In this section:
Government guidance defines Child Sexual Exploitation as:
Child sexual exploitation is a form of child sexual abuse. It occurs where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into sexual activity (a) in exchange for something the victim needs or wants, and/or (b) for the financial advantage or increased status of the perpetrator or facilitator. The victim may have been sexually exploited even if the sexual activity appears consensual. Child sexual exploitation does not always involve physical contact; it can also occur through the use of technology.
This form of abuse can be difficult to identify and sometimes indicators may be mistaken for ‘normal adolescent behaviours’. It requires knowledge and skills to analyse the risk factors and personal circumstances of individual children to ensure that the signs and symptoms are interpreted correctly and appropriate support is given.
Child Exploitation
Practitioners working with children should familiarise themselves with Section A of this guidance.
Potential risk indicators include:
Acquisition of money, clothes, mobile phones etc. without explanation;
Gang-association and/or isolation from peers and social networks;
Exclusion or unexplained absences from school, college or work;
Leaving home or care without explanation and persistently going missing or returning late;
Excessive receipt of texts and phone calls;
Returning home under the influence of drugs or alcohol;
Inappropriate sexualised behaviour for age and sexually transmitted infections;
Evidence of and suspicions of physical or sexual assault;
Relationships with controlling or significantly older individuals or groups;
Multiple callers (unknown adults or peers);
Frequenting areas known for sex work;
Concerning use of internet or other social media;
Increasing secretiveness around behaviours;
Self-harm or significant changes in emotional well-being
Criminal Exploitation Hubs in Suffolk
The Criminal Exploitation (CE) Hubs is an initiative, building on the success of the Suffolk Against Gangs and Exploitation Team. Working with key partners, voluntary groups, communities, children, and families to support, disrupt, protect, and empower children and communities from the risk of criminal exploitation in hot spot locations.
Locations will be identified through police and community led intelligence, and the Multi-Agency Criminal Exploitation Panels (MACE).
There are two teams, one based in the South and one in the West of the county. The teams adopt a targeted outreach approach to work with children, families, and communities, supporting the work of those already working in the community and partner agencies.
We want to:
Build stronger links with our communities and community groups to help identify, support, and protect communities from the risk of criminal exploitation in hotspot areas.
Help to develop understanding, skills, and expertise of criminal exploitation.
Help to increase self-belief in children and young people who are at risk or have been criminally exploited.
If you have concerns around a location or would like to have a consultation with someone from the CE Hubs please complete the professionals form and send to CEHubs@suffolk.gov.uk
CSE Awareness Raising
Hotels
NWG Stop CSE - Checklist of Indicators
NWG Stop CSE - Posters
Taxi Drivers
NWG Stop CSE - Code of Conduct
NWG Stop CSE - Guidance for Operators
NWG Stop CSE - Possible Signs
NWG Stop CSE - Window Sticker
Resources
Child Exploitation Recognition, Referral, Risk and Response Guidance
Capturing & Reporting Intelligence: CSE/CE - Guidance for Families, Professionals and the Community
CSE Police and Prevention Toolkits - resources that may be useful for professionals when working with children and young people, their families and communities around CSE, including Boys and Young Men, BME, Child Criminal Exploitation, Deaf and Physically Disabled Children & Young People, LGBTQ+ Young People.
Children's Society - Online Exploitation Information and Guidance
‘Is This OK?’ is a free, confidential and anonymous, digital gateway for young people aged between 13-18 at risk of, or currently experiencing, sexual or criminal exploitation and/or abuse.
Children and young people can:
Seek local information / support,
Talk to a chatbot
Speak to a trained professional.
The pilot has been funded by BBC Children in Need and delivered in partnership by Missing People and NSPCC/Childline. John Moore University is evaluating the project.
During the initial pilot phase (Sept 2019 – March 2020), the chatbot was accessed 1,746 times. As a result, 344 live chats were initiated by young people; 214 (62%) of these were ‘engaged chats.’ This means the young people were supported to explore risks and their options; and/or helped by an advisor to stay safe; and/or signposted to another service for help. The average length of a chat is around 30 minutes with the longest chat lasting almost three hours.
From the initial findings, online chat works for young people. Young people have said that they are more likely to seek help from professionals via text and online chat where these channels are available.
More Information
Money Mules - Information about fraudsters asking people to receive money into their bank account, transferring it into another account and keeping some of the cash for themselves. Known as 'money mules', it is money laundering and is a crime.
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There is a vast body of research that explores cultural competence for practitioners working with children and families. Increasingly, cultural competence is cited as helpful when working with children who are criminally exploited, and this sparked our interest in this area. There is however limited research regarding what makes a practitioner culturally competent in this field. This leads us to draw on learning from other areas as a starting point. We have considered child criminal exploitation, child sexual exploitation and domestic abuse across a range of disciplines including social work, psychology, and youth work. We have pulled the main themes from these areas together and split them into knowledge, skills, and values to make it easy to digest. We have gathered the reflections of professionals to ensure the literature reflects what is happening in the field. We have also discussed the skills, knowledge and values children and caregivers’ find important in a practitioner.
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The Pathfinder worked with parents with lived experience to co-produce a webinar based on what they told us they wish they had known at the start of their child’s exploitation. The webinar is approximately one hour and covers:
What is child criminal exploitation and how county lines operate
The methods that can be used to groom children
What to do if your child goes missing
The words of parents with lived experience, sharing the changes they noticed in their child and advice for parents who may be experiencing exploitation.
Steps a parent can take (including capturing intelligence / evidence)
How to work with Services
Looking after yourself, family, and home.
Further information / signposting
Tips
Practitioners should read the accompanying paper (parent briefing) below.
Practitioners should have a good understanding of criminal exploitation (see Pathfinder Resources on Youth Justice Board Resource Hub)
Ideally, a practitioner would run through the webinar with a parent / caregiver, allowing for natural breaks to discuss relevant points.
If this is not able to happen, the practitioner will need to share the link with the parent / caregiver and ensure that they have appropriate internet access and a suitable device. We would recommend that the parent takes breaks as the webinar contains a lot of information. The parent may need some support to access the webinar. The practitioner should follow up sharing the link to check in whether there are any questions / comments.
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The Families Learning About Thinking Skills programme (FLATS) was developed in Suffolk by a Clinical Psychologist, and informed by the existing evidence base, in addition to clinical judgement, knowledge and experience.
FLATS was originally developed for use with young people at risk of exploitation from local gangs and has been adapted for use with young people potentially affected by criminal exploitation, including through ‘county lines’, and is informed by a range of established psychotherapeutic approaches and designed to target the needs and difficulties underlying young people’s risks and needs.
FLATS is an intensive intervention programme, run over 16-weeks, and comprised of: weekly 2-hour group sessions for young people, weekly 1hr 1:1 sessions for young people, access to facilitators outside of these sessions (e.g., through WhatsApp) for support with applying skills in ‘real life’ situations. Additionally, there is a strong family component to the programme, and facilitators provide on-going practical and emotional support to caregivers, to address their own needs and any blocks or barriers which might prevent them from supporting their child.
In order to support bring children together safely, the Pathfinder created a risk assessment and plan. This can be adapted for other group based interventions.
If you are interested in running FLATS, please speak with your team Operational Manager or Catherine Bennett.
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The Pathfinder undertook a rapid review of the literature in terms of seeking to establish what good practice would look like, when working with children who are experiencing exploitation.
This paper summarises a number of approaches and learning from research, serious case reviews and evaluations. We sought to pull out the main practice points in these documents to create an easy-to-read resource that would be helpful to practitioners and managers.
We reached out to a small number of professionals to act a as ‘critical friends’ to provide feedback on the paper
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The Pathfinder undertook a rapid review of the literature in terms of seeking to establish what good practice would look like, to support children and their families to exit safely.
This paper summarises a number of themes from research and evaluations from over 50 papers. We sought to pull out the main practice points in these documents to create an easy-to-read resource that would be helpful to practitioners and managers.
This briefing paper can be used to:
Raise awareness for professionals who are new to this area of practice.
Provide a helpful refresher to more experienced professionals.
Consider the learning and reflect on individual children and families.
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County Lines present a significant risk to children experiencing exploitation. Exiting a line can increase the risk of harm to a child and their family. The Safety Planning product is designed to help you consider:
Trauma within the context of safety planning for children
Principles and skills required to approach this area of practice
There is also an additional resource that contains tactics, and this is hosted on a secure Microsoft Teams (MS) Page that requires permission to access it. This is so we protect the tactics we have identified and ensure the tool is used as intended. If you are undertaking safety planning, please discuss the child and their family’s situation with your manager.
Should you need further information, please contact: Catherine.bennett@suffolk.gov.uk