Report presented by Carol Carruthers, and Lorna Jacques (The Children’s Society)
Minutes:
Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) was defined as someone taking sexual advantage for their own benefit through bribes, threats, violence, humiliation, or telling the victim that they loved them, in order to gain the power to undertake sexual acts for their own or other people’s benefit or enjoyment including touching, kissing of body parts, sex or taking sexual photographs.
Data from the police was given detailing that from July to September 2014 there had been 25 reported suspicions of CSE in Havering. Nineteen of those were investigated. Within those investigations, six gangs were disrupted. These gangs were not from Havering, but some of the victims were. This figure included all children (including ‘Looked After Children’ and ‘at home’ children).
The report into CSE between 1997 and 2013 in Rotherham had been widely publicised, and the implications for all Local Authorities and Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards (LSCBs) were extensive, including a requirement for full auditing.
Officers explained that the key actions for Havering following the Rotherham Inquiry included:
- making sure every child had a voice, taking what children and young people said seriously. The Rotherham Inquiry showed that the opinions of staff of the younger people affected the ways the cases were handled. A case study was detailed of a 14-year-old girl who had classic signs of sexual exploitation, but the authority decided that her mother was not accepting the girl growing up.
- Protecting children placed out of the area - Looked After Children were often placed out of borough, and they were more likely to get involved in gangs. That could make supporting the children more difficult. Within the London region, the Metropolitan Police worked in a joined up way, and shared information. Outside of London, the Police Forces worked differently and information was not shared as readily.
- Profiling including race issues- Councillors in Rotherham knew that individuals from a specific ethnic group of the community were implicated in a large proportion of reported incidents, but failed to report the fact as they were afraid of being labelled as racist. Reporting that fact would have substantially reduced the time taken to identify CSE gangs.
- Therapy devolved to the victims - Contracts for therapy were presently limited to six weeks. This was not long enough for supporting these individuals.
The ‘See me, hear me’ framework was presented, which showed the need to embed good communication in every function.
The ‘missing’ services in Havering were working together in a joined up way. Children flagged to the ‘Missing from School’ service worked with the ‘reported missing’ service to address issues quicker, the service assisting if child exploitation was occurring.
Actions underway to improve the relevant services in Havering were:
- additional training for staff on attitudes, actions and language used when referring to and liaising with children and young people
- respect training to support and guide members of staff
- key partners meeting to develop a detailed action plan
Children had not known that they were at risk, and did not see that they were being abused. It was the responsibility of the adults to help the child identify the risk, and to give them the help they required. Children were already vulnerable. When prepped, groomed and felt loved, they had been pulled into the trap where they may have felt that they had consented.
‘Return home’ interviews were conducted across the borough and although every case was not high risk, some were found to be very serious.
Concerns were raised of at risk children and young people who were Looked After, and placed away from London. London’s connections were strong, but outside of this remit, the information sharing was weaker.
There was a lack of support for adults who were victims of child exploitation, within the known gap between children’s services and adult services.
When a child was identified as a victim of CSE, mapping exercises were used to identify those who they were connected with who may have experienced CSE or who were at high risk.
Profiling children and young people was a difficult task as some cases occurred where victims of CSE came from good homes and good schools in Havering, breaking the expected pattern.
Social Workers and the Children’s Society provided trusted adults for children to talk to if they had concerns or had no one else to talk to.
The gap of service was acknowledged between CSE support (up to the age of 21, or up to 25 if a LAC) and no continuing support into adulthood. Some victims of LAC were even more vulnerable when able to go into independent living.
The Looked After Children report would be brought to the Committee once complete and the next training dates would also be circulated by officers.
Further preventative work was due to be completed in schools including providing more information in Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) classes on the changing context of Havering, and all boroughs.
Continuity of staffing of Social Workers had been identified as problematic, as the same Social Worker was sometimes not available for those that needed support.
The Committee NOTED the presentation.