Agenda item

This report is an update on service developments in relation to Child Sexual Exploitation and “Missing” Young People.

The Chair asked what is the extent and profile of CSE in our local area.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied in July 2015 B&NES agreed to support and contribute funds to a regional CSE project hosted by Avon and Somerset Police and with support from the Barnardo’s Against Sexual Exploitation (BASE) project. He explained that part of the remit of the project was to develop a regional “Problem Profile” of key adults of concern, geographical hot-spots and to be able to link the relationships, activity and locations across the region. He stated that the lead for the project wrote to each of the Council’s involved in early February requesting details of adults and locations that had been identified as being of concern. He said that it was increasingly clear that those adults who are identified as posing a risk of CSE operate across the whole of the South West region and in the case of B&NES, the majority of concerns for our young people relate to their links with the Bristol area. He added that the majority of adults we have identified that live in the B&NES area also have links with adults and locations in other council areas. He informed the Panel that the Avon CSE Project plans to have the first version of the Regional Problem profile available to agencies in May.

The Chair asked where the CSE and Missing referrals were coming from.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that our referrals for CSE concerns continue to come from a variety of sources and that the total number of CSE referrals in February was 6. He said that the sources of these referrals broke down as follows; 2 from schools, 1 from a voluntary organisation (Mentoring Plus), 1 from Barnardo’s and 2 from the Police. He added that this was broadly in line with the pattern from previous months.  He stated that with regard to referrals for Missing, the majority of notifications came from either the Police if the young person was not previously known, or otherwise the young people that go missing tend to already be known to Social Care as open cases either as Children in Need or children who are ‘Looked After”.

Councillor Mark Shelford asked if the Willow Project were able to offer support regarding sexting.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that it would more likely be the LSCB that would provide support on that matter.

The Strategic Director for People & Communities added that PSHE work within schools would address relationships and the effects of cyber bullying.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care commented that at the LSCB Stakeholder Day a drama depicting sexting and grooming had been shown and that five schools had subsequently asked to see it.

Councillor Karen Warrington asked if he felt the Council were doing enough to safeguard its children.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that he was as confident as he could be in where the current resources have been placed. He added that the members of the CSE Sub-Group were very committed people.

The Chair asked if referrals were falling slightly.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that they were consistently receiving 5 – 7 referrals a month.

The Chair asked is in-house CSE training available for a wider cohort than just those professionals working directly with children and young people, such as licensing officers, environmental health officers or elected members.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that the CSE training is provided through the LSCB and is available to all member agencies. He added that this would include Council employees in the licencing team, environmental health officers and elected members. He said that if elected members wished to undertake this training he would be happy to co-ordinate it.

The Chair asked do all partners attend multi-agency training sessions.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that they do.