Child criminal exploitation (CCE) and child sexual exploitation (CSE) are growing concerns nationally and have been described as a "hidden crisis" (Barnardo’s, 2023).
They include involvement in county lines drug dealing, gang violence, forced criminal activity, grooming and child sex trafficking.
Victims of exploitation have been neglected by different agencies for various reasons, but often due to the lack of sharing of knowledge and data.
With the addition of media interest in CSE country-wide, not only are victims forced to re-visit their trauma, but practitioners are also put under further pressure to ensure risk outside the home is minimised for the children in their area.
Most parts of England and Wales are affected by child exploitation and Northamptonshire is no exception.
The need for a change in the approach to exploitation in the county was identified by the Northamptonshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership.
In 2024, Northamptonshire Children’s Trust (NCT), together with Northamptonshire Police, developed a collaborative initiative to safeguard children and young people from exploitation – a new multi-agency hub.
The hub, based in the Criminal Justice Centre in Northampton, focuses on child exploitation across North and West Northamptonshire.
This initiative ensures a multi-agency approach is taken, as the police, health and other services across the safeguarding partnership are often involved in interventions to support children and young people at risk.
Laura Isherwood, who has many years of experience working in child exploitation, heads up a social work team that currently consists of six advanced practitioners.
The team shares the space at the hub with police officers and support workers from police teams involved in diverting young people at risk away from criminality and investigating missing episodes, with these staff having all had training in child exploitation and trauma-informed practice.
Different approaches
Laura and her team have a slightly different approach to traditional social work.“A real focus of our work is developing resilience, supporting young people to develop strategies, critical thinking skills and harm minimisation,” says Laura.
“This is so we can support positive risk-taking at a stage in their life where independence is increasing and they're spending less time with their families and more outside of the home.”
The practitioners in the exploitation team take a mindful approach, striving to make sure children are not criminalised. “We see the exploitation and vulnerability as opposed to just seeing children committing crimes in the community,” says Laura.
Working alongside police teams enables the social workers to collaborate and step in when needed.
Morgan and Rhian, both advanced practitioners, have been at the hub since its inception. They usually support other practitioners from NCT who have identified children at medium or high risk of child exploitation.
“The purpose of [the hub] is to be multi-agency and work alongside everyone to best support and safeguard the children and look at what's happening in the community rather than just focusing on the child and trying to keep that child safe,” says Rhian.
“We can try and keep the child safe, but then other children can be impacted by the exploiters, and it's just not going to end that harm really.”
Morgan’s previous training in systemic practice helps her to build trust with the children and families she works with. Often, parents can be overwhelmed and confused, so the team support them even if the child is out of a high-risk situation.
“Another positive of the hub is that we can be quite dynamic with how we offer support," says Morgan. "Maybe it's to the young person, but also it could be to parents, maybe it's to grandparents, aunties, uncles or family friends who are an area of stability and a positive influence on them."
Assessing risk
A multi-agency daily exploitation (MADE) meeting is held, and the advanced practitioner on duty that day will attend. Representatives from all the different teams participate and highlight any new incidents or concerns, as well as giving updates on existing children supported by the hub.One of the main advantages of physically co-working in this way is that the exploitation team is alerted to children at risk before they are officially referred to them. This helps them to organise the appropriate type of intervention much faster.
The child exploitation and risk assessment framework (CERAF) was adopted by NCT and its partners before the hub went live.
The CERAF form is completed when there is an exploitation concern and ensures there is consistency across the different agencies. When the score is ‘medium’ or ‘high’, the child exploitation team at the hub will receive the referral.
Sometimes, practitioners in other social work teams might not always recognise when a child is being criminally or sexually exploited. The team can advise their multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) colleagues, who are also based at the hub, on recognising potential risks.
The child exploitation team also created a safety plan template to help practitioners. This was praised by children’s charity Barnardo’s, which requested that it be shared with local authorities.
The creation of the hub
Debbie Lloyd, the assistant director of children and family support services and youth justice service at NCT, says agencies have taken their time in creating the hub to ensure best practice and that all relevant partners are involved.The social work resource in the hub was commissioned by both North and West Northamptonshire councils as NCT serves both, highlighting support and buy-in from all.
This is not a child exploitation single service. This is a collection of officers, within the trust and outside of the trust, and practitioners that come together to support this initiative. It’s all built on trust and working relationships", says Debbie.
Positive impact
Although the hub is in its infancy, the child exploitation team has had many successes already.One example is Chloe* who was already in care and was referred to the team after having repeated missing episodes. While the team were working with Chloe, who was a victim of exploitation, she expressed an interest in a career in security.
The exploitation team facilitated work experience and CCTV training for her. This ‘disruption and diversion’ technique gave Chloe aspiration to look to the future more positively, and through this support she has had a reduction in missing episodes.
Another example of the positive impact the hub has had is Miles*.
Miles was also having missing episodes, including kidnapping, and had an allocated social worker from the safeguarding team. He was referred to the exploitation team, and when his advanced practitioner met him, he was very open about being exploited to sell drugs.
After conversations about safety, risk and consequences, it was clear that Miles wanted to break free and move away. Police teams were also involved in investigating the perpetrators.
The team helped to move Miles out of his home town, which kept him physically away from the exploiters, in line with what he wanted. A safety plan was put in place and currently his social worker visits him weekly to support him. Miles is settled and focused on joining the army, and will return to his family when he is ready, and it is safe to do so.
Colin Foster, chief executive of NCT, says: “The hub is a really positive step forward in improving how agencies across Northamptonshire work together to safeguard and support children and young people who might be coerced or exploited.
“We are already seeing the huge benefits of having partners co-located together, making it more effective to create a team of support around that child or young person, and the impact that this is having. I feel privileged to work with such an incredible group of professionals who are driving this forward.”
*name changed for anonymity
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