1

AGENDA ITEM

REPORT TO:CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLES HEALTH AND WELLBEING JOINT COMMISSIONING GROUP

REPORT OF LYNN SPARREY, PUBLIC HEALTH

ACE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION SERVICE

1. SUMMARY

1.1This report is to provide the Group with commissioning options for the Council for the aboveservice contract which expires on 31 March 2017.

2. RECOMMENDATIONS

  • That consideration be given to the development of more collaborative working across the Tees Valley authorities for CSE and possibly Missing from Home related service provision.
  • Subject to further discussions with Barnardos and agreement being reached on longer term planning and the availability of funding, to continue both elements of the existing services through to 30 September 2017.

3. BACKGROUND

3.1Stockton-On-Tees Social Carepurchase two levels of service from Barnardos under this contract. These are;

  • The Child Sexual Exploitation Service (CSE) – this service provides a comprehensive support service to young people under the ages of 18 (or in the case of Looked After Children (LAC) up to the age of 25), who may be at risk of or who are being sexually exploited or need support having run away from home or care.
  • The Missing from Home Return Interviews – this part of the service which commenced in June 2016 provides return interviews for children and young people who have gone missing and subsequently returned home.

3.2The current Child Sexual Exploitation Service began on 1st December 2013 and was due to end on the 30 November 2016. However an extension of service was agreed up to 31 March2017 at an amount of *£16,700 which covers the costs of a 37 hours ACE CSE Worker.

The additional, Return Home Interview work which commenced in June 2016, also expired on 30November 2016.an extension of service was also agreed on this contract up to 31 March 2017 at an amount of £8,300.00, which covers the costs of an 18.5 hours missing from home worker.

*Up until the end of November 2016the CSE service element had attracted additional investment from the Northern Rock Foundation at the rate of £20,000 per year and therefore the CESC funding was £30,000 per year. Following the loss of this funding CESC has picked up the full cost of the service on a pro rata basis for the extension period.

4. SERVICE DELIVERY MODEL

4.1 SERVICE SCOPE

Child Sexual Exploitation Service.

The focus of the work is the protectionand safeguarding of children and young people who have been identified as being at risk of sexual exploitation or have been sexually exploited, and the prevention ofsexual exploitation through the provision of support, advice and consultancy to services.

The service provides a comprehensive support service to young people under the ages of 18 (or in the case of Looked After Children (LAC) up to the age of 25), who may be at risk of or who are being sexually exploited or need support having run away from home or care.

The service is available to all children and young people who live within the Stockton-On-Tees area and also those placed in accommodation outside the Borough by Stockton Borough Council, irrespective of where they are being exploited.

The types of work specifically providedincludes:

  • 1-2-1 Case work
  • Group Work
  • Parent Support
  • Support and Consultancy to external services
  • LSCB Training & Single Agency Training
  • Supporting police operations linked to CSE

Missing from Home Return Interviews.

The purpose of this additional service is to identify and support all Stockton-On-Tees children and young people open to a social workerwithin the Stockton-on -Tees with the offer of a return home interview. This service target group specifically includes;

  • Any Stockton missing LAC who requests an advocate or whose Social Worker is unavailable to undertake the return interview due to capacity issues/ leave etc., including LAC out of Borough;
  • Any Stockton absent LAC where it is deemed appropriate by a Manager that an Independent interview should be held;
  • Any LAC child living in the borough who is not the responsibility of SBC and whose placing LA is not able to do the interview on the basis that a recharge will be made for the service to the placing LA.

Both elements of the service work well together minimising any duplication in service or gaps in support to this client group.

4.2SERVICE STAFFING

CSE service

Up until 30 November 2016 the Council funding for the Child Sexual Exploitation service contributed towards the cost of 1.5 WTE CSE workers, plus associated administrative support and on costs. The cost of these workers was subsidised until 30 November 2016by the Northern Rock Foundation at the rate of £20,000 per year. As from 1 December 2016 the local authority is paying the full costs of one worker to continue the service up to 31 March 2016. The one remaining CSE worker continues to provide a range of support to young people through one to one and group based preventative interventionsand training and support to other social care professionals

Barnardo’s have added value to this Stockton service with the following posts being provided as part of the contract;

Two full time Emotional Health and Wellbeing Workers (EHW) are available. One worker covers Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland and the other worker covers Stockton on Tees and Hartlepool. The workers are paid for through the Health Innovation funding until the end of March 2017. The workers provide 1-2-1 therapeutic support to children and young people who have been referred to the CSE service who are in need of emotional support sessions to improve their mental health wellbeing. The CSE worker links closely with the EHW worker to identify cases that would benefit from engaging in the work.

Additional part time workers in four of the Tees spoke areas to enable service capacity building and to do preventative grooming and CSE work in schools and other education settings. Stockton on Tees has one of the part time workers. The part time workers are education advisors supporting schools to develop sessions that will promote self-esteem building and keeping safe covering healthy relationships, internet safety, online grooming covering CSE. This is achieved by providing support, consultancy and recommending resources to strengthen existing education work

Missing from Home

The Missing from Home Return Interview service has only one 18.5 WTE worker allocated to the service plus associated administrative support and on costs. They offer the range of services described in 4.1.

5. SERVICE AVAILABILITY AND CAPACITY

5.1CSE service

The CSEservice has received 60 referrals during the last 18 months..

All of the referrals to the service have been appropriate and the young people concerned were deemed to be medium to high levels of risk, which is assessed using the agreed Barnardos Risk Assessment tool which covers a number of areas of the young person’s lifestyle such as alcohol, relationships, home life, substance misuse etc.

The amount of face to face contact time spent with children and young people varies from one individual to another. Often this is dependent on the level of risk and emotional and practical support needs and any potential crisis intervention. The minimal amount of face to face contact time with a child is an hour a week to deliver CSE focused education work. Other case work time is travelling to and from sessions, meeting attendance such as Looked after Reviews, Core Group Meetings, Child Protection Reviews etc. and case recording. The CSE worker also attends monthly VEMT Operational meetings (VPG).

The nature and reason for a referral varies. For example some referrers raised concern about the child’s/young person’s safety and asked for specific awareness raising work whereas others requested work around several issues.

A high number of referrals are linked to associating with risky peers and inappropriate internet use. Involvement in risky behaviours i.e. drug using and binge drinking is common in many referrals closely linked with inappropriate sexual activity/ inappropriate sexual relationships.

A range of advice, information and educational support work is also undertaken by the workers in the service across partner agencies and other service sectors.

5.2Missing from Home

This part of the service provides a maximum of 120 interviews per year to the range of young people described in 4.1 above.

Children and young people are provided with a choice about where the service is delivered to them and wherever possible the service hours are flexible and available at hours which primarily meet the needs of the child or young person.

The service has to ensure every Stockton-on Tees LAC child in the Tees Valley receives a return interview within 72 hours.

6. FINANCE

6.1The commissioned Child Sexual Exploitation Service worker is now fully funded at an amount of £26,700to the end of March 2017 by Stockton Local Authority following the expiry of the Northern Rock elements of funding.

The Missing from Home Return Interviews elements of this contract are wholly funded by Stockton Social Care. The funding, which covers the cost of the part time worker plus on costs, is £8,300.

6.2Given that a number of services across the Tees Valley are due to expire next year discussions will need to take place with the provider about the continued viability of the service. Currently Stockton funds one full time CSE worker but it is not clear at this stage if the service would be able to meet the current demand without the additional staff that are provided through the added value routes such as the Health Innovation Funding and Barnardos own contributions.

7. SUMMARY

7.1Both elements of this service are also commissioned by other Tees Valley and Darlington local authorities. Should either elements of the service need to be procured externally again then opportunities could be taken to join up with the other Tees Valley local authorities to commission the service on a joint basis.

The Public Health team has already undertaken a mapping exercise across the Tees Valley and Darlington area to look at funding streams for the CSE services, a summary of which is attached in Appendix A of this report.

A similar mapping exercise has not yet taken place across the area for Missing Services but this can be undertaken if required.

Information gathered through the CSE mapping exercise has identified the services currently delivered across the Tees Valley area. Locally, the majority of provision across Tees is provided by Barnardos. Please see Appendix 1.

Many of the services currently procured by Local Authorities or provided though other funding sources by Barnardos will cease on 31 March 2017.

7.2In September 2016 NICE released guidance on the identification of children who may be at risk of maltreatment including CSE. At this point is it not know if any further work is required by Health to consider this findings of this guidance.

8. RECOMMENDATIONS

  • That consideration be given to the development of more collaborative working across the Tees Valley authorities for CSE and possibly Missing from Home relatedservice provision.
  • Subject to further discussions with Barnardos and agreement being reached on longer term planning and the availability of funding, to continue both elements of the existing services through to 30June 2017.

9. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

9.1There is a legal requirement for the Council to offer and carry out Return Home interviews within 28 days. The loss of the service from 1 April may result in the authority not being able to meet its statutory duties in relation to this requirement.

If any direct award of contract is requiredfor either element of service post March 2017 then advice would need to be sought from Legal and Procurement Teams as to how this is best achieved.

10. RISK ASSESSMENT

10.1The key aims of this CSE service is to protect and safe guard children and young people who have been identified as being at risk of sexual exploitation or have been sexually exploited and to preventsexual exploitation through providing support, advice and consultancy to services and in the longer term through prevent CSE through working.

The loss of this service could result in increased numbers in children at risk of sexual exploitation who are likely to then present directly or in-directly for multi-agency support from the statutory and non statutory services.

11. CONSULTATION

11.1No formal consultation processes with stakeholders or service users have been undertaken by the Public Health team at this stage.

Name of Contact Officer:Lynn Sparrey

Post Title:Children’s Team Manager – Commissioning, Public Health

Telephone No:01642 528451

Email address:

1