Tackling the challenge of Child Sexual Exploitation in London
Self AuditTemplate – Oct/ Nov 2014
In light of Ofsted’s thematic inspection of Child Sexual Exploitation, the London Safeguarding Children Board and the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services are asking all London authorities to review their practice, in relation to CSE, againstOfsted’s guidance.
This self-audit tool has been developed for the boroughs of Hackney, Barking and Dagenham and Newham. Self-audits will be completed by each borough and should be submitted to Tara Bajracharya, Safeguarding and Learning Advisor at by the 19th November 2014. The self-audits will then be circulated ahead of a challenge meeting on the 28th November 2014
Local Authority:London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
Completed by:Jenny Bastock in consultation with MASE & LSCB
Date of completion: 12/11/14
1. Identification of children and young people at risk of and experiencing CSE:How do children and young people at risk of, or who have been, sexually exploited (both girls and boys) come to notice?
How effective is the local authority and its partners in ensuring that all children and young people at risk of CSE are identified at the earliest opportunity?
Current situation (please give examples of where things are working well):
- How do children and young people at risk of, or who have been, sexually exploited (both girls and boys) come to notice?
The Social Worker or Duty worker will identify possible risk factors associated with CSE and this would be flagged to the CSE Co-ordinator via email, and the Police Officer in MASH, who is the Single Point of Contact for CSE. This is to ensure that a CSE CRIS is created for the young person immediately. The CRIS is a Crime report specific to CSE which remains on the child’s record for life as being vulnerable to or at risk of CSE, should come to the attention of the Police.
The majority of CSE cases have been received via a MARF, with a number of contacts being received from the child or young persons existing Social Worker or YOS key worker.
One referral via a MARF was from a housing officer, concerned about a homeless 17 year old who had been sleeping in the office of a taxi company. They referred this to Children's Services due to concerns around CSE. We have also received two referrals from the Teenage Pregnancy Midwives, concerned about a teen parent being in a relationship with boyfriends much older than them.
YOS: Where Young People have disclosed elements of CSE to their YOS worker, they raise this as a potential CSE case and we look at what support is required and what the actions are in terms of CSE Strategy meeting and placing the case on the CSE MAP agenda
- How effective is the local authority and its partners in ensuring that all children and young people at risk of CSE are identified at the earliest opportunity?
CSE Briefings: On 7th & 8thDecember there will be CSE Briefings facilitated by the Met Police. There have been six briefings held so far that have been well attended by between 30-80 practitioners across Social Care, Health, Education, YOS, Targeted Support services, Probation and Police.
A separate briefing was held for PCSO’s in the borough focusing on the ‘Say Something if you See Something’ campaign which was launched in November to coincide with the White Ribbon campaign. This campaign will raise awareness of CSE amongst hotels, motels and taxi companies in the borough. This is being launched jointly with LB Havering and LB Redbridge.
Education & Youth Services:
PSHE Conference 16th Nov 2014:
A Conference for PSHE (Personal, Social & Health Education) Leads in the borough took place on 16th Nov 2014 to look at ways in which themes around Healthy Relationships can be incorporated into the PSHE curriculum.
This conference was also attended by staff from the Pupil Referral units and Education CP leads.
The areas of discussion were:
- the impact of domestic violence on children and young people
- Promoting awareness of risk of CSE and through social media.
- Awareness of Female Genital Mutilation.
Arc Theatre:
This theatre company are funded by MOPAC and focus their work toward girls/ young women aged 11-18 years to learn about specific social issues and to produce a short film which is shown to their peers to raise awareness. They have successfully produced the Raising Voices film which is currently being shown to Secondary schools and youth services in the borough. They have also taken their film to other agencies such as National Working Group, MOPAC, and other agencies.
Tier 2 Services- Targeted Family Support & Children's Centres
Very few referrals have been received or identified via tier 2 services but we are in the process of revising the paperwork to ensure that CSE is considered when any referrals are discussed at Tier 2. (The cases discussed at Tier 2 are those referrals which do not meet threshold for a Statutory Assessment at Triage/ MASH).
Staff from each of the service areas within Children's Services and YOS have attended the CSE briefings, including Parenting Support workers within YOS and the Family Support workers within the Children's Centres. We are looking at how we can also integrate CSE awareness into the current Evidence Based Parenting Programme we run in the borough.
The YOS Parenting team created and deliver a toolkit to parents; they seek advice from the CSE co-ordinator if any concerns around CSE are raised.
Growing Against Gang Violence Foundation (GAGV):
This organisation is funded by Community Safety and Public Health and is being introduced to schools throughout the borough. This is to raise awareness of the risks around gang related violence and support available in these situations.
LSCB Practitioner Forums: The forum is held once every 6 weeks by representatives from Health, Education, Social Care, and Targeted Support and is Chaired by the Quality Assurance Manager who sits within the Safeguarding & Quality Assurance service.
Practitioners have an input in to the development of tools and protocols such as the CSE Risk Assessment tool which has been adapted from the NWG tool, to incorporate local LBBD information/ prompts.
Please rate how effective you think practice is in this area:
1 2 3 4 5
Ineffective Highly effective
In what ways could practice be strengthened?
Arc Theatre:
A proposal for a second intake of girls to work with Arc Theatre has been submitted, this ‘bridging project’ will enable the most vulnerable girls to access Arc Theatre immediately and the opportunity for them to engage with their peers. When Arc Theatre starts to accept referrals in February, the girls supported by the bridging project would be in a position where they can support the new members of the group.
CSE Co-ordinator recently started attending the Steering group at Arc Theatre and identified the need for the Secondary schools to sign up to follow up group work from the Nia Project when requesting Arc Theatre to perform. This is to ensure that any young person who may have been affected by the performance has access to appropriate support in a timely manner.
The Focus groups identified the following as ways we can improve in this area:
- CSE Training to be Mandatory, the same way that Child Protection/ Safeguarding refresher training must be attended every 2 years.
- Young people in the borough will be involved in developing a factsheet for parents and carers around the risks of CSE and what support is available to support their children. A similar factsheet for young people will also be developed and launched on the CSE Awareness week in March 2015. The consultation groups who will develop these factsheets will include:
-LBBD Youth Forum
-Young peoples safety group
-Skittles children’s council which feeds into the Corporate Parenting Board
-Arc Theatre
-Schools identified through the PSHE co-ordinators
The parent’s forums within the Children's Centres will also be given an opportunity to get involved once the first draft has been completed and agreed by the young people.
Tier 2 Services- Targeted Family Support & Children's Centres
The CSE Matrix which is a quick reference identification tool will be introduced for each case to ensure that the worker is aware of the 9 indicators which would be present in ‘high risk’ CSE cases, as in the Met Police CSE protocol. This will ensure that the cases will be flagged up in a timely manner.
2. Management oversight/ strategic leadership:
What are the arrangements for the management and oversight of children and young people at risk of, or who have been, sexually exploited?
Is there effective strategic leadership of the multi-agency response to CSE that identifies prevalence, trends, themes and patterns and secures improved outcomes for children and young people?
Current situation (please give examples of where things are working well):
What are the arrangements for the management and oversight of children and young people at risk of, or who have been, sexually exploited?
Currently, each C&YP who is identified as being at risk of or experiencing CSE is presented to the CSE MAP meeting which is held once a month. As soon as a case is identified, a meeting or discussion is arranged with the Social Worker or referring professional, CSE Co-coordinator and Police officer in MASH to ensure that the appropriate Police flags are noted and services are in place to prevent delay in the C/YP accessing support.
Professionals from health, education and not for profit organisations attend CSE MAP when children specific to their service are being discussed. This is to ensure an effective multi agency safety plan is in place.
Any issues with cases that are seen to be drifting or where the professional network involved is not communicating risks effectively are also raised at MASE to ensure that any ‘blocks’ are managed effectively e.g. where professional opinion may differ from one service to another or in one case or where the young person need to be supported by a particular service which is not represented at the CSE MAP meeting e.g. Health.
Re: C&YP Missing from home, Education or care
Interviews when a young person returns home are either undertaken by Tracey Clarke, Participation officer or a worker from the Family Group conference & Restorative Justice service. The outcomes of theinterviews are fedback to the Missing children’s strategic group to identify any patterns, e.g. children in care missing from one specific placement.
Where a child or young person may go missing for a longer period (e.g. more than 5 days),the Restorative Justice (RJ) Service would try to engage with the family during this time to identify whether they are known to the service and to look at their support needs. Once the child/ young person is identified, they are allocated a RJ worker who would conduct the return home interview and look at further support needs. Should the child/ young person go missing again, the same RJ worker would be allocated, to ensure continuity.
Our Corporate Management team have an overview of the children reported missing from Education, care or home; to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to safeguard these young people.
Children in Care Placed out of borough
C&YP who are looked after but placed outside the borough who are reported as missing from placement are reported to EDT who then alerts MASH. This is to ensure that LBBD Police are made aware. This process was introduced at the end of October as prior to this Children’s Services and the Police were not always being made aware of LBBD children in a timely manner. This change of practice identifies young people who may have experienced or be at risk of CSE and patterns of missing episodes can be monitored by the Sexual Exploitation team in the hosting Police force.
At present, we have one case where the young person has been identified as being at risk of CSE who has been placed in a neighbouring borough. This young person has been presented to the respective MASE and the CSE SPOC and the child’s Social Worker, has ensured that this information is communicated to LBBD CSE Co-ordinator
Is there effective strategic leadership of the multi-agency response to CSE that identifies prevalence, trends, themes and patterns and secures improved outcomes for children and young people?
LBBD are only 8 months into the protocol and it is too early to have developed enough intelligence to map any trends.The Police are hoping to provide some feedback through a Data Analyst in 2015 to look at these issues and to start gathering data.
At each MASE meeting, the referrals to CSE MAP are reported back under the following headings:
- Schools attended
- Ethnicity
- Any repeat referrals/ cases
- Age
- Referring agency
- YP linked to the C/YP being referred
Just under half of our CSE referrals from May 2014 have been received from 2 secondary schools in the borough, this may indicate that CSE is occurring more in these schools or provide an indication that the schools are able to identify CSE vulnerabilities sooner.
Please rate how effective you think practice is in this area:
1 2 3 4 5
Ineffective Highly effective
In what ways could practice be strengthened?
The CSE MAP process is being reviewed and we are considering the following changes:
- For CSE MAP meeting to be run using the same structure as MARAC
- For a CSE Protocol to be written to reflect the need for strategy meetings for CSE cases to be held with the CSE Co-ordinator and Police officer in MASH to ensure that the C&YP are flagged in a timely manner.
There is currently no Health representative to attend the CSE MAP meetingsbut information from these meetings have been shared with appropriate health professionals.
Further work to strengthen the relationship with health, especially Sexual Health Services is planned. Representatives from the Sexual health services do attend the MASE Strategic meeting and will also attend the CSE briefings later this year.
3. Level of protection and support
What level of protection are children at risk ofor experiencing, sexual exploitation given and how does the LA work with a group who often shun statutory services?
Are children and young people, including looked after children, who are at risk of, or who have been, sexually exploited effectively safeguarded, protected and supported?
Current situation (please give examples of where things are working well):
What level of protection are children at risk of or experiencing, sexual exploitation given and how does the LA work with a group who often shun statutory services?
Are children and young people, including looked after children, who are at risk of, or who have been, sexually exploited effectively safeguarded, protected and supported?
As above, each child or young person identified as being at risk of, or experiencing CSE has a CSE CRIS created on their Police record which ensures that they are prioritised if a call is logged e.g. if they went missing and were seen. Young people who are considered to be hard to reach, are offered support through statutory and non for profit services, this includes teen parents, young carers..
In one particular case where the young person was extremely evasive of the Social Worker, we introduced the Young Women’s worker from the Nia Project and she has started to engage slowly. The Nia project worker is also able to reinforce the role of the Social Worker and other professionals.
Each young person identified as being at risk of or experiencing CSE goes through the MASH Process to ensure that information is obtained from all agencies including Police. The Social worker is supported to access services for the young person by the CSE Police officer based in MASH and the CSE Co-ordinator to ensure that any updates are recorded and the young person is supported accordingly.
For example, in one case where a young person was being sexually exploited and went missing for 3 months was helped to move into supported accommodation in the borough for vulnerable young people. The Social Worker provided an update to the Police officer and CSE Co-ordinator so the young person could be discussed through the CSE Strategy meeting and CSE MAP process.