Inspiring People
Vicky Kemp
Piloting a 'Child First' approach in police custody
Dr Vicky Kemp is a Principal Research Fellow at the School of Law undertaking research into digital legal rights for suspects.
The law is a powerful tool. It not only prepares those who want to practice law but it also enables others to use the law as a tool to achieve social justice within society.
How would you explain your research?
I specialise in access to justice, youth justice, criminal legal aid and clinical legal education. As a former police station legal adviser and criminal legal aid policy officer, my research often involves examining how the ‘law in books’ translates into practice on the ground. Often, when finding a disconnect between the two, my findings are used by policy makers to help improve procedural safeguards for people drawn into the criminal justice system.
With funding from the Nuffield Foundation, we examined children’s legal rights when arrested and detained by the police. This included observing children in police custody and talking to all those involved in the police interview: police officers, lawyers and appropriate adults. For the first time in England and Wales, we engaged with children while detained about their legal rights. The study also included analysis of over 50,000 electronic custody records, from which we could examine how long children were held in custody, whether a lawyer was requested and case outcomes. This three-year study provides a strong evidence-base from which to help inform change.
What inspired you to pursue this area?
Having provided legal advice in police custody in the late 1980s, I knew that being detained was often a traumatic experience for children. Later on, when in custody researching access to legal advice, I wanted to talk to children when detained but this was not possible. While I had ethical approval to approach children in custody, access was dependent on obtaining prior approval from their appropriate adult. As these adults tend to delay arriving in custody until the police are ready to question the child, there was then no time to conduct a research interview.
While it is important that research ethics provide strong protections for children, it is also important that children have an opportunity to have their voices heard. When examining the potential to approach a child in custody when their appropriate adult was not available, we brought together an Advisory Group of senior academics having experience of engaging with vulnerable children. Drawing on their knowledge and expertise, we developed safeguarding and informed consent protocols that had to be complied with when engaging with children. A flow chart was also created to help decide whether an approach to a child could be made in the absence of their appropriate adult. Following these protocols and ethical guidelines, we engaged with 32 children detained in eight different custody suites.
Engaging with children while in police custody has been transformative. From the child’s perspective, police custody is experienced as a punitive and adult-centred system of justice. Being held on average for 11 hours and 36 minutes, with little or no distractions, this was a particular source of resentment and anger for some children. This negative experience could lead children to having an antagonistic relationship with the police, creating the potential for conflict in future dealings with them, increasing the likelihood of further arrests and detention.
How will your research affect the children in police custody?
The Youth Justice Board has adopted ‘Child First’ as the guiding principle for policy, strategy and practice across the youth justice system but this has not yet reached into the secure and hidden environment of police custody. We have identified a comprehensive set of measures required in adopting a ‘Child First’ approach in police custody and we are working with the police in piloting some of these recommendations.
When using our findings to help inform changes to policy and practice, the research is being overseen by a Steering Group comprising national stakeholders. Chaired by Lord Carlile KC, the group includes representatives from the Home Office, Ministry of Justice, National Police Chiefs’ Council, Law Society, Youth Justice Board and children’s rights groups. After having been involved in identifying recommendations for change, the Steering Group are now overseeing these pilot projects. Following an evaluation of the new arrangements, we will engage with policy-makers and Parliamentarians to formulate an action-plan for national implementation. This will include identifying what changes are required to the legislation and guidance to require a Child First approach to be adopted in police custody.
What changes are you looking to make to help in bringing about change?
We are currently working in partnership with the police to pilot recommendations for change in helping to bring about a Child First approach in police custody:
- For custody to be used as a ‘last resort’, which requires strengthening gatekeeping mechanisms to ensure children are only detained if being dealt with for a serious offence.
- To avoid children being detained for low-level offences, this requires the early involvement of youth justice and children’s services to ensure that early help and support is available as an alternative to detention and to promote diversion and minimal intervention.
- A shorter clock in custody when dealing with under 18 year olds – a 12- rather than 24-hour clock.
- A presumption of having legal advice for a child and requiring access to a lawyer when key decisions are made.
- Providing accessible information to children in custody – we have created a series of animations that set out a child’s journey through custody and their legal rights.
- Specialist training for all those involved with child suspects.
- National collation and reporting of fully disaggregated electronic custody record data – to provide strategic oversight of police powers and legal safeguards in custody.
What's been the greatest moment of your career so far?
I have had many ‘key moments’ as a researcher, which include being invited by the Lord Chancellor to be a member of his Expert and Advisory Panel on the Criminal Legal Aid Review. In my research, a key moment has been engaging with children when held in custody and to use their experiences in helping to transform this early stage of the criminal process. However, the greatest moment of my career was in February 2024 when I won the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Knowledge Exchange and Impact. This is a special accolade in honour of a lifetime achievement and it was a great privilege to have received this award for my work on access to justice and improving legal safeguards for child suspects.