Agenda item

Report of the Head of Democratic Services

Councillor David Mellen, Portfolio Holder for Early Intervention and Early Years introduced the report. He was supported by Alison Michalska, Corporate Director for Children and Adults and the following points were highlighted:

a)  There is an important difference between Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and abuse. CSE involves a child receiving something in exchange for sexual activity. Often young people do not recognise that they’re being abused and may refer to their abuser as their partner or boyfriend. Exploitative relationships are characterised by disparities in age and power.

b)  CSE can occur online where young people are persuaded to send pictures or other information via the internet. Groups of people, usually groups of men, can be involved in exploiting young people. Usually, girls are targeted but boys can be targeted as well. Those that are particularly vulnerable to CSE include those who are neglected or separated from their carers, unaccompanied asylum seekers, those in care homes (because of their historic experiences not any inaction on the part of the home), and those missing from care homes.

c)  CSE is not new and work has been underway to tackle it for many years, however far more attention has been paid to it over the last 18 months due to high profile cases in Rotherham and Oxfordshire. There is some very good practice in the city and colleagues have worked with the Department for Education and the Home Office to help develop government best practice.

d)  A CSE co-ordinator has been appointed as an expert and lead professional for both City Council colleagues and professionals from partner organisations to seek advice from. The Co-ordinator disseminates learning and shares lessons should things go wrong. Nottingham City Council continues to work closely with Nottinghamshire County Council.

e)  Bringing offenders to justice is a challenge. Young people often don’t make good witnesses because to the damage that has been done to them. There is also a focus on protecting children from harm and preventing crimes from occurring so often there is no conviction to be sought.

f)  There is a multi-agency CSE Panel chaired by Helen Blackman, Director of Children’s Social Care at Nottingham City Council, which tracks each individual vulnerable child that we are aware of. It pulls together information around perpetrators, hotspots, and areas where children congregate that makes them vulnerable. It also ensures that information sharing can happen between organisations.

g)  Work has been done to train and inform the wider workforce and others such as taxi drivers and hotel staff of signs of CSE so they can act as eyes and ears in the community. Young people might talk to other people in positions of trust. We have also done a series of lunchtime seminars to get message out to as many staff as possible. Youth and play workers have also been trained to look out for signs of CSE such as a child having more money than would be expected without explanation or having jewellery or an extra phone.

h)  Child Abduction Notices are very effective and are used to prevent children from being exploited. The notice prohibits specific individuals from approaching specific children.

i)  Nottingham City Council is developing a more sophisticated database and will continue to work with the Police to identify perpetrators and vulnerable children. The Council is planning to write to all parents via schools in the New Year informing them to look out for indicators of CSE. This is allied to a national campaign taking place in 2016.

During discussions the following further information was provided:

j)  Social workers with high levels of case work tend to be those on front line. Those working with children in care tend to have fewer longer term cases usually in the high teens in number. If it goes over this number it tends to be because they are working with a large sibling group. Some have fewer if they are dealing with very complex cases.

k)  Relationships between social workers and care homes are much better than they were historically and they are managed by the same person. All homes are now small units with 2-3 children and all are rated good or outstanding. There is no issue over who raises concerns and no hierarchy that impacts on this. Homes are extremely closely regulated with monthly internal inspections and 6 monthly Ofsted inspections.

l)  There are very good relationships between the Police and other agencies and no concerns about data sharing. In its report into Police Effectiveness in December 2015, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary found that, Nottinghamshire Police in still developing its understanding of CSE but there is an urgent need to expand the knowledge of the threat, harm and risk posed by CSE in Nottinghamshire. This was in relation to area policing teams and not to public protection specialists.

m)  One child at risk of CSE is too many but the actual number we are concerned about is small, between 10 and 15.

RESOLVED to:

(1)  Thanks the contributors for the report and information provided at the meeting;

(2)  Invite the CSE Co-ordinator to a future meeting to discuss the role and an update on the work underway to tackle CSE in Nottingham.