Multi-Agency Child Sexual Exploitation Panels
Terms of Reference and Operating Principles
Overarching Principles
1. This document should be read in conjunction with the SSCB CSE Policy and Procedure.
2. The following definition of CSE is recognised.
Sexual exploitation of children and young people under 18 involves exploitative situations, contexts and relationships where young people (or a third person or persons) may, although not always, receive ‘something’ (e.g. food, accommodation, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, affection, gifts, money) as a result of them performing, and/or another or others performing on them, sexual activities. Exploitative relationships can develop very quickly in response to threats, bribery and blackmail. Child sexual exploitation can occur through the use of technology without the child’s immediate recognition; for example being persuaded to post sexual images on the Internet/mobile phones without immediate payment or gain. In all cases, those exploiting the child/young person have power over them by virtue of their age, gender, intellect, physical strength and/or economic or other resources. Violence, coercion and intimidation are common, involvement in exploitative relationships being characterised in the main by the child or young person’s limited availability of choice resulting from their social/economic and/or emotional vulnerability. (Safeguarding Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation DCFS 2009)
The National Working Group for Sexually Exploited Children and Young
People, 2008.
3. The CSE Panels will contribute to the wider SSCB CSE Strategic Policy and is explicitly linked to the ‘See Me, Hear Me’ Framework as published by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner.
4. The CSE Panels recognise the following principles of effective practice, also as defined in the ‘See Me, Hear Me’ Framework as published by the Office of The Children’s Commissioner.
(i)The Child’s best interests must be the top priority
The best interests of children and young people and their rights to protection must drive all decision making. The paramountcy principle (Children Act 1989) must be adhered to where applicable and children’s rights under UNCRC Article 3 fully honoured.
(ii) Participation of children and young people
Services need to involve children and young people when decisions are being made about their care, protection and on-going support and be kept informed on any issues that affect them throughout. Professionals must be mindful of children and young people’s needs and equalities. Their UNCRC Article 12 rights must be honoured.
(iii) Enduring relationships and support
Support must be tailored to meet the needs of child, according to their age, identity, ethnicity, belief, sexual orientation, disability, language, and stage of development. Children and young people have told us that a consistent person who sticks with them throughout the whole period of their protection and on-going care is crucial to their recovery.
(iv) Comprehensive problem-profiling
It is critical that agencies regularly problem-profile their local area to analyse and understand all the patterns of exploitation to which children and young people are subjected. A comprehensive problem profile needs to be compiled with the oversight of the LSCB and should be shared across all key partners to inform the development of a multiagency strategy and action plans, the commissioning of services and the delivery of training and awareness-raising activity to support local professionals.
(v) Effective information-sharing within and between agencies
Every area should have a cross sector information-sharing protocol which is predicated on the best interests and safeguarding of children and young people. All relevant agencies and services should be signatories and it should clearly state what information should be shared, by whom and the process for doing this.
(vi) Supervision, support and training of staff
Services should invest in the development and support of staff including providing regular supervision and the opportunities for them to reflect on practice. Those professionals who offer direct support to sexually exploited children and young people might require further intensive training and must have regular opportunities to reflect on their practice with a skilled consultant or supervisor.
(vii) Evaluation and review
Evaluations and regular reviews of the effectiveness of the CSE strategy is necessary to ensure services and interventions are achieving their intended outcomes and meeting the child and young person’s needs. Children and young people must be directly involved in this process in compliance with Article 12 of the UNCRC. This will ensure that performance is driven continuously by a cycle that leads to improvement.
5. The CSE Panels are not intended to replace or replicate existing statutory mechanisms for managing our planned work with individual children or linked groups of children, which will be via a multi-agency Early Help Assessment (EHA), a Child in Need Plan (CIN Plan), a Child Protection Plan (CP Plan) or a looked after child Care Plan or Pathway Plan.
6. The primary purpose of the CSE Panels will be to ensure strategic oversight is enabled at a district and County level to enable problem profiling and to ensure prevention and targeted interventions aimed at groups and communities can be planned for and routinely monitored. The panels will thus support actions to safeguard children and to disrupt and reduce the opportunity for them to become victims of abuse as a result of CSE. This will be achieved via review of all locally held individual cases. Additional actions to existing Early Help Assessments, CIN, CP or looked after children plans may be agreed as part of the panel’s primary strategic objectives.
7. It is intended that professionals receive an oversight of the level of CSE activity within their given area by hearing submissions from Team Managers or Locality Managers in relation to all individual cases in a defined area.
8. The CSE Panels will provide performance management oversight of practitioner responses to individual CSE cases and ensure that the CSE risk assessment tool is routinely used.
9. The CSE Panels will receive aggregated information about children who go missing from home or care in a given area to ensure any links between missing activity and CSE are made and acted upon.
10. The CSE Panels will collect and aggregate data in relation to the incidence of CSE in a given area and share this with Staffordshire Police to support local problem profiling.
11. The CSE Panels will identify examples of best practice and disseminate learning from this across professionals.
12. The CSE Panels will collect data to support the SSCB child sexual exploitation performance framework.
13. Children and parents/carers will normally be informed that they are to be discussed at the CSE Panels. Their views will be ascertained by the lead practitioner and shared with the Panel by the presenting Manager.
Accountability
14. The CSE Coordinator for Families First will aggregate findings from the CSE Panels and share these with the SSCB Child Sexual Abuse Forum. Practitioners are responsible for ensuring existing planning mechanisms for managing EHA, CIN, CP and looked after children Care Plans/Pathway Plans are effectively in place in line with statutory requirements and the needs of the child. Each agency represented at the CSE Panel retains their own existing lines of accountability for safeguarding.
Outputs of the multi-agency CSE Panels
15. Review of individual CSE cases via the sharing of intelligence, wider agency information and case information.
16. Identification of any links between individual victims/offenders that have not been made apparent via individual case planning.
17. Make recommendations for enhancing actions identified within existing EHA, CIN, CP and looked after children Care Plan/Pathway Plan.
18. Monitoring of information with regards to practitioner compliance in completing the SSCB CSE risk factor matrix
19. Aggregating data from all collated SSCB CSE risk assessment tools.
20. Classifying all known CSE cases according to agreed local classification systems:
· High Risk
· Medium Risk
· Low Risk
· Group Offending
· Online Offending
· Lone Offending
21. Sharing information and intelligence about individuals and groups of individuals involved in perpetrating CSE or otherwise abuse/criminal behaviours. (Disrupt).
22. Agree District plans for global prevention activity, including enhancing public awareness of CSE.
23. Agree District plans for awareness raising activity encouraging the outcome that children and young people ware aware of the risks of CSE and able to make good choices and know where to go to report abuse.
24. Agree district plans for targeted prevention activity where the incidence of CSE is high (eg in relation to pupils attending a certain school, or socialising in a certain geographical area).
25. Agree any multi-agency responses to disruption activity.
26. Hear the voice of the child and their parents/carers via the presenting Manager.
27. Commission targeted feedback from children and their families where CSE is a risk via annual consultation events.
28. Share information on locally available services for children discussed at the panel and identify any gaps in provision to Commissioners and the SSCB.
29. Promote available training across panel members and their wider organisations. Take action where awareness training is identified as required by groups in a district area.
30. All professionals invited to the CSE Panel will be required to sign the Information Sharing Protocol.
31. All professionals invited to the CSE Panel will be required to sign a confidentiality form at the start of each meeting.
32. There is an expectation that CSE Panel members and attendees, as representatives of their agency, will attend prepared to share information about children, young people and their families in order to work together to protect children and to identify and disrupt perpetrators of CSE. All information discussed and documents shared at the CSE Panel are strictly confidential and matters discussed should only be disclosed to professional colleagues on a strictly need to know basis in line with existing arrangements for safeguarding children consistent with the Children Act 2004 and Working Together 2013.
33. All partner agencies contributing to the CSE Panel process are required to ensure that their own procedures for information sharing and confidentiality support the ethos of Working Together 2013 and Staffordshire Safeguarding Board’s commitment to that.
34. All agencies in attendance at the CSE Panels are responsible for securely filing documentation received.
Proposed Core Panel Membership and Virtual Panel Members
35. Core Panel Members: County Manager for Safeguarding, Staffordshire Police CSE Team, Staffordshire Police Local Policing Teams, Targeted Services District Leads, Health Representatives, Schools Representatives as agreed by the Head Teachers Forums, Education Safeguarding, District Council Safeguarding Lead, School Improvement representative from Entrust, representative from Youth Offending Team.
36. Virtual Panel Members: As identified as relevant to individual cases, for example, YOS Practitioner, Police Gang Violence Lead, Accommodation providers, Building Resilient Families key worker, Sexual Health Service Providers, Probation, Drug and Alcohol Services.
Locations of Panels
37. The number and locations of panels has been defined using data from a deep dive file audit of all open CSE cases to Families First in October 2014.
· Newcastle and Moorlands
· Tamworth, Lichfield and Burntwood
· Burton and Uttoxeter
· Stafford, Cannock, Rugeley and South Staffs
Frequency of Panels
38. This will partly be dependent upon the volume of cases that need to be discussed but it is envisaged panels will be bi-monthly or quarterly in each area according to demand.
39. The Panels will be chaired either by Children’s Social Care or the police. In the first instance the Panels will be chaired by the County Manager for Specialist Safeguarding, Families First, for the location specified.
Referral Pathway
40. The PA for the Strategic Lead for Specialist Safeguarding Delivery will send a panel attendance scoping matrix to all Families First teams monthly to identify case to be heard at the next local panel.
41. The criteria for attendance at a panel is that a child or young person is suffering or is at risk of suffering CSE, according to the definition provided earlier. The CSE Risk Factor Matrix must have been completed prior to the case being considered by the panel.
42. The CSE Coordinator will use the matrix to collate an agenda and invite presenting Managers to allocated time slots for case discussions.
43. OTHER PROFESSIONALS SHOULD NOT USE THE CSE PANELS AS A MEANS BY WHICH TO MAKE NEW REFERRALS TO CSC WHICH SHOULD BE MADE AT THE POINT NEED OR HARM IS IDENTIFIED VIA FIRST RESPONSE.
44. Roles and Responsibilities of Panel Members
a) Panel Chair:
The Panels will be chaired at least initially by a Families First County Manager for Specialist Safeguarding. The Panel Chair will:
Confirm the confidentiality statement and ensure that it is signed at each meeting by Panel members.
Ensure that the discussion at the meeting remains focused, that the business of the meeting is achieved and that it is conducted within the time allocated.
Ensure that members are offered equity with regard to opportunities to contribute to the meeting.
Agree the information collated from the meeting, and the record of actions arising from the discussion, before distribution to Panel members.
b) Panel Members:
Standing members of the Panel will:
Attend the meetings regularly and on any occasion when they are unable to attend, they should identify an appropriate representative from their agency to attend in their place.
Come prepared to share any new or additional information over and above that already shared at the case management meetings. Contribute to the information sharing which enables the meetings to fulfil their purpose.
Contribute to the actions agreed during the meetings and provide timely reports on progress and outcomes.
c) CSE Co-ordinator:
The CSE Co-ordinator will:
Review panel attendance scoping matrix returns from all Families First Teams and will liaise with practitioners as appropriate.
Liaise with the Missing Children Co-ordinator to cross reference cases on the scoping matrix returns with the children missing from home and care data.
Link with other local authorities who have children placed in Staffordshire as necessary.
Collate the agenda for the individual case discussions and invite the practitioners to allocated time slots for case discussion
Distribute the agenda and any associated papers to Panel members one week in advance of the Panel meetings.
Attend all the District Panel meetings both to contribute to the discussion and to collate information provided at the meetings.