Tameside SCB

Guidance

Sexual exploitation of children and young people has been difficult to identify, but is increasingly recognisable as practitioners gain more understanding of grooming and other methods of sexual exploitation, and begin to take a proactive and coordinated approach to this type of abuse. It is not known how prevalent it is, but sexual exploitation has been identified throughout the UK, in both rural and urban areas, and in all parts of the world.

The TSCB has produced Practice Guidance and a format for reporting concerns here in the Publications section.

This link takes you to an interactive model for recognising and understanding signs of child sexual exploitation. It provides an explanation, based on three models of abuse, as to why such changes in a young person's behaviour may be signs that they are at risk of exploitation. 

The government has also produced the following Guidance.

Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation - Supplementary guidance to Working Together to Safeguard Children (2009)

This document provides supplementary guidance to Working Together and should be read in conjunction with it. The aim of this statutory guidance is to support local agencies in their effective application of the core guidance, Working Together, in the specialist area of sexual exploitation. It should help local agencies to:

-          develop local prevention strategies

-          identify those at risk of being sexually exploited

-          take action to safeguard and promote the welfare of particular children and young people who are being, or may be, sexually  exploited and

-          take action against those intent on abusing and exploiting children and young people in this way.

Training

TSCB provide interagency training on Sexual Exploitation

Research

'What's going on.... to safeguard children and young people from sexual exploitation'.

This report details the findings of a research project by Bedfordshire University which explored the extent and nature of the response of LSCBs to the 2009 government guidance on safeguarding children and young people from sexual exploitation.

It found where the guidance is followed, there are examples of developing and innovative practice to protect and support young people and their families and to investigate and prosecute their abusers. However, the research found that the delivery of that dual approach to child sexual exploitation is far from the norm.

A new development within the area of research on vulnerable children and young people is the International Centre for the Study of Sexually Exploited and Trafficked Young People. More information about the Centre is available at: http://www.beds.ac.uk/research/iasr/intcent

The Centre is currently working on a Ministry of Justice funded study into gathering evidence against those who sexually exploit young people and publishes an occasional newsletter, What’s going on. The winter 2010 edition can be accessed here and includes articles on

• How many young people are sexually exploited?
• Recent prosecutions

• A youth work response to sexual exploitation

'Puppet on a string' reveals the urgent need to cut children free from sexual exploitation - January 2011

This report from Barnardo's outlines what is known about the scale and nature of sexual exploitation across the UK and points to some worrying new trends identified by Barnardo’s 22 specialist services. Emphasising that child sexual exploitation is a child protection issue, the report calls for the secretary of state for education to appoint a minister to take forward a national action plan to tackle this crime against children.

Breaking the wall of silence- Practitioners’ responses to trafficked children and young people

By Jenny J. Pearce, Patricia Hynes and Silvie Bovarnick (June 2009) 

This research was conducted by researchers at the University of Bedfordshire and the NSPCC and gives insight into how practitioners have worked with and sometimes overcome the problems presented by trafficking while maintaining the child’s best interests.

The report reveals the complexities involved in identifying and responding to the needs of children and young people who have been trafficked into and within the UK. It argues that trafficking is a process, not a one-off event. Trafficking is often hidden behind a wall of silence with children and young people on one side, afraid or unable to talk, and practitioners on the other, finding it hard to identify the child or young person, respond to their needs or prosecute their abusers.