The Chief Executive will submit a report (Document “Z”) which provides an update to and builds on the report presented to the Executive on 6th November 2018 and subsequently to the District’s Area Committees regarding the issue of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). It now focuses on the Strategic Response to all forms of exploitation in Children and Adults and how partners from the Working Together to Safeguard Children – the Bradford Partnership and the Bradford Safeguarding Adults Board work to drive improvements across the District and to hold agencies to account for their work in their area. This report also outlines the emergence of other complex safeguarding themes and outlines how partners are effectively collaborating and focussing upon the protection of vulnerable Children and Adults.

Recommended –

(1)       The Executive is invited to endorse the contents of this report.

(2)       The Executive shall receive a further update on the progress of             the response to exploitation in 12 months time.

(3)       That subsequent reports will be provided to Area Committees.

Overview and Scrutiny Committee:  Children’s Services

(Mark Griffin - 01274 434361)

Resolved –

(1)       That the contents of Document “Z” be endorsed.

(2)       That the Executive shall receive a further update on the progress         of the response to exploitation in 12 months time.

(3)       That subsequent reports be provided to Area Committees.

ACTION: Chief Executive

Overview and Scrutiny Committee:  Children’s Services

(Mark Griffin - 01274 434361)

The Chief Executive submitted a report (Document “Z”) which provided an update to and built on the report presented to the Executive on 6th November 2018 and subsequently to the district’s Area Committees regarding the issue of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE).  It now focused on the strategic response to all forms of exploitation in Children and Adults and how partners were working together to safeguard children – the Bradford Partnership and the Bradford Safeguarding Adults Board work to drive improvements across the district and to hold agencies to account for their work in their area. The report also outlined the emergence of other complex safeguarding themes and outlined how partners were effectively collaborating and focussing upon the protection of vulnerable children and adults.

The Chief Executive stressed that this was a significant annual report setting out what the Council and its Partners were doing to protect vulnerable children and adults.  The report was a testimony to the work done to strengthen our safeguarding arrangements and how the strong partnership work was paying dividend.  One of the emerging agendas in line with other cities in the country was the issue of county lines, wheredrug gangs from big cities expand their operations to smaller towns, often using violence to drive out local dealers and exploiting children and vulnerable people to sell drugs.

A number of partner organisations were present at the meeting, including West Yorkshire Police and Barnardos, who gave an overview of the work done by them.

Overall good progress had been made in Bradford to tackle the issue of exploitation, although there had been a downturn in some areas of risk such as the criminal exploitation of children, the work of the Partnership was to build on the achievements and not be complacent in any way.

Significant challenges remained in the area of adults and this was a new emerging piece of work which the Partnership would build on.

The West Yorkshire Police representative stated that the work done in the district was exemplary, with keen interest from other parts of the country on how we were tackling the issue of CSE in the Bradford district. She alluded to the figures set out in the report and commended the excellent partnership work.

In response to a question by the Leader on the work being undertaken in the area of Adults, the Police representative stated that the exploitation routes in the area of adults was similar to Children’s, with vulnerability being the key factor and furthermore County Lines was a particular growing area of activity, with vulnerable adults used in the illicit drugs trade.  In essence the all age approach as well as identifying and tackling risks and ensuring there was a good reporting mechanism were in place to deal with the problem.

Representatives from Barnardos alluded to the engagement work they had done with children around relationships, self esteem, drugs, criminality and CSE, and as result there had been some good outcomes, including some one to one  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47