking, anti-social behaviour and being involved in crime or being a victim of crime.

He added: "We’ll be making sure these children are taken to a safe place where their needs will be assessed. A senior police officer will then get in touch with their parents to come and get them.

"Another thing I need to make clear is that we won’t be acting as surrogate parents or a taxi service."

Chief inspector Ted Allen, neighbourhood policing and community safety at Stockton, said: "We’ll be using section 46 of the 1989 Children’s Act to place children deemed at risk of significant harm into police protection to allow an assessment to be made and contact with the parents.

"This scheme is being successfully used in other parts of the country where it has received overwhelming support from parents who often did not know where their children were or who they were out with."

For more information contact Stockton Neighbourhood Police on 01642-302930 or the Integrated Youth Support Service on 01642-677600.