Earlier this week Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner, published her analysis of the approach to strip searches of children by police in England and Wales.  

Her report highlighted widespread problems and non-compliance with statutory guidelines and has led to much debate about how this issue can be tackled.  

Indeed, calls for change in police practice following the circumstances involving the Child Q incident that occurred in a school have, apparently, not resulted in the necessary change shift in attitude and policy to ensure similar incidents are avoided.

Indeed, one of the recommendations from Dame Rachel was that schools should be “specifically excluded” as an appropriate location for a strip search.

However, for now, they can take place on school premises and so it is important schools know what the law says about this, their obligations and the rights of pupils.

What is a strip search?

The focus of the children’s commissioner’s report is the police power to conduct strip searches. These are searches that expose intimate body parts and are therefore one of the most intrusive stop and search powers available to police.  

To carry out such a search lawfully, an officer must have reasonable grounds for suspecting someone has a dangerous or prohibited item on them, which was not found during a standard search.

Strip searches on school premises can only be carried out by police officers under Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) Codes A and C.

These Codes set out not only how searches should be carried out but the considerations the police need to have undertaken before embarking on such a course of action.  

Code A sets out police powers in relation to stop and search and the rules intended to protect people’s dignity, minimise embarrassment and prevent misuse of the power to stop and search.

Code C, Annex A, governs strip searches and actions the police must take account of when considering whether to conduct such a search where anything more than the removal of outer clothing is required.

DfE guidance: searches of children in schools 

Last year, amid calls for reform and clarification of schools’ roles and responsibilities in light of the Child Q case, the Department for Education updated guidance with a view to clearly embed the safeguarding responsibilities of schools in the context of these intrusive and potentially traumatic searches.  

Both the statutory safeguarding guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education and Searching, screening and confiscation: advice for schools were updated last year to include lessons learned following the Child Q case and placing emphasis on schools’ duty of care towards children. 

These set out clear guidelines schools should heed, chiefly:

• A strip search on school premises can only be carried out by police officers. 
   
• Before deciding to call the police into school, staff should assess the risk of a potential strip search on the pupil’s wellbeing and whether introducing the potential for a search through police involvement is absolutely necessary. 
   
• Once the police are on school premises, the decision as to whether to conduct a strip search lies solely with them and the school’s role is to advocate for the safety and wellbeing of the child.  
   
• Unless there is an immediate risk of harm, or it is not reasonably possible, parents should be informed before the strip search takes place, and always after it has taken place.
   
• Searches involving the exposure of intimate body parts must be conducted with at least two people present, one of whom must be an appropriate adult.
   
• An appropriate adult is usually a parent or guardian but can be a social worker, volunteer or representative of the local authority or a charity.  
   
• A police officer cannot be an appropriate adult.  
   
• Under current police guidance, it is possible to proceed without an appropriate adult but only if the pupil explicitly informs the appropriate adult of this wish and the appropriate adult agrees. In cases of urgency, where there is a risk of serious harm to the child or others, a strip search may proceed without an appropriate adult present. (The children’s commissioner has recommended that “urgency” is removed as an exception to this requirement.)
   
• Police officers carrying out the search must be of the same sex as the pupil and searches are not to be conducted in locations where they might be observed by others.  
   
• Schools must record details of all searches in the school’s safeguarding reporting system, including whether or not an item was found. This will assist in identifying risks and initiating appropriate safeguarding responses. 

Children’s commissioner’s recommendations

Looking to the future, the children’s commissioner also issued key recommendations intended to address the findings of her report.

This set out that the safeguarding of children must be the top priority for the police when undertaking strip searches. She is clear that if such “intrusive and potentially traumatic power is necessary, then there must be robust safeguards”. 

As to the role of schools, she recommends that local safeguarding partnerships include schools as formal members with a voice on formulating safeguarding arrangements and expectation of cooperation.  

A recommendation already made in previous reports, the children’s commissioner believes that giving schools a seat at the table in designing and implementing safeguarding systems and policies will create a balance of enhanced power and responsibilities, which befits the role of schools within the system.

Ane Vernon and Mark Jones are both partners at the law firm Payne Hicks Beach.

Safeguarding Awareness Week takes place on 22-28 May 2023. During the second Safeguarding Awareness Week, we’ll be inspiring children and young people everywhere to “speak, shout, share and open up” about the safeguarding issues affecting them