Child Sexual Exploitation Funders’ Alliance
The Child Sexual Exploitation Funder’s Alliance (CSEFA) is a group of charitable funders who are
aligning some of their resources, aiming to bring about a step change in how Child Sexual
Exploitation (CSE) is dealt with across the UK. We are working together to resource a strategy
which has been developed by Professor Jenny Pearce of University of Bedfordshire, in
consultation with key practitioners. The over-arching aim of the strategy is to position CSE as
an integral part of mainstream safeguarding (child protection) activity.
The strategy concentrates on three areas:
 Developing a Hub and Spoke model of specialist services to support victims and improve
multi-agency responses in local areas. This builds on work developed on Teesside by the
Barnardo’s SECOS project which combines specialist support for children and young
people with work to raise awareness and improve the response of local statutory
partnerships. A Hub is understood to be a well-established CSE voluntary sector project
with the management capacity to extend its geographical remit. A Spoke is, at least initially,
a single worker – managed and employed by the Hub – embedded in an appropriate
statutory or voluntary sector agency in a neighbouring authority. Spokes take individual
referrals of children and young people at risk whilst working with local agencies to improve
both their understanding and their systems. Hub and Spoke projects will be funded in three
phases with the first three starting in 2013, a further five staring in 2014 and eight more in
2015. The first three projects are SECOS (Barnardo’s), WISE (Sussex Central YMCA) and
SCARPA (Children’s Society);
 Creating a knowledge hub on CSE at the International Centre for the Study of Sexually
Exploited and Trafficked Young people at University of Bedfordshire. The knowledge hub
includes funding an evaluation of the Hub and Spoke model using a Realist Evaluation
approach, findings from which will contribute to a pool of knowledge about evidence-based
practice in this field. Working wherever possible in collaboration with agencies such as The
National Working Group for Sexually Exploited young people, CEOP, and relevant
children’s charities information will be openly accessible to interested parties and shared
across and within the sector;
 Developing a participation strand which will promote children and young people’s
meaningful involvement in decision making and identify good practice in helping them make
positive transitions to adulthood.
To ensure accountability with the wider sector and make best use of the expertise held in different
voluntary and statutory agencies, an Expert Reference Group, is being convened. Jointly chaired
by Sue Berelowitz (Deputy Children’s Commissioner for England) and Maggie Blyth (lead
representative for CSE on behalf of the Association of Chairs of Local Safeguarding Children
Boards) this group will include senior representatives from key agencies and will both advise on
the delivery of the strategy and help disseminate findings.
Funders involved in CSEFA include: BBC Children in Need, Big Lottery, Bromley Trust, City
Bridge Trust, Comic Relief, Henry Smith Charity, Lankelly Chase Foundation, Northern Rock
Foundation, Oak Foundation, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Samworth Foundation and Trust for
London. Funders will each resource different elements of the strategy according to their different
priorities and/or areas of interest. CSEFA is not a pooled fund and organisations cannot apply
directly to it. Individual organisations may be approached to submit an application for work as
part of this strategy. Outside of the CSEFA-funded work individual CSEFA members will also
continue to process applications for other work around CSE as it fits their wider funding priorities.