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).

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 – Children’s Services

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.

• Diversion Programme – Suffolk Youth Justice Service

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:

• Gangs / County Lines – Information and Advice - Suffolk Constabulary

• Schools Intelligence Reporting Tool for County Lines and Criminal Exploitation

Velocity is a countywide operation to tackle drug dealing.

• Velocity Leaflet County Lines Briefing for Partners

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.

• Cultural Competence March 2022 & Reflective Questions

• Reflective Questions

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.

• FLATS Risk Ass and Plan FINAL

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

• Direct Practice Briefing 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.

• Safety Planning Practitioners

Should you need further information, please contact: Catherine.bennett@suffolk.gov.uk