Discussion
Minutes:
The Director for Safeguarding Children and Families’ Services (Children and Young People’s Services Directorate) spoke about the needs of individuals who had been subject to Child Sexual Exploitation: -
· Individuals who had been subject to CSE suffered from extreme vulnerabilities and often lived in chaotic and damaging environments;
· Many were current or former looked after children (although not exclusively);
· Many were involved in substance abuse;
· Many individuals were involved in violent relationships and often had repeated violent relationships;
· Many individuals were homeless or lived in inappropriate accommodation;
· Many suffered from mental illnesses or trauma. This was not always diagnosed or of a sufficient level to warrant a formal diagnosis;
· Many individuals who had been subject to CSE experienced developmental delay, for example, enacting adult behaviours but demonstrating childlike reactions and emotions;
· Many previous victims of CSE had difficult family backgrounds and potentially lacked a support network;
· Previous victims were predominately female, but there were also male victims.
Whilst being a highly vulnerable group, many previous victims of CSE did not meet the various Adult agencies’ thresholds for service intervention. Victims of CSE were increasingly visible and Services needed to ensure that they were providing appropriate support.
The Strategic Director of the Neighbourhood and Adult Services Directorate outlined the proactive ways that the Adult Safeguarding Team had responded to the recommendations of the Jay Report. To date, risk assessment had been undertaken with 37 individuals and appropriate support had been offered. The Adult Safeguarding Team were at the start of developing a systematic identification and support process for previous victims of CSE.
Councillor Roche commended the necessary and important work that had been described and asked how it would be resourced in the climate of reducing resources?
The Director for Safeguarding Children and Families’ Services explained that there may be potential to put together a proposal to seek additional funding through Social Impact Bonds and this would be further explored Whilst tending to not use formal services, the typical behaviour of previous victims of CSE did represent a pull on resources for reactive services, such as drug and alcohol support, police response and short-term tenancy/homeless services. This represented a considerable spend and yet the individuals were not necessarily getting the full support they required.
Securing additional funding would necessitate the creation of baseline data and case studies in order to demonstrate improvements as a result of the investment and potential returns on the investment.
Shared learning and best practice from other local authority areas would also be considered.
Councillor Beaumont asked what support was available for younger and current or more recent victims of CSE? Children and young people were eligible for all services provided by the Council and its partners if they were victims of CSE. Young people reported being aware of CSE but not always knowing what to do if they felt that they were being groomed or targeted. Community awareness raising was also being delivered to businesses.
Safeguarding Children and Families’ Services had very low vacancy rates for Social Worker posts. The Service was continually recruiting and it was rare for a vacancy to stand for very long – usually they were filled immediately. The Service needed to focus on recruiting and retaining experienced Social Work staff as there was currently a disproportionate number of newly qualified staff who had a protected caseload and could not be assigned highly complex cases.
Councillor Doyle asked about whether specific ‘transitions’ Social Workers or champions were used? Not necessarily, in order to ensure that there was continuity for children and young people, they retained the same Social Worker unless the social worker was on long-term sickness absence or left their job. The Leaving Care Service assigned all young people with a Personal Adviser in the run up to the transitions stage.
Councillor Doyle asked whether there was anyone with a responsibility for the transitions stage also responsible for ensuring the Jay Report recommendations were implemented? Service action plans had been updated to include the Jay Report recommendations, and recommendations of the Corporate Governance and Ofsted Inspections would also be incorporated.
The pre-existing CSE Strategy Action Plan that the Rotherham Local Safeguarding Children Board monitored had also been updated to reflect the Jay Report recommendations.
Resolved: - (1) That the information shared be noted.
(2) That a report be presented to the Cabinet on the efforts to secure additional funding to ensure that the work is owned and supported across the whole Council.