Agenda item

 

To receive the report and to note the progress made against the Child Exploitation Strategy 2024-29.

Consideration was given to the report which outlined progress against the objectives in the Strategy at the conclusion of the second of the five years following approval by Cabinet in July 2024. 

 

The Chair welcomed to the meeting:-

 

·              Councillor Cusworth, Cabinet Member and Deputy Leader

·              Chris MacDonald, Head of Safeguarding

·              Kelly White, Service Director and Link Officer

·              Darren Downs, Independent Chair

·              Chief Superintendent Andy Wright, South Yorkshire Police

 

The Cabinet Member had pleasure in presenting the Child Exploitation Strategy

progress update and explained how the strategy outlined the multi-agency approach to preventing, identifying and responding to all forms of child exploitation.   The strategy had a strong focus on early intervention, partnership working and listening to the voices and experiences of children and young people, but also recognised the evolving nature of exploitation and the need for a co-ordinated and trauma-informed response across safeguarding partners.

 

The strategy also set clear priorities and shared responsibilities to ensure that children at risk were protected, supported and able to recover, while exploitation was prevented, disrupted and responded to through co-ordinated partnership working.

 

The strategy embedded trauma-informed practise within specialist exploitation and safeguarding services and the delivery of this was recognised by Ofsted.

 

Chris MacDonald, Head of Safeguarding, walked the Commission through the presentation which had been circulated with the agenda pack and highlighted:-

 

The definition of the Strategy:-

 

•              Child exploitation is not easily defined.

•              Multiple forms of harm which are exploitative, including child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation, radicalisation and trafficking.

•              A common thread in all exploitation of children is using an imbalance of power to manipulate, coerce or control a child to make them behave in way which the exploitative adult wants, for their own benefit.

 

The duties of the Strategy:-

 

•              The Council has a duty to safeguard children and provide services to children and their families to promote their welfare.

•              The Council also has a duty to work with partner agencies and partner agencies have a duty to work with the Council to keep children safe.

•              Exploitation of children is a pernicious crime and the Council’s commitment to tackling it remains unwavering, as does our commitment to listen and learn from past mistakes.

 

The background to the Strategy:-

 

•              July 2024 – Cabinet approved the Child Exploitation Strategy 2024-29: A Vision for Managing Risk Outside The Home.

•              The Strategy is delivered through the Child Exploitation Delivery Group (CEDG), within Rotherham Safeguarding Children’s Partnership.

•              CEDG is chaired by Detective Superintendent Anna Sedgwick. There are working groups which report into CEDG, and a link to the operational Child Exploitation Tactical Group.

 

Rotherham’s Safeguarding Children’s Partnership:-

 

·              Under the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements, the Lead Safeguarding Partners are:-

 

1.           The Chief Executive of Rotherham MBC

2.           The Chief Executive of South Yorkshire ICB

3.           The Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police

 

·              The Delegated Safeguarding Partners are:-

 

1.           Strategic Director, Children’s Services, Rotherham MBC

2.           Director of Nursing, South Yorkshire ICB

3.           Chief Superintendent for Rotherham, South Yorkshire Police

 

There is also an Independent Chair and Scrutineer for RSCP, Darren Downs.

 

Governance:-

 

·              Child Exploitation Delivery Group meets bimonthly, and reports into the Executive Group bimonthly.

 

There are four priorities:

 

1.           Prepare

2.           Prevent

3.           Protect

4.           Pursue

 

Prepare:-

 

•              Rolling multi-agency training programme, led by our specialist Evolve service, which considers wider ‘Harm Outside The Home’ approaches too.

•              Rigorous approach to taxi licensing in Rotherham, which was commended in Baroness Casey’s National Audit.

•              Section 175 self-assessments and our follow-up assurance visits explicitly consider how schools safeguard children from exploitation and online harm.

•              Improved early intervention, as identified through partner agencies completing more of our Family Assessments of Need.

 

Prevent:-

 

•              Using Operation Makesafe and Operation Keepsafe as tactics to disrupt and dissuade exploitation in the borough.

•              Fearless campaign targeted young people aged 11 to 16 years old to empower them to report crime, including knife crime, drug dealing and exploitation, anonymously.

•              South Yorkshire Police have attended a number of forums, including the Designated Safeguarding Lead forum where each school is represented, to promote intelligence sharing.

 

Protect:-

 

•              Harm Outside the Home approach introduced, which extends the role of the independent Chair from young people at risk of significant harm to children in need as well.

•              Robust multi-agency data which allows us to monitor trends. This includes a range of measures for the Police including intelligence, referrals and offences which relate to child exploitation.

 

Pursue:-

 

•              Child Exploitation Tactical Group provides a weekly multi-agency environment to assess and manage risk, including legal powers to disrupt exploitation. Successful operation and criminal prosecutions have emerged from CETG.

•              Strong links developed into Organised and Violent Crime Silver Group to ensure a robust multi-agency approach to the role of organised crime in child exploitation.

•              There are commissioned services which support survivors of child sexual exploitation, child and adult, with recovery from their experiences.

 

Ofsted ILACS November 2025 Quote.

 

Priorities in the next twelve months:-

 

•              Developing the Harm Outside The Home approach to grow the focus on locations and ‘hotspots’, in conjunction with CETG, Neighbourhood Tasking Groups and Community Action Partnerships.

•              Improved interface for partners with the launch of the Children’s Portal, which will allow partner agencies to submit their Family Assessment of Need directly onto Early Help and Children’s Social Care systems.

•              Sharpening the link between intelligence and the focus of Operation Keepsafe and Operation Makesafe.

•              Developing improved child exploitation training packages for non-traditional partners from the leisure and hotel industries.

•              Positioning the workplan to ensure a focus on what data demonstrates are the most prominent forms of harm.

 

The Chair invited questions from Members.

 

A discussion and answer session ensued and the following issues were raised and clarified:-

 

-               With regards to the multi-agency engagement with people on Page 57, Section 1.8 of the agenda pack if did indicate that services would engage with any parent to try and help the child. What would happen if parents were unwilling to engage either through fear, cultural challenges or a mistrust of agencies.

 

The Head of Safeguarding confirmed child protection processes set out clearly thresholds to be worked to.  There was a whole raft of different approaches should engagement become an issue.  Social Workers were skilled in what may drive this kind of behaviour, but the priority remained that the starting position would be to keep a young person safe by working with the family first.

 

It was inevitable that young people would need time to build a rapport with professionals, but persistence, creativity and honesty would pay off.

 

The Service Director for Early Help emphasised the specialist skills required to establish effective relationships with young people and recognised the dependence on other professionals who often spend more time supporting them.

 

-               Were there any interventions around online safety, addiction to screen time for families in Rotherham in terms of practical support and was this recognised as an issue.

 

The Service Director of Early Help acknowledged this was difficult and not straightforward as it was a form of activity that could not readily be controlled.  Some intervention work was taking place about school readiness and transition rather than any reliance on electronic devices.  A raft of support was available for parents through Family Hubs and it was about how people could be encouraged to engage without requiring a device to do so.  This needed to be a partnership, particularly around the school readiness for children.  If families were identifying screen use as an issue, they could seek support through the MASH who would be able to signpost and connect families with the support that was available.

 

-               Reference was made to working with hotels and if there was any influence of having a home screen prompting staff to be vigilant in spotting suspicious behaviour on check in.

 

In addition, it was noted that many young people exposed to exploitation from a young age did not associate that this behaviour was inappropriate.  What was the earliest age work was taking place with young people to demonstrate what healthy relationships looked like and whether there was a willingness to commence this work in pre-school when children were starting to forge friendships.

 

The Head of Safeguarding addressed the second point first and confirmed Rotherham was fortunate to have an education safeguarding lead who engaged all schools in Rotherham.

 

One of the Safeguarding Education Delivery Groups was also supporting schools on the delivery of early work on relationships, relationship dynamics and what exploitation or coercion looked like with influence on the PSEE curriculum.

 

Further investigation would be required to see what work was taken place in the primary sector as the work was primarily undertaken in secondary schools.

 

The Cabinet Member reflected on previous work and the need to be ahead of the curve in addressing healthy relationships.  In secondary schools it was a key part of the national curriculum with little focus in primary on intimate relationships with more on friendships and teamwork.

 

It was important to look at this at a younger age and further information on what was taking place or available would be made available to the Commission.  The national curriculum was under review with a keen focus from the Government on life skills.

 

Where a gap was identified in Rotherham this would need to be delivered through the family homes network and the positive relationships with schools and early years providers was growing because of the changes in legislation.

 

The Independent Safeguarding Chair referred back to the question about hotels and keeping people safe, but whilst there may be some quick wins around screensavers, the challenge being faced was with many hotels being part of national chains.

 

As the world was changing many people no longer checked into hotels preferring to book an Airbnb and not a normal taxi preferring an Uber.

 

It was important to stay ahead of the curve and Rotherham was further down the line than other authorities.  This was recognised in the recent inspection and the evidence within Baroness Casey’s report.

 

-               Speaking from experience it appeared that some primary schools were sharing healthy relationship training with children.

 

In preparation of the priorities and the approach for rigorous taxi licencing with the surge of Uber and drivers licensed in other areas coming to drive in Rotherham, it may be quite a stretch to achieve.

 

The Head of Safeguarding confirmed there were  challenges created by the licencing scheme, but the licensing system in Rotherham was very robust.  There were some local authorises who have issued a larger number of taxi licences, but it was important for this to be a focus and presented to a regional forum across all of South Yorkshire on approaches and opportunities.  There were some licensing elements that would require a legislative change.

 

-               There was still one weak area within the licensing sector and this was in relation to takeaways who had suppressed hours of opening.  Lobbying was taking place to the Food Standards Agency about registration as there had evidence that these takeaways were often a front for modern slavery and this needed to be tightened.

 

The Cabinet Member confirmed that these incidents had not been found in Rotherham.  These details would be shared with Community Safety and Environmental Health about the risks of exploitation associated with non-licensed food premises.

 

The Chief Superintendent provided assurance that whilst some of these issues fell outside of the licencing regime in terms of some of the Council mechanisms, the benefit of the Child Exploitation Delivery Group was that any intelligence received, regardless of its status, would be discussed with all relevant partners around the table.  So whilst the Council might not have the right levers through the licencing legislation, actually other partners may have the right levers to be able to investigate any concerns that were raised.

 

-               Reference was again made to the healthy relationships work within primary schools, but with focus on how addictive social media and screen activity was becoming.  Was there anything taking place in schools to address this. 

 

The Cabinet Member confirmed this kind of work was already taking place by Me In Mind.

 

-               Clarification was sought on information on Page 59 Section 2.5 which talking about building strong links with probation who attended the Child Exploitation Delivery Group which provided joined up management of risk from offenders. 

 

-               The Chair confirmed this did refer specifically to offenders and asked looking back at the previous strategy if anyone was working with non-traditional partners such as contractors in terms of their awareness of exploitation and how to channel that intelligence into the right channels.

 

The Head of Safeguarding described the “Spot the Signs” public campaign used to influence the likes of contractors and non-traditional

partners.  Much of this work on intelligence has led to the opportunity to disrupt some exploitation much earlier for young people.

 

-               Reference was made to the Government launching a twelve-week campaign about taxi licencing that closed on 1st April and the potential of it coming under the remit of the combined authority.  It was imperative that the excellent work in Rotherham should not be diluted.  Did anyone have any insight about the direction of travel.

 

The Chair of Licensing acknowledged the concerns of other drivers being licensed in other areas, but confirmed Rotherham’s licensing model was held in regard as best practice.

 

The Independent Safeguarding Chair endorsed what the Chair of Licensing had just said and confirmed that presentations had been made to the South Yorkshire wide Strategic Safeguarding Partnership Group about pushing further and extending safeguards to Uber and Airbnb establishments.  This did not guarantee safety, but gave additional assurances.

 

-               Was consideration given to engagement, when children were brought into care, with parents and the support that may be available if this failed.

 

The Service Director for Social Care confirmed that with any interventions, the relationships with families continued regardless of where children ended up within a very complex system.   Where a child entered local authority care this was due to an acute issue where a child needed to be kept safe. The position of the local authority was from an intervention perspective to get that child back home with parents.  To ensure effective relationships with parents the Council’s excellent support and intervention services sat within both family help and children's social care.

 

If adults were choosing not to engage with services children were often left in the situation they were.  However, there were proactive efforts to explore avenues for children to return home.

 

The Cabinet Member responded by confirmed there were many valid reasons why children were often placed at a distance when there was a need to remove them from where the exploitation had been taking place.

 

The Service Director for Early Help provided additional assurance that whilst opportunities were considered for children to return home, there was acceptance that family circumstances did change and life did move on.  A Panel looked at children’s situations and whether they were likely to return home to parents or even extended family members and how best this could happen.  There was often a knowledge gap and consideration was given as how to upskill parents to make a child returning home a success.

 

-               Over the life of the strategy and the headline, harm outside the home, had there been any feedback as to whether there was a link between the online harms that technically did occur within the home outside of the family relationship.

 

The Head of Safeguarding confirmed there were occasions where exploitation began online and progressed to the real world.  The feedback had been universally positive with examples of young people delivering their experiences.

 

 

The Cabinet Member acknowledged this was a good point that it had been picked up nationally and things were progressing at a pace.  Up to that point, people talked about contextual safeguarding, but there did not appear to be a shared understanding of what that really meant.  It was, therefore, reframed using more straightforward language around harm outside the home, which was quite different from traditional social work focused on families, neglect and intra?familial abuse.  Over time, a clearer term or framework may emerge that better captured this.

 

There had been developments such as online abuse legislation and wider discussions about online harms alongside the concept of harm outside the home.  This could create an assumption that if a child was physically at home say, in a bedroom they were safe, which was not always the case.  This would be brought up at the next LGA meeting.

 

The Service Director for Early Help provided some assurance that as part of the Family First programme work was taking place about language with particular focus on the use of plain language.

 

A series of workshops was also being run with families and children who have experienced services, spanning Family Help right the way through to statutory social care, to ensure their voices were heard.

 

Importantly, this work was not about changing thresholds. The threshold descriptions remained the same, and the law had not changed.  Instead, the focus was on how those thresholds were described in a more family?friendly way, particularly for those engaging with services.

 

Two workshops were held last week and another was scheduled for the 30^th April, 2026.  Sessions were also being held with practitioners.  It was highly likely that Harm Outside the Home, both as a concept and as terminology, would feature in those discussions as well.

 

Resolved:-  (1)  That the progress made against the Child Exploitation Strategy 2024-29 be noted.

 

(2)  That consideration be given as to what work is taking place in the primary sector around the work on healthy relationships.

 

(3)  That detail be shared with Community Safety and Environmental Health about the risks of exploitation associated with non-licensed food premises.

 

(4)  That consideration be given as to how to equip non-traditional partners and contractors to identify and respond to child exploitation now and in the future.