BBC File on 4 has released a new episode on school exclusions and child criminal exploitation in England. The episode hears from parents, pupils and teachers and discusses the targeting of children by criminal gangs. 

Listen to the episode: A different class: excluded kids lured into crime  

See also on NSPCC Learning  > Protecting children from county lines

Operation Sceptre, is a national campaign which takes place twice a year, supporting the work Cumbria Police carry out all year round to ensure residents are safe from knife crime in their community.

Police Officers undertake a range of activities including targeted operations, engagement and education to reassure young people they are safer not carrying knives, and to walk away from harm. 

For more information and support available, please visit Operation Sceptre - Cumbria Constabulory

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Northamptonshire Police have created a short film for parents to raise awareness of child exploitation.  It includes examples of what child exploitation can involve, including criminal and sexual exploitation; common signs of possible exploitation; and information on how to report concerns.

Watch the video/film: Film launched to tackle child exploitation

This form allows professionals to share ‘soft intelligence’ and non urgent information that relates to the exploitation of children for the purpose of identifying and managing risk. This will allow us to develop a more accurate intelligence profile for the County.

Further details about the Multi-Agency Partner Information Submission Form and to access it, can be found on our website here.

#LookCloser have published their latest programme of learning (September - December 2023). Sessions are based on learning from the work of the Children's Society and wider partners to tackle child exploitation and abuse. 

All sessions are free of charge and delivered live via Microsoft Teams, with bookings being take via Eventbrite. A list of sessions taking place are below:

• Safeguarding Care Experienced Young People from Exploitation - Thursday 16 November 2023 (10-11.30am)
• Overcoming Gender Assumptions (Tackling exploitation for young people of all genders) - Monday 11 December 2023 (3-4.30pm)

For more information on each session, dates and links to book, please click here.

Barnardo’s knows that much more needs to be done to protect children from Child Sexual Abuse, Exploitation and Online Harms, so is excited to be launching the second edition of its educational programme, Real Love Rocks, with support from the NWG.

Real Love Rocks Healthy Relationships and Exploitation Educational Resources have been produced with the new statutory Relationships and Sex Education guidance in mind. They cover lots of the issues covered in the updated Keeping Safe in Education 2022 and have been designed in collaboration with young people bravely sharing their stories.

The resources have been designed to help teachers and other professionals educate and talk to children and young people about difficult issues such as consent, grooming, mental health and wellbeing, technology, bullying, pornography, sexual harassment and appropriate and inappropriate relationships. Full details on resources please click here

Primary and Secondary Real Love Rocks Healthy Relationships and Exploitation Educational Resources are available now, with a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) edition available later in 2023.

The packs are designed to be self-explanatory, and no mandatory training is needed for their delivery; however, the team have developed a FREE ‘How To’ webinar which is available on the website and will take you through everything you need to know and useful tips on delivering the programme.

Since May 2023 the Complex Safeguarding Team and area social workers have been working with a cohort of children in Cumberland where there was an identified County Line. Adult nominals had targeted children and exploited them into this form of drug supply. The County Line was disrupted by Cumbria Police and there was joined up working between the Complex Safeguarding Team, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Serious and Organised Crime Unit in the Police. This led to National Referral Mechanisms referrals being progressed for 2 of the children. They have now been recognised by the Home Office as victims of Modern Day Slavery and will be able to use this in their defence.  

A Child Exploitation Intervention worker has been working with the children and has now concluded direct work with 2 of these children. The direct work focused on understanding exploitation, grooming, and working with the children to ensure their voices were heard by the professional network and their families. The Child Exploitation Intervention Worker engaged with the parents of these children supporting them engage with children’s services assessments. The children were out of education at the point to being allocated to the Child Exploitation Intervention Worker, 1 of the children had not accessed education for over 18 months. They are now all engaged in some form of education provision and no longer have an active Child Exploitation Pathways.

During May and June there was some issues with a group of children who were regularly going missing and becoming involved in anti-social behaviour. To address this a joined up approach was needed with everyone working with the children and young people involved. One child in particular was coming to increasing police attention, a 13 year old female who had gone from being a high achiever in school to displaying challenging behaviour and anti-social behaviour within the community. They first came to the attention of the Child Centred Policing Team in March 2023 and interventions were put in place. However, unfortunately behaviours continued to escalate quickly despite the intervention and in May and June they were reported missing a total of 27 times and in a short period of time featured as a suspect in 30 crimes including assault, assault emergency worker, burglary, theft, criminal damage, and public order. 

Police, Children Services, Youth Justice Services amongst other agencies providing a multi-agency response to the situation, police put in a curfew, bail conditions and issued a child exploitation warning letter. Children’s Services, Youth Justice and the Missing, Exploited, Trafficked co-Ordinator worked closely to ensure a co-ordinated response.

A Child Exploitation worker from the Complex Safeguarding Team was allocated to work with the child due to worries about exploitation when they were missing and a Resilience worker from Children’s Services was also working with them and there was an intense support plan in place with daily support to start with. The child was able to build a good relationship with the Child Exploitation worker who would see them 2 or 3 times a week and they would also complete their return home interviews building a trusting relationship with them.

A crucial part of the work was listening to the child, ensuring that her voice was heard, and agencies responded appropriately.  An example was following a settled period police relaxed the bail conditions, so they could spend time with a friend supervised by professionals working with them.

Currently the child has not been reported missing from home since the end of June. The crimes have significantly reduced, they are no longer frequently missing. The child exploitation pathway has ended. The has remained in the family home, with support from all agencies and relationships within the home and her behaviour within school has significantly improved.

The multi-agency response provided to this child and the wider group have seen a significant reduction in anti-social behaviour and missing from home within the area. It is acknowledged that without the intense support being provided and the relationship between the child and their Child Exploitation worker this progress may not have been possible.

Cumbria Safeguarding Children Partnership (CSCP) has been developing the Child Exploitation Champions Network.

The CSCP aims for each organisation signed up to the partnership to have a Child Exploitation Champion.

The Complex Safeguarding Team have developed a Child Exploitation Champion leaflet to give more information on what is expected from a Child Exploitation Champion. 

You can find this leaflet here to share within your own organisation and/or any other organisation you work with. The leaflet also gives details on how to become a Child Exploitation Champion. 

The CSCP recommend that anyone working with children should complete Child Exploitation (CE) Level 1 eLearning as mandatory training. 

This is a prevalent topic for those working within children, young people and families, and this course aims to give an overview of what child exploitation really is. Within the course you will look at how to identify some of the signs that might be occurring when a child or young person is being exploited, county lines and  the process of grooming.

This training is mandatory for all practitioners working with children and young people.  

To access the training please click here.

For those practitioners who work more closely with children and young people and are involved in their safety planning, these practitioners should complete Child Exploitation (CE) Level 2 training, 

The CE Level 2 training is being delivered face to face or via Teams on the following dates: 

Further details of the training and how to book your place, can be found here. 

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