DORSET Police have been singled out for praise in a report highlighting the fact that unnecessary call outs to children's homes are putting a drain on resources of some forces.

A report by the Howard League for Penal Reform finds that while police take their safeguarding duties seriously, forces are also spending considerable time dealing with minor issues in children’s homes that should not be brought to their attention.

The call-outs increase the risk of children in care being criminalised, the charity warns.

One force told the Howard League that it had been called because a child had squirted a member of staff with water. Another force was called by a home about a boy who had pulled down a curtain.

The report reveals that many police forces – including in Dorset – are taking measures to solve the problem, by working closely with children’s homes and local authorities to reduce unnecessary call-outs and prevent vulnerable children being drawn into the criminal justice system.

Dorset Police saw a 49 per cent reduction in call-outs from residential children’s homes between January and August 2017, compared with the same period in 2016. The force has achieved this by working closely with Dorset Combined Youth Offending Team, the local authority and care home providers.

Care home staff in Dorset have been trained in "restorative conversations" and are now better able to deal with challenging behaviour without recourse to the police. The force has worked with care home staff and managers to make them more confident in dealing with such things as first-time use of Class B and Class C drugs.

Dorset Police control room staff have all been trained on a 'multi-agency protocol', implemented with children’s homes and others to reduce the 'criminalisation' of children in care.

Research published by the Howard League previously has shown that children aged 16 and 17 living in children’s homes are 15 times more likely to be criminalised than other children of the same age.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “Working together with the police, we have ensured that tens of thousands of children will have a brighter future and not be dragged into a downward spiral of crime and custody.

“There is still much work to do, however, and our research has found that children in residential care are being criminalised unnecessarily. Police, local authorities and children’s homes must work together to rise to this challenge."