Child criminal exploitation

The Bracknell Forest Makesafe is a small team comprising a manager, a specialist social worker and a specialist family worker. The team undertakes direct work with children at risk of exploitation.

The team reported that between 2021 to 2022, the number of vulnerable children assessed as level 3 had halved from the previous year.

Children assessed at Levels 1, 2 and 3 between 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 2022

Assessed as level 1 (vulnerabilities to exploitation but no indications child is being groomed):

• 2020 to 2021 - 51%
• 2021 to 2022 - 67%

Assessed as level 2 (indicators that the child is being groomed for the purposes of exploitation):

• 2020 to 2021 - 24.5%%
• 2021 to 2022 - 22%

Assessed as Level 3 (evidence of active exploitation):

• 2020 to 2021 - 24.5%%
• 2021 to 2022 - 11%

The reduction in level 3 cases creates a shift towards more awareness raising and preventative support for young people.

The Makesafe team noted that “nothing has been usual for children since the pandemic began”. The goal is to move forward collaboratively. We want to make Bracknell Forest as safe as it can be for children regaining opportunities lost during the pandemic. This review aimed to support that goal by considering key aspects of safeguarding and scrutinising how effective they are.

The Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) is the ‘integrated front door’ for all new safeguarding concerns about children. It consists of staff from:

• Social Care
• Early Help
• Youth Justice
• police
• Education
• Health
• Housing
• Probation

They work collectively to triage new reports about children from referral partners across the borough. Referral partners include members of the public, professionals and families of children directly.

The MASH use an integrated CCE screening tool to collate information and capture concerns. The MASH, or other agencies who know the children best, complete the screening tool to draw out the level of risk and next steps. MASH staff are trained to use the tool appropriately, as well as how to use professional judgement alongside the tool.

The MASH is the central point for receiving all missing children notifications from the police. They play an integral role in coordinating follow-up activity for each child reported missing. They make sure that return home conversations take place by the relevant agency and practitioner.

Return home conversations are conducted by the Youth Service, Children’s Social Care or the Make Safe exploitation team. The MASH role is to make sure contacts are received, triaged and allocated to the correct follow-up agency within 24 hours.

Missing and Child Exploitation (MACE) is concerned with oversight and scrutiny. It aims to make sure everything that should be done for a child is being done. The MACE may also look at how partners can work together to neutralize hotspots.

MACE meet once a month, but many other meetings happen as issues emerge. The agenda is fixed and a child will stay on it until such a time it is agreed, collectively, that the risk is reduced. Once this happens, the child will go on to the risk management meeting and agenda. This is a meeting between the police and Makesafe.

This allows police intelligence, CCE concerns and any information that gives partners a grasp of what's going on to be shared. They work together to prevent and avoid the criminalisation of children.

The Youth Justice Team works with children over the age of 10 who are at risk of entering the criminal justice system. Some of these children who come into contact with the service may be demonstrating behaviours that could be indicative of CCE. For example using substances or showing violence and aggression at home toward their parents.

The team use a range of assessment tools (including the screening tool) to help identify children whose behaviour may be caused by CCE. They work closely with the exploitation team in these instances. The team works with the police to avoid criminalisation of children who have offended because they have been exploited by others to do so.

Youth Justice Team is multidisciplinary. There is a health worker, social worker, speech and language worker, and mental health worker. The ability to respond to all areas of a child's life, where they're struggling or navigating difficult things, helps to tackle CCE.

If there is evidence of a child being exploited there is a national referral mechanism (NRM). The referral will be evaluated by the staff at the NRM who will then provide conclusive grounds that the child in question has been exploited. This can be used as evidence in court. It is a useful tool that supports a child through a criminal investigation where they are the victim. If a child ends up in court because of a drug or other offence, and there is evidence of exploitation, Youth Justice will mitigate for them on that basis.

The Youth Justice Team works closely with schools to keep young people in school. There is an education worker in the team who links with the schools and will attend some of the exclusion meetings. The education worker will try to put things in place to make it easier in school for that child and to hopefully prevent exclusion. The team have also done some group work in schools where they have talked about exploitation with a group of boys. This started before the pandemic and is starting to resume again now. Children tend to react positively to the sessions.

The Youth Justice Team and Thames Valley Police recently carried out some sessions on knife crime. This was conducted with the children and parents at a local school in the borough.

Recommendation

Crime related awareness activities in local schools have been successful. Based on this, we recommend officers, TVP and other partners develop CCE awareness campaigns. These should be delivered regularly within schools, targeting both children and parents.

The Community Safety Partnership’s (CSP’s) 3-year plan for 2020 to 2023 contains a priority of reducing and responding to exploitation.

The plan is required to be reviewed each year and, in 2021 to 2022, a key focus area of 'serious violence and all-age exploitation' was set.

A strategic Serious Violence and Exploitation Sub-Group has been set up to collectively identify how to prevent and tackle it. They will also manage performance and progress and report back to the CSP.

The CSP also oversee 2 operational groups. One for under 18s at risk of exploitation and serious violence. Another for adult victims at risk and perpetrators (including those who may present a risk to under 18s).

The strategic and operational groups are multi-partner groups. They involve organisations and council services including:

• Involve
• Berkshire Youth
• Youth Services
• police
• school representatives
• the Lexicon
• the Wayz

Community Safety co-ordinates bids for the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Community Safety Fund. In 2022 to 2023, this supported youth diversionary work in the town centre. It also supported a youth project in Crowthorne Parish which involved Parish Council engagement. Both projects are being conducted using community youth organisations.

Community Safety is also supporting the NHS to conduct a focus group of professionals across several boroughs. They are looking at the prevention of serious violence and exploitation involving young people up to the age of 25. They aim to identify gaps and opportunities in provision to reduce young people’s involvement in serious violence.

The team has arranged access to a Serious Violence Dashboard which has been set up by the Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). It shows local perpetrators of serious violence and the people (including children and young people) at risk of harm from them. This data will be used by the 2 operational groups to manage local offenders and safeguard those at risk from them. A wider programme of work is taking place with the VRU. One strand of which is auditing existing community and voluntary sector provision as well as identify gaps in provision.

The team has a growing network of contacts with the local community through services and organisations. This includes Involve and parish and town councils. For ease, awareness and advice, content is mostly shared online or by email. This allows messages to be shared to as wide an audience as possible without incurring costs and requiring large resources. It is recognised that not everyone regularly uses or has access to the internet. Officers have set up stands and held events in the past but did generally find that engagement was difficult. Attendance was sporadic, and reach was limited.

It is acknowledged by officers that CCE awareness does need to be regular and available in different formats. Recent CCE awareness activities include an online modern slavery and exploitation event. This featured several different speakers hosted by Involve. Attendance was fair but several resources were produced and shared. Work also took place with Bracknell and Wokingham College’s Media Department. Films on child exploitation were made and shared publicly.

‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ and other national publications give local authorities a mandate to address concerns around contextual risks.

Contextual Safeguarding approach

Dr Carlene Firmin and colleagues developed this approach at the University of Bedfordshire in 2015. It’s an approach to understanding and responding to young people’s experiences of significant harm beyond their families. It recognises that relationships formed by young people in their neighbourhoods, schools and online can feature violence and abuse. Contextual Safeguarding is an intervention into the contexts presenting harm to children. Contexts such as peer groups, schools, neighbourhoods and online.

Most of the council’s work with businesses on reducing child exploitation is focused within the town centre. This is the social hub of Bracknell Forest. The Community Safety Partnership has a close working relationship with the Lexicon and the Peel Centre. This is reflected in the Partnership Problem-Solving Groups and Town Centre Management meeting. Police, the council and businesses work together in this way to problem-solve crime and disorder issues. CCTV in the town centre is in place, not only to prevent crime and disorder but also to offer a level of protection to children and young people. Braccan Walk Youth Centre is also a well-placed safe space for children and young people. Work is taking place to map what it currently offers as well as what its potential is.

The Bracknell Forest Safeguarding Board is leading on Contextual Safeguarding within the borough. The board identifies its aim to address Contextual Safeguarding in its strategic plan. It aims to achieve this by “promoting a Contextual Safeguarding approach by partner organisations”. Adopting this holistic approach to safeguarding practices encourages early identification of potential harm within the wider environment. It promotes collaboration with wider partners to help reduce risk.

Recommendation

We recommended officers engage with local businesses and community organisations to:

• develop strategies to raise awareness of CCE
• promote the creation of safer places for children and young people

Officers from the council highlighted:

• the importance of recognising the changing nature of CCE
• the council and council partners' flexible and collective response to CCE
• the cost-of-living crisis as an emerging issue

Recent trends show younger children and children from middle-class backgrounds targeted by criminals. This is a national trend. Social media is increasingly being used to lure them in. Snapchat is popular with exploiters because of its ability to send impermanent content. Also, during lockdowns, there was an increase in the use of children’s bank accounts by criminals to store illicit cash. This was also seen across the country.

These changes need another shift approach. This is often the case with the evolving CCE landscape, for the detection of earlier signs of CCE is becoming harder.

As highlighted, exploiters adapt their tactics and techniques. For instance, they will move if there is an increased police presence or greater public awareness at a particular place. This can be challenging to monitor, and the sharing of information is key in making sure there is a quick response when there is a change of location.

The changing of ‘hotspots’ is discussed regularly in MACE meetings. Targeting vulnerable locations used by exploiters is part of a wider strategy to prevent or reduce exploitation. Some of these locations may have businesses nearby.

It is recognised by officers that cannabis use is a gateway for exploitation in the local area. Moreover, the drug market is changing across the country, and there is a rise in the use of cannabis edibles by children. They are often sold online and are delivered in the post so they are hard to trace as they look like sweets. The consumption of these edibles (as well as cannabis in general) by children and young people is a significant concern. The impact of cannabis on vulnerable children (particularly with mental health concerns) can be dangerous. Officers recognise more can be done locally to raise awareness of this.

Recommendations

1. Officers should develop and put in place a survey focused on CCE for safeguarding leads from schools in the borough. This is due to the changing nature of CCE and the role education plays in protecting children from exploitation. Findings should be used to identify gaps and areas for improvement in existing policies and practices relating to CCE.
2. Hotspots could be better monitored if officers and partners exchanged information more regularly. The council should work with its partners to develop and maintain a map or database of hot spots related to CCE.
3. The council should conduct regular awareness campaigns about the impact of cannabis use on vulnerable children and young people. A variety of communication channels should be employed. This should include social media, print materials and public events should be considered to reach a wider audience.

The panel met in person to carry out a review of the council’s website within the context of child exploitation. The panel concluded:

1. The information on the 'report child abuse or concern about a child' page is too long and wordy. The language used is overly technical and is not clear or concise enough.
2. It is not clear on the page who MASH is. It is also unclear what hours the phone line is open.
3. There are very few links to useful and relevant external resources relating to child exploitation.
4. Croydon Council’s website was identified as an example of good practice.

Recommendation

Based on their findings during the website review, the panel recommends:

• officers conduct a comprehensive review of the website to enhance the usability and accessibility in relation to child exploitation
• make sure the information is clear and concise, and that there are links to relevant external resources
• engage with children and young people during the process
• consider good practice from other local authorities identified by the panel during this review