Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) in Rotherham
Update on partners’ responses to child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Rotherham (Ian Thomas to report)
A summary of recent action taken and other relevant developments relating to CSE prevention and victim support.
Minutes:
The Chairman reported that it was the anniversary of the publication of the Jay report. Some very good and positive work had been done in the last year and things were moving forward.
Ian Thomas concurred that there was a lot to celebrate but there was still a lot more to do. It had only been since the Commissioners had joined the Council in February that work had had a chance to be started. This work had included:-
- The CSE Team was now stronger and there was also a multi-agency team with Police, Barnardos and Health colleagues which was managing 73 cases at the current time, of a total of 2,300 across the service.
- New working protocols agreedwith the Police
- Establishment of a Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Panel
- New governance arrangements in place that had led to improvements and how to manage operations
- Operation Clover was delivering results, as well as 4 other live operations that were not in the public domain as yet, which reflected different levels of complexity
- Taxi Licensing was much more robust
- An Ofstedvisit had recently occurred to look at Services in terms of improvement and audited 6 cases across Social Care. 1 of the cases had been a CSE case and rated Good which was testament of the ongoing work
- Council had given over £500K to the voluntary sector to support victims and survivors, also partners have invested to respond to CSE
- A further £262K had been made available in the voluntary sector from the Ministry of Justiceto help those people coming forward where they needed counselling and support
- 300 people supported through the above contracts
- Successful in securing DfE Innovation Funding of £1.2M across the sub-region to recruit specialist foster carers for children who experienced or were at risk of suffering CSE
- £3.1M funding for an Outreach Project – Barnardos to replicate much of what was good about the former Risky Business project
Jason Harwin gave the following update:-
- Operation Clover – so far 8 people had been charged with over 109 offences
- Over the last 12 months 54 had been charged with offences in South Yorkshire, 11 with multiple offences and 22 in Rotherham
- Abduction Notices was a tool in the Police’s armoury – 36 had been issued in the last 6 months
- Linkages with survivors – once the criminal proceedings had been concluded there would be the opportunity to offer services
Resolved:- That the update be noted.
The Chair vacated the Chair at this point.
The Vice-Chair assumed the Chair.
(Julie Kitlowski in the Chair)