In this section:

Bullying
Female genital mutilation
Forced marriage and honour-based abuse
Gangs, criminal exploitation and county lines
Modern slavery
Referral centre

Children who are being bullied often find it very difficult to tell anyone, because they believe things will get worse if the child doing the bullying finds out. They can feel ashamed and embarrassed about what is happening and this is what the bully relies on.  They may feel they have done something to cause it or that they should be able to handle the problem themselves, (this is especially true with older children).

There are different forms of bullying:

  • Physical – any form of physical violence pushing, hitting, punching, kicking or intimidating behaviour, plus also theft or intentional damage to possessions.

  • Verbal - yelling abuse at another, name-calling, teasing, insulting someone, using verbal threats.

  • Emotional/psychological - spreading rumours, tormenting, social exclusion, disclosing another’s secrets to someone else.

  • Cyberbullying - when a person or a group of people uses the internet, mobile phones, online games or any other kind of digital technology to threaten, tease, upset or humiliate someone else. You can report any online abuse through the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) website.

Please also see our e-Safety page for more information about cyberbullying.

Children and young people can be bullied for any reason, but some include: 

Racist: Bullying based on skin colour, religion, ethnicity or language.

Homophobic: Discrimination due to somebody’s sexuality and/or gender identity.

Sexual: Unwelcome sexual advances or remarks that are intended to cause offence, humiliation or intimidation.

Disability: The bullying of children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

'Differences': Bullying based on other reasons such as the way someone looks or dresses, hobbies and interests, family set up or social behaviour.

Bullying

Other Resources

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the partial or total removal of external female genitalia for non-medical reasons and is also known as female circumcision or cutting. There are no medical reasons to carry out FGM. It doesn't enhance fertility and it doesn't make childbirth safer. Procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later, potential childbirth complications and newborn deaths. Religious, social or cultural reasons are sometimes given for FGM and it is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and 15 years of age. It is used to control female sexuality and can cause severe and long-lasting damage to physical and emotional health. However, FGM is child abuse. It's dangerous and a criminal offence.

Suspicions may arise in several ways that a child is being prepared for FGM to take place abroad. These include knowing that the family belongs to a community in which FGM is practised and is preparing for the child to take a holiday, arranging vaccinations or planning absence from school. The child may also talk about a 'special procedure/ceremony' that is going to take place. Girls are at particular risk of FGM during summer holidays as this is the time when families may take their children abroad for the procedure. Many girls may not be aware that they may be at risk of undergoing FGM.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

A forced marriage is a marriage in which one or both spouses do not (or, in the case of some adults with learning or physical disabilities, cannot) consent to the marriage and duress is involved. Duress can include physical, psychological, financial, sexual and emotional pressure.

There is a clear distinction between a forced marriage and an arranged marriage. In arranged marriages, the families of both spouses take a leading role in arranging the marriage but the choice whether or not to accept the arrangement remains with the prospective spouses.

Forced Marriage & Honour Based Abuse

Forced Marriage

Honour Based Abuse or Violence 

Honour based abuse is a collection of practices used by many cultures to control behaviour within families in order to protect religious beliefs and defend the family or community ‘honour’. It also includes forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

The term is used to describe violence, which sometimes results in a murder, in the name of so-called honour. This is when - predominantly - women are injured or killed for perceived immoral behaviour, which is deemed to have breached the honour code of a family or community, causing shame.

Honour based abuse is a crime, often involving violence or threats of violence, intimidation and/or abuse (including psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional abuse). Using any of these to protect or defend the honour of an individual, family or community constitutes honour based abuse.

So-called 'honour based violence or abuse' is a fundamental abuse of Human Rights. There is no honour in the commission of murder, kidnap and the many other acts, behaviour and conduct which make up violence in the name of honour.

Honour based abuse can affect both men and women and everyday choices made by an individual could impact on a family’s or community’s honour and therefore violence and abuse can occur. These simple choices could include choice of clothes, choice of friends, relationships with members of the opposite sex and/or career choice.

Report It

If you are, or someone else is, in immediate danger phone 999.

If you believe that you or anyone you know is a victim of honour based abuse, forced marriage or female genital mutilation, please call Suffolk Police on 101 or 999 if it is an emergency.

Further Information

Child criminal exploitation (CCE) occurs “Where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, control, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into any criminal activity in exchange for something the victim needs or wants and/or for the financial or other advantage of the perpetrator or facilitator and/or through violence or the threat of violence. The victim may have been criminally exploited even if the activity appears consensual. CCE does not always involve physical contact; it can also occur through the use of technology” (Home Office, 2018).

Gangs, Criminal Exploitation & County Lines

Child criminal exploitation

County Lines

County lines is a term used when drug gangs from big cities expand their operations to smaller towns, often using violence to drive out local dealers and exploiting children and vulnerable people to sell drugs. These dealers will use a dedicated mobile phone line(s), known as 'deal lines', to take orders from drug users. Heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine are the most common drugs being supplied and ordered. In most instances, the users or customers will live in a different area to where the dealers and networks are based, so drug runners are needed to transport the drugs and collect payment. Currently there is no legal definition of county lines or CCE and no government directive/legislation around how it should be addressed, epitomising the difficulties. (Home Office, 2018).

Click here to watch a 10 min clip from the National County Lines Coordination Centre.

National Referral Mechanism (NRM)

This 6 min clip focuses on the NRM, including the process, when to apply and how decisions are made. The NRM framework for identifying and referring potential victims of modern slavery and ensuring they receive the appropriate support.

Who to contact?

Suffolk County Council

Suffolk County Council provide a range of services for children and families. On this page you can access services such as Family Support via an Early Help Assessment, and the Emotional Wellbeing Hub. If you have any safeguarding concerns, you can report it here.

This voluntary programme is designed to offer help and support to young people who are at risk of offending and anti-social behaviour. Suffolk Youth Justice Service offer a programme of work, which is created in collaboration with the young person (and their families). A plan is created with the aim of reducing the likelihood of offending or re-offending. Referrals are accepted from Children and Young People's Services; educational establishments; the police and parents / carers. All referrals are then assessed to see if they meet the criteria for further intervention work with the youth justice service.

Suffolk Police

This page contains information and advice for young people about gang / county lines:

Velocity is a countywide operation to tackle drug dealing.

Suffolk Pathfinder Programme

Cultural competence

Description

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.

Parent webinar

Description:

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.

  • Child Criminal Exploitation

 FLATS and groupwork risk assessment and plan

Description

  • 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.

Emerging and promising practice

Description

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

Safe exit

Description

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.

  • Safe Exit Paper

Safety Planning

Description

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

  • Victims of modern slavery can be any age, gender, nationality and ethnicity.

  • The following definitions are encompassed in within the term ‘Modern Slavery’ for the purposes of the Modern Slavery Act 2015

    They are:

    • ‘Slavery’ is where ownership is exercised over a person

    • ‘Human trafficking’ concerns arranging or facilitating the travel of another with a view to exploiting them

    • ‘Servitude’ involves the obligation to provide services imposed by coercion

    • ‘Forced’ or ‘compulsory labour’ involves work or service extracted from any person under the menace of a penalty and for which the person has not offered himself voluntarily

  • Slavery is the commodification and exploitation of people for financial gain.

    Someone in slavery includes:

    • Forcing a person to work against their will through mental or physical threat

    • Enforcing restrictions on a persons’ freedom of movement

    • Dehumanising the person, treated the person as a commodity or bought and sold as ‘property’

    • Owned or controlled by an ‘employer’, usually through physical or mental abuse or the threat of abuse

  • Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery. Human trafficking is the movement of people by means such as force, fraud, coercion, abduction or deception with the aim of exploiting them.

    For the purpose of exploitation, this includes (but is not exhaustive)

    • Slavery (or similar)

    • Forced labour

    • Prostitution

    • Other sexual exploitation

    • Servitude etc

    • Organ harvesting (removal of organs)

    Victims of trafficking are traded for financial gain either within their own countries or internationally. Trafficked people have little choice in what happens to them and often suffer abuse due to violence and threats made against them or their families. It is a common misconception that trafficking has to include crossing a county border. Movement can be as little as from one street to another.

  • Servitude is an obligation to provide one’s services that are imposed by the use of coercion and is to be linked with the concept of ‘slavery’ described above (Siladin v France, ECHR (2005) 

    Domestic servitude is a specific form of labour exploitation covering nannies, carers, housekeepers etc. Victims of domestic servitude can suffer imprisonment within the confines of the home as well as verbal, physical and sexual abuse.

  • Forced or compulsory labour is al work or service which is extracted from any person under the threat of a penalty and for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily. Forced or compulsory labour can happen to both children and adults and in any industry including hospitality, construction, manufacturing, care, agriculture, beauticians and nail bars.

  • Sexually exploited people are forced to work in the sex industry. Victims of sexual exploitation can be any age, gender or race. They may have been coerced into sexual slavery due to drug use or debts, groomed by a predator or even sold by relatives.

    Children and young people can be trafficked into or within the UK to be sexually exploited. Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is a type of sexual abuse They are moved around the country and exploited and abused by being given things like drugs, money, gifts, status and affection and are forced to take part in sexual activities, often with more than one person. Young people in gangs can also be sexually exploited.

  • Organ harvesting is an illegal practice where people have their organs surgically removed for sale on the black market. A high percentage of people are forced into it because of debt bondage or have been sold to an organ harvester via human trafficking.

Modern Slavery

Advice and Support 

  • Suffolk Modern Slavery, Human Trafficking & NRM Flowchart for First Responder Organisations – attached document 1

  • Suffolk Modern Slavery, Human Trafficking & NRM Flowchart for Non-First Responder Organisations – attached document 2

  • The Human Trafficking Foundation has produced several resources to help local authorities improve their response to human trafficking and modern slavery, and support offered to adult survivors.

Modern Slavery Apps

The Safe Car Wash App helps people to identify rogue operators and report their concerns.

Backed by the Gangmasters’ and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), National Crime Agency (NCA), National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and the Local Government Association (LGA), it helps to identify signs of modern slavery in hand car washes.

The Unseen App shows how to recognise the signs of modern slavery and report it.

Resources

Useful Contacts & Website Links

Sexual Assault Support and Referral Centre

The Ferns Suffolk - are here to help you if you have been raped or sexually assaulted.