Cutting children free from sexual exploitation – Local Trends and Responses Becky Lewis, Bristol BASE Children’s Services Manager Our work on child sexual exploitation • Began addressing child sexual exploitation in 1994 • • Opened first service and challenged ‘child prostitution’ Four dimensions to Barnardo’s work on sexual exploitation • Direct work: 1:1 & group, health, missing return visits, parenting work • Training and Consultation: Awareness-raising / training for professionals • Research: Assess trends, risk factors and consequences • Policy: Influence UK, devolved and local government Our specialist support services • Working in 40 local authorities nationally • Worked with over 2,000 sexually exploited young people in 2013-2014 and annually work with over 6,000 young people delivering preventative work • • • • Increasing proportion are male (19% Bristol Apr-Sept 2014) Approx 1/4 are from BME communities (37.9% Bristol AprSept 2014) Average age is reducing; significant proportion ~13 years 4 A’s: Access, Attention, Assertive outreach, Advocacy Bristol BASE • • • • • • • (Barnardo’s Against Sexual Exploitation) Opened in 1997 Working with both young men and women up to the age of 18 – providing a flexible, non-time limited service to some of the most vulnerable young people in the city Multi-disciplinary team Working with the hardest to reach and most socially excluded young people Joint working with key partner agencies (CYPS, Police, Education & Health) Hub & Spoke Model: Currently have SLA with South Gloucestershire and Spot Purchasing arrangements with BANES, North Somerset, Somerset, Swindon, Wiltshire, Avon and Somerset Constabulary and private residential units in the area Worked with 115 young people in the last 6 months Models of Exploitation Peer Exploitation Gang Involvement & Drug Running Party Model Hotels/Flats Formal Street/Parlour Based Exploitation Trafficked Young People Self Generated Indecent Imagery Boyfriend Model Online Exploitation •Lone abusers but increasingly networked •Female abusers •Children exploited as recruiters •Family members implicated Perpetrator Activity Perpetrator Activity The bigger picture locally • • • • • • • • • • Hidden scene – little street/parlour work Exploitation happens in houses and flats Less formal selling of sex but sex in exchange for accommodation, drugs, alcohol, clothes, friendship Geographical ‘hotspots’ Peer, controlling boyfriends – gateway to much older abusers Older females grooming young people Running away from home/care Underground issue - new technologies Internal trafficking Drug running and gang involvement What works? “Well do you think I just woke up one day and thought ‘ I know I’ll be a rent boy today?’ Thousands of things have happened to get me here – mum leaving, no one at home, hanging around the pub late and waiting to go home with dad. Having blokes try and touch us up, seeing boys do tricks and getting cash and fags. If you want to change me, you’re probably going to have to do thousands of things just to balance it out” (BASE Young Person – aged 15) Barnardo’s Evidence Based 4 A’s Model Access Friendly, welcoming and safe service Easy referral process Short waiting lists, if any Practical support facilities ‘One stop’ multi-disciplinary team Open and honest intervention – ‘no secrets’ policy Respectful of young peoples choices and rights Support on young persons terms, at their pace Non-time limited intervention Assertive Outreach Core belief that no child is ‘un-engagable’ Establishing and maintaining contact – not giving up Flexible, responsive approach Tracking children down Making engagement easier for young people Attention Consistent and persistent attention from a trusted adult Safe and secure relationship formed with their key worker but also a team response when in crisis Therapeutic response that demonstrates genuine care and concern and begins to counteract the attention from abusers Strengths based model of working, not deficit model Recognition of positive change through rewards Holistic attention about the child’s life Advocacy Mediation work Educating and influencing external professionals Conveying the child’s voice and wishes Ensuring their needs are not overlooked Advocacy for effective care plans Engagement & Assessment Period Therapeutic Support Period Moving on Period Harm reduction & Safety planning work Structured CSE support sessions - Grooming - Consent - Internet safety - Abusive relationships Exiting exploitative relationship work Practical support Trauma recovery work Court support Crisis Intervention Support Emotional containment/regulation support Family Work & Placement Stability Support Court Work – Family & Criminal Court Access to BASE sexual health nurses and CAMHS nurse when/if required Intensive Multi-agency working Perpetrator identification, mapping, and implementation of multi-agency disruption plans What are the challenges? • Making contact with disengaged children and young people • Child Protection arrangements – focus is often on the child’s ‘difficult’ behaviour rather than the abuse they’ve encountered and continue to experience • Building trust takes a significant amount of time due to being repeatedly let down • Children and young people are the agents of their own risk • Response is victim led rather than focused on disrupting perpetrator networks resulting in low prosecution rates of perpetrators • The needs of these young people are still not on the agenda compared with the needs of much younger children despite learning from serious case reviews Principles for Young Person Centred Practice Specialist support that isn’t disclosure dependant or prescriptive Changes to the judicial system. In the meantime use of special measures Knowledgeable professionals whose actions and interventions challenge blame Plans that preempt periods of disruption – expectations aren’t unrealistic Robust perpetrator responses – location & individual strategies Break away from blinkered individual child focus recognising victim networks Continuity of support – workers, carers and police officers that don’t change Prevention and early intervention Persistent, consistent and assertive support BASE DVD Government Guidance and Learning from SCRs Coffey, A (2014) Real Voices: Child sexual exploitation in Greater Manchester, An independent report by Ann Coffey, MP DCSF Guidance (2009) Safeguarding Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation DFE (Nov 2013) Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation Action Plan and Action Plan – Progress Report DFE (Jan 2014) Statutory guidance on children who run away or go missing from home or care DH Child sexual exploitation: health working group report (Jan 2014) Derby Safeguarding Childrens Board (Aug 2013) Operation Kern Learning Review Summary Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham (1997 – 2013) The Jay Report 2014 Oxford County Council (Nov 2013) Action in Response to Child Sexual Exploitation in Oxfordshire Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Childrens Board (Dec 2013) The Overview Report of the Serious Case Review (redacted) Torbay Safeguarding Childrens Board (Feb 2013) Serious Case Rebview Executive Summary Case 26 Current literature and research • Barnardo’s (2011) Puppet on a string: The urgent need to cut children free from child sexual exploitation. London: Barnardo’s • Barnardo’s (2013) Running away from hate to what you think is love. London: Barnardo’s • Barnardo's(2014) Report of the Parliamentary inquiry into the effectiveness of legislation for tackling child sexual exploitation and trafficking within the UK – Chaired by Sarah Champion MP • Beckett, H ., Brodie, I., Factor, F., Melrose, M., Pearce, J; Pitts, J; Shuker, L & Warrington, C. (2013) ‘It's wrong…but you get used to it' A qualitative study of gangassociated sexual violence towards, and exploitation of, young people in England. University of Bedfordshire: Bedfordshire • Berelowitz, S., Clifton, J., Firimin, C., Gulyurtlu, S. & Edwards, G. (2013) “If only someone had listened”: Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups. Final Report. The Office of the Children’s Commissioner: London • CEOP (2011) CEOP Thematic assessment: Out of Mind, Out of Sight: Breaking down the barriers to understanding child sexual exploitation. London: CEOP • Coy, M., Kelly, L., Elvines, F., Garner, M., &Kanyeredzi , A. (2013) “Sex without consent, I suppose that is rape”: How young people in England understand sexual consent. Office of the Children’s Commissioner: London • Department of Health (DoH) (2014) Child sexual exploitation: health working group report The Stationary Office: London www.barnardos.org.uk/cse