Failure to prioritise anti-racism and safeguarding across all public bodies could risk incidents similar to the horrific Child Q case, a report has warned.

A Black schoolgirl in Hackney known as Child Q was strip-searched by Met Police officers on school premises in 2020 after teachers wrongly suspected her of carrying drugs. The search, involving exposure of her intimate body parts, was done without her parents’ consent or knowledge, and without another adult in the room.

Police were aware that Child Q was on her period, and the 15-year-old was forced to remove her sanitary towel. She denied using or having any drugs in her possession. Following the search, no drugs were found on her.

Her ordeal sparked national outrage, with hundreds gathering to protest in support of her. An official report published last year by the City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership (CHSCP) revealed that the strip search was unjustified and that “racism was likely to have been an influencing factor”.

Now a fresh report by the same group – ‘Why was it me?’, published on Tuesday and authored by independent child safeguarding commissioner Jim Gamble – has widened criticism to organisations across all sectors, warning of a “profound sense of distrust”. Gamble cited “inequalities in housing and health” and “the disproportionality seen in school exclusions and children coming into care” as factors that could lead to more cases like that of Child Q.

After speaking to 100 children, parents and carers about the impact of the scandal, the report – set up to look into progress made since last year’s safeguarding review – found many children were “disappointed but not shocked” by what had happened to Child Q.

One told Gamble: “The vast majority of us experience this in different forms. We are desensitised to it. It's like the news – you get used to it and it's normalised. This has been made public, but it’s just another thing.”

The report concluded that views such as these are not “unreasonable or irrational voices or children ‘banging their feet’ for attention”. It warned that, for adults tempted to dismiss them as such, there is a risk of repeating history, where “an ‘I know best’ attitude ignores children’s voices (in this context, mainly Black children’s voices) and opportunities for improvement are lost”.

The review also called out a number of schools in Hackney for “a worrying level of overconfidence” that incidents such as Child Q’s strip search could not happen to them. “Complacency has never made children safer,” it added.

All but one of Hackney’s secondary schools have been turned into academies, largely shielding them from the oversight of the local council. Academies, including in Hackney, have previously come under fire for using overly aggressive, militant attempts to control and discipline children, an approach that has often victimised Black kids in particular – for instance, through the policing of hairstyles.

Though the report highlighted some positive steps made towards progress, it emphasised a need for heightened efforts to build and improve relationships between schools, the police and other public bodies. “The community still needs to be heard and changes still need to be made,” Gamble wrote in a statement.

As part of this, the report urged the Met to reconsider its position on racism, stating: “Racism is a real problem. Denying it exists simply incubates it.” Following the Casey Review, which once again revealed that the police force is racist, homophobic and misogynist, the report warned that the Met is “running the risk of faltering at the first hurdle”.

Gamble singled out Met commissioner Mark Rowley, adding that it was unhelpful of Rowley to “kickstart his aspirations for change by introducing an argument about whether the term institutional racism is appropriate or not”. Rowley has rejected use of the term to describe the Met’s problems, despite the findings of the Casey review.

The Met issued an apology following Tuesday’s updated report, and said the strip search should never have happened to Child Q.

Detective chief superintendent James Conway, who leads policing in Hackney and its neighbouring east London borough Tower Hamlets, said: “I am sorry for the trauma that we caused her, and I am also sorry it took an event like this to highlight that we were overusing this type of strip search on children.

“While we have made notable practical improvements, such as requiring more senior levels of authorisation, what happened to Child Q illustrates why public scrutiny is so crucial in checking how we use our powers.”

Issuing a further 14 recommendations, the CHSCP report concluded that beyond schools and police, there must be co-operation between all public bodies in order to meaningfully address issues of racism, safeguarding and inequality.

The ordeal continues to weigh on the child’s shoulders, with Gamble revealing that she still asks herself: “Why was it me?” She and her mother first spoke out last year about the impact of the incident, and the support they had received.

While Child Q is showing “remarkable courage and resilience”, Gamble stressed that “we owe it” to the schoolgirl to make sure that we don’t forget about her. “Too often, despite best intentions, the learning from published reviews fades, priorities are subsumed into various workstreams, people forget, or they move their focus to the next tragedy that hits the headlines,” he said.