Transcript Policy & Research Unit: Internal communications

Delivering an effective
local strategy to tackle
child sexual exploitation
Jeanie Lynch, South West
Dr Caroline Paskell, Strategy
Unit Barnardo’s
Child sexual
exploitation
• Child sexual exploitation is always abusive:
No child can consent to their own abuse
• Government definition (first developed by
NWG):
•exploitative situations, contexts &
relationships
•people receive ‘something’ as a result of
sexual activities performed by or on a child
•those exploiting the child/young person have
power over them by virtue of age, gender,
intellect, physical strength and/or economic
or other resources.
Barnardo’s CSE
work
Began in 1994: service, policy and research
Organisational priority since 2011
Provision: 21 services using 4 ‘A’s
Research: Improving responses
Policy: National Action Plan +
Campaign: Cut them free
Our CSE serviceusers
1,190 young people supported in 2010-11
All backgrounds represented – but additional
vulnerability for those in care, who go missing
who are excluded from school or who offend.
Of our service users in 2010-11:
10% are male (25% in some services)
44% have gone missing
14% have been in care
1 in 6 had been trafficked
No one set of victims
• 13 year-old girl forced into sex with many men
having been groomed by network of older men
• 15 year-old girl in an inappropriate relationship
with her step-father’s friend
• 16 year-old boy being exploited online through
gay chat-rooms
• 12 year-old girl being routinely abused in a
local park by boys in their late teens
• 17 year-old girl being exploited by her 26 yearold boyfriend to ‘exchange’ sex for drugs
• 14 year-old boy coerced into sexual assault on
a younger girl to validate his gang membership
How to respond?
Statutory guidance, 2009
National action plan, 2011
Step-by-step guide, 2012
Barnardo’s/LGA, 2012
• Raise awareness
• Assess the local picture
• Develop a strategic response
• Support victims
• Facilitate policing and prosecutions
Multi-agency
Child centred
Raise awareness
It is important that all young people develop the knowledge
and skills they need to make safe healthy choices about
relationships and sexual health. This will help them to avoid
situations that put them at risk of sexual exploitation and to
know who to turn to if they need advice and support. … The
need for information goes wider … to raise awareness of
parents and professionals. (DfE 2011: National Action Plan)
Children and young people
It was very useful to learn how people do grooming so it will
make us more vigilant. Hearing a real story shows that these
things do happen.
Parents and carers
We use existing forums to spread our factsheet for parents
and carers so more people know how to spot the signs and
how to get support.
Professionals
We run day courses so practitioners can understand how
young people become sexually exploited, why it is difficult to
seek help or escape this type of abuse, and to learn more
effective ways of working with them.
Assess the local
picture
Robust and reliable risk assessments by LSCBs of the
nature and extent of child sexual exploitation in each area
are fundamental to tackling the problem. … LSCBs and
statutory agencies should always undertake risk
assessments of the extent of the problem in their area. (DfE
2011)
Assume there is risk
Three months after improving agencies’ understanding of
sexual exploitation, we had seen a five-fold increase in the
number of young people identified as high risk.
We ran a scoping exercise and found 50 young people at
risk of sexual exploitation.
Get started
Collate data on incidence
risks
Assess trends
Profile key
Keep going
The LSCB child sexual exploitation coordinator updates the
LSCB about the local prevalence, scope and nature of child
sexual exploitation.
Develop strategic
response
LSCBs develop an effective local strategy ensuring there is
co-ordinated multi-agency response to child sexual
exploitation, based on a robust, thorough risk assessment of
its local extent and nature. (DfE 2011)
Aims: prevention, identification, support and
prosecution
Establish: scale of strategy and cross-border
engagement
Core features:
•Risk assessments
•Referral system
•Multi-agency meetings
•Information-sharing
•Co-ordination
Ensure: multi-agency action and child-centred approach
The involvement of different roles, experience and
perspectives is essential if children and young people are to
be effectively supported and action taken against
perpetrators of sexual exploitation.
Support victims
It is essential that there is an effective response from
services when [it] is identified. … Victims need a helpful,
swift, understanding, supportive response, coordinated
across partners ... [and] need to be helped to understand
how they will be helped now and in the future. (DfE 2011)
Direct work
The most successful organisational model is where
specialist staff from a range of agencies work together in a
dedicated multi-agency unit. …
The LSCB commissioned a direct service for young people
from [one charity], with the police funding a dedicated police
officer as part of the team and [another charity] bringing its
own funding to raise awareness.
Indirect work
Develop third-party support plan and monitor risk
Safe accommodation
Accommodation needs to be appropriate not necessarily
secure
Facilitate policing and
pros.
Disruption techniques should be key to local strategies for
responding to child sexual exploitation. … LSCBs should
develop a disruption plan and establish relationships with
other agencies to deliver it. (DfE 2011)
While acting to protect a child … professionals should
consider how to gather and preserve evidence to prosecute
the perpetrators (DCSF ‘09)
Disruption
Disruption techniques can assist in reducing further abuse;
e.g. child abduction notices, using automatic number plate
recognition.
Information-sharing
Multi-agency information-sharing can better guide police
action: Our operation against sexual exploitation set up a
joint intelligence room so police, children’s services,
probation and health could share their intelligence as it came
in.
Prosecution
Comprehensive risk assessments and data monitoring can
CTF: local authority
call
Barnardo’s called English LAs to ask themselves:
• What system is in place to monitor the number
of young people at risk of sexual exploitation?
• Does the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board
have a strategy in place to tackle child sexual
exploitation?
• Is there a lead person with responsibility for
coordinating a multi-agency response?
• Are young people able to access specialist
support for children at risk?
• How are professionals in the area trained to spot
the signs of child sexual exploitation?
PCC: policing call
Barnardo’s called prospective PCCs to commit to
supporting police action on CSE by ensuring:
• clear senior police responsibility for the issue
• police officers with specialist knowledge of CSE
• force-wide training on child sexual exploitation
• strong local multi-agency links
• strong cross-border police links
• system to identify CSE on local police database
• culture of support for young victims
What individuals can
do
• Get to know the signs of sexual exploitation
• Share this information with your colleagues
• Identify/develop procedures to refer concerns
to local CSE lead or agency child protection lead
• Think how to raise awareness of young people,
parents/carers, colleagues or potential witnesses
• Identify appropriate support for young people
• Keep it in mind: maintain training, monitoring
and referral systems and inter-agency approach
What to look out for
• going missing for periods or regularly returning home
late
• regularly missing school or not taking part in
education
• appearing with unexplained gifts, money or
possessions
• associating with others people involved in exploitation
• having older boyfriends or girlfriends
• suffering from sexually transmitted infections (esp.
repeat)
• inappropriate sexualised behaviour
• drug and alcohol misuse
Spot the Signs leaflets
- Young people Parents/carers Profs. Service sector
• Download www.barnardos.org.uk/cutthemfree
Any questions?
Thank you!
Visit
www.barnardos.org.uk/cutthemfr
ee
Contact:
[email protected]
[email protected]