Child Sexual
Exploitation:
Speakers included Peter Davies, CEO of CEOP, Carlene Firmin
– lead policy advisor at Office of Children’s Commissioner, Jane Grauberg, UK director of Strategy at
Barnardos
I had to leave the session to go to next one before Jane
spoke, so missed some.
Key points:
-
we need to understand how online and offline worlds are
merged for children and young people
-
CEOP are creating a detailed action plan to train
police in the UK
to have all the necessary capabilities to work with sex ex by end of March 2014
-
Sex exploitation was defined as ‘vulnerability meets
power’
-
Young people are often exploited via social network
pages being hijacked and then being manipulated to perform sex acts over webcam
-
All about agencies working together to join the dots ie
care homes knowing kids going missing, police knowing those same kids are
presenting frequently at night, sex health clinics – knowing that young people
keep coming back each month to test for infections or wanting pregnancy tests…
-
Its inaccurate to see this in terms of ethnicity. Often
its viewed as Asian men exploiting white girls. Definitely not this simple and
often BME girls are less likely to come forward for cultural reasons – promoting
this view will just reinforce that they are not worthy of support
Research by Office for Children’s
Commisioner:
Link – to interim report here: http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/press_release/content_472
These were the top consistent
traits of those who were likely to be sexually exploited:
- growing up in chaotic households ie DV, PSM, MH problems
- histories of abuse within the family – could include forced marriage, honour based violence
- BEREAVEMENT – this one is less known – could be loss of parent or sibling, multiple bereavement experienced through being in a gang, possibly general loss felt through going into care
- growing up in a gang affected neighbourhood
- being at a school with victims of sex ex (even if you personally don’t fall into any of the categories above…it’s just being persuaded to go to ‘parties’ by peers.)
Warning signs post abuse:
- going missing, repeatedly. Not always overnight, sometimes missing in day or during school – less tracked
- physical injuries – including burning, broken bones, eg fingers
- alcohol or drug misuse – hence substance misuse agencies need to be trained
- offending – if part of a gang might be persuaded to carry drugs or firearms, if exploited by group might be persuaded to shoplift- ie alcohol and then drink it before exploitation, or criminal damage
- repeat presentations at sexual health centres eg for pregnancy testing
very rare for child to come forward as victim
BME children more likely to be found through faith and BME
charities, especially outside of London .
They are less often reported missing to police.
Important to consider breadth of models of sex ex – not
helpful to talk of Rochdale and Oxford
as the same – they are very different. Oxford v
organised all around country, Rochdale much
more local scale.
Muslim Women’s Network is working hard because it’s often
described as crimes on white girls, and BME girls need to come forward more.
Disproportionate no. of victims in care, in children’s homes
outside of borough. Government bringing in regulations on this and better
training for staff
More training needed around issue of consent.
And thinking needs to be done about we manage disclosure –
ie how do we protect someone who discloses especially if they are in a gang as
they are now a ‘snitch’.
Centre for Mental Health report released yesterday:
Edward Timpson –
Children’s Minister talk:
I personally found this pretty dull – very clichéd and
mainly going over policies and reforms we know are happening.
Lots of talk about Frontline
Govnt are developing training modules on fostering and
adoption
Child Sex exploitation – this summer will see a
comprehensive review of training and career pathways of those working in
children’s homes
Talk about speeding up proceedings to 26 weeks in family
courts re deciding if children are going into care – C&F bill
Want to see many more children stay LAC til 18 – sign off
will soon be needed from Director of Children;s Services for a child to leave
care pre 18
Supporting LAs to give care leavers £2000 setting up home
allowance
Adoption talk:
CEO of Coram, Head of Fostering and Adoption at Essex County
Council, Adopter and author
The focus was on the new ‘passport’ concept given to
adopters to allow them to access more services and whether this was possible
given the lack of resources at the moment.
Plan is for Passport to articulate clearly for adopters what
their entitlements and access are eg priority educational access, parity in
parental leave
Looking into possibility of Adoption Support Fund – but
question over whether adopters would know how to spend it ie on accredited
therapy
Coram offer Webster Stratton module of training for adopters
and STOP programme for parents of adolescents as well as music and art therapy
Talked about how there should be fast track referrals for
all adopted children ie within health services
Although the Adoption Support Services regulations 2005 show
that Las should already provide support and services to adopters, the provision
is very patchy. Therapeutic services is a major challenge as attachment and
behavioural difficulties are off the agenda.
How can respite be achieved well given children’s previous
experiences of multiple placements?
Focus on the legal gap – ie assessment must be carried out
but after the assessment it is up to LA discretion as to whether to actually
provide services.
Ofsted don’t scrutinise what support is available 5-10 years
down the line
Adoptive mother spoke a lot about how the child has missed
out on adequate parenting and will often have a negative view of themselves and
of their world- leading to feelings of hopelessness, helplessness and
worthlessness. Think how young people will behave through their life trajectory
with these views about the world being a hostile and dangerous place. If the
world hates me, I’ll hate it back – hence link between care system and prison.
She advocated for adopters and foster carers to be included
in the therapy process to show that they recognise the horrendous experience
their child has been through but that they love and accept them and are there
to support them through it.
She challenged the fact that CAMHS is only available if
child is in permanent placement but surely often a barrier to permanency is the
child’s mental health issues leading to instability.
Also said we need to address birth parents’ needs and they
need independent counselling not from the LA that removed their child!
Single Assessment
Tool training:
Importance of looking at histories of parents to look at
patterns, strengths and resilience which might help to identify future risks
but need to be clear that their history does not dictate that this
abuse/neglect will happen again.
Helpful circular questions when working with parents:
-
when you were a child, who was the least/most caring
person to you?
-
If you could go back in time, and tell your father how
to look after you, what would you tell him?
-
If your mum could see your parenting now, what would
they say are the similarities and differences? – this helps to show their level
of insight and scripts that might be played out
These questions can help in creating a genogram and
developing hypotheses. Also to develop chronologies.
Be curious about the family and think about whose story is
being prioritised and whose may be being sidelined, is this the only version of
the truth, could there be another story?
Consider plotting it on matrix to show – extent of the
consequences and the probability of reoccurrence.
Importance of systemic thinking: it’s not helpful to be
blaming one person but should be looking at relationships ‘no-one changes under
a negative connotation’ – need to help parent see the possibilities.
As well as risk, look at the exceptions to abuse and
neglect, assume the problem is not happening all the time to find strengths and
resilience.
Then think about safety plan – what are the desired
outcomes, how would we plan, who is responsible, what are the timescales
Changes to LAC and
remand:
Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012
Prior to the above (LASPOA) 17 year olds were being treated
as adults, often sent to prison while on remand as a default option. United
Nations Conventions on Rights of a Child were criticising how young people were
being treated. Now been a rewrite of the remand provisions for 12-17 year olds.
A disproportionate representation of children were being put in custody on
remand. However since the cost of this has been transferred to the local
authority, it has been reduced.
YP in children’s homes are being accelerated to youth
custody for offences that wouldn’t get picked up on if they lived with their
families.
There is now the reformed youth remand framework – Dec 2012.
When children are
placed on remand in custody they become LAC.
Not allowed to remand children to secure accommodation
unless there is a realistic expectation of getting custodial sentence.
19th April 2013, there was revised care planning
regulations.
If the child is LAC:
-
LA may only have short-term relationship with these
people as the average remand time is 42 days.
-
LA does not have responsibility for day to day arrangements
of children’s care – but need to be satisfied that arrangements meet their
needs
-
If child is already on care order and remanded to youth
detention accommodation, or if they become LAC through remand, a detention placement
plan is required which must be reviewed by an IRO and children’s wishes and
feelings must be recorded.
A detention placement plan must include: (this replaces the
need for Care plan and placement plan)
-issues around safeguarding
- Contact arrangements
- arrangement for social work visits, contact between visits
- will there be independent visitor
- how YDA staff will meet health and education needs
- child’s personal history, religious, cultural, language
needs and how they’ll be met
- how YDA will help meet self-care needs and capacity for
independent living
-name and contact details of key professionals eg SW, IRO,
IV, Virtual Headteacher
AND arrangements for aftercare…will they have LA
accommodation or any other services?
-
if they’ll be homeless, will need to be LAC under
Southwark Judgement, Child in Need
-
or will they need s17 support for families?
Issues:
Are complaints made to youth justice board or LAs?
How is information shared?
Do young people have access to advocacy?
More joint training needed
Are there issues of parents feeling negative about child
entering care system without court proceedings or s20 style consent.
Can see: National Standards Youth Justice, Secure Training
Centre rules, Prison service policy about safeguarding issues – PSI 08/2012
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