The report of the Chief Executive Officer (Document “I”) provides an update to and builds on the report presented to the District Area Committees previously regarding the issue of Child Exploitation (CE). It 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 Area Committee is invited to consider the contents of this   report and how members can support local activity.

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

(3)       Partners will seek further funding opportunities from Government        funding streams to enable to continuation of service provision as          outlined in this report.

(Darren Minton – 01274 434361)

The report of the Chief Executive’s Office (Document “I”) was presented to the Committee to provide and update to the report previously presented to the Area Committee regarding the issue of Child Exploitation.  The Bradford Partnership (TBP) scrutinised the District responses to this and provided professional challenge to those responses.

The report also focused on the strategic response to all forms of exploitation to children and adults and how partners were contributing to improve service provision across the District.  Through collaborative working, awareness and understanding had been improved to enable professionals to recognise and respond to wider types of exploitation. 

TBP partners have recognised the emergence of wider safeguarding themes within TBP Strategic Plan 2019/20 and the Risk and Vulnerabilities in Complex Safeguarding sub group have agreed on a district strategic response to exploitation under the following six headings.

(1)   Identify and understand the nature and scale of the themes involved.
(2)  Prevention, Education and Awareness
(3)  Safeguarding vulnerable people, groups and communities
(4)  Effective leadership and governance
(5)  Disrupt and Prosecute.
(6)  Communication, Engagement and Empowerment

Officers advised that partners finalised a strategic response to CE and to Risk and Vulnerabilities in Complex Safeguarding, publishing an Exploitation Protocol and a Risk Assessment tool.  Front door arrangements within Children’s Social Care were extended to address wider exploitation utilising new multi-agency processes.  Training was continually provided by the Bradford District Police Cyber Team and other partners relating to exploitation and online safety.

The report provided details of the partner organisations involved and how changes in legislation affected and guided Governance and Infrastructure.  It also detailed the various categories of exploitation and how the partnership was working to tackle the issues raised.  The report contained links guidance documents and to real life accounts of abuse plus a summary of the position in terms of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) within the District, how they were categorised and what they entailed.

Members were then given an opportunity to make comments and ask questions, the details of which and the responses given, are as below:

·         Had the serious case review from the report been published and if so, where?

·         Reference page 37 of the report, The Bradford Safeguarding Advisory Board, who had been commissioned?

·         The work on the ‘On the Buses’ project had been paused due to Covid, when would be starting again?

·         There had been a significant rise in the number of children removed from school roll since September.  How were the authority staying on top of the situation and measuring this issue?

·         From point 2.25 of the report, what organisations were involved and how was the Board made up?

·      Officers advised that commissions were not external but were undertaken by multi-agency partner boards (task and finish groups).  The ‘On the Buses’ project arose out of work by the Adult group around Hate Crime and that bus drivers were being trained to help vulnerable adults who may be getting bullied.  Education was high on the agenda with weekly information on non-attendance of vulnerable children being monitored by the Child Protection Board.  It was not a statutory requirement for parents/carers to send children to school so assessments were carried out and support offered as legislation was significantly limited.  Going forward children educated at home would not continue to receive the same level of school support as remote learning would not continue to be made available to them.  Officers were already looking into the barriers against children returning to school.  The authority was also working with the NPT (Neighbourhood Policing Team)

·         The numbers of children at risk per ten thousand was very high in two wards in particular, were these two wards being targeted for support?

·      Officers advised that there were areas based youth work teams who were working with the NPT to enforce and educate and tackle the issue of young people on the streets

·         The data for Heaton showed that the number of children flagged as at risk went down in October 2020.  Why was this, had the pandemic caused issues to be highlighted?

·      Officers stated that there was a growing concern with online vulnerability and disclosures may only rise once children were back with people they could trust.  Children were invisible whilst at home during the pandemic making some risks difficult to detect.  The ‘MO’ had changed with less use of public transport.  Risks existed both inside and outside families  and offences had increased with children being at home

·         How proactive were we and our partners being?  More information should be made available to empower and raise awareness in young people

·      Officers stated that this was a consequence of children being at home as they were harder to reach.  PCSO’s were working in primary schools and training was offered to parents/carers.  Secondary schools had the a choice to opt in to work jointly with Police who could support the curriculum work for keeping safe online

·         A Member asked what kind of work was being done around children who were not attending school as they are vulnerable.

·      Officers advised that children who were not in school were already known to them and that youth working teams were engaging with them.  Support started on the streets and would take them back to school or onto other opportunities.

·         Was there any link between off rolling and child exploitation and how did the situation in wards in Bradford West compare with others in the District?

·      Officers advised that a huge amount of work had been carried out to ensure that schools were compliant had schools encouraging elective home education were dealt with.  All children were identified and proactively followed up.  Not all were in full time education but off rolling was not a huge issue.

·         Members wanted to know what was being done to deter those off roll from engaging in criminal activity and were advised that there was a zero tolerance to off rolling and that schools were being held to account.  There was a daily risk assessment meeting held and a very clear escalation process was in place when there was a risk of exploitation.  Schools were also encouraging children back into school

·         What happened with children who were on roll but not allowed into school (this was mainly in academies)?

·      The Education Safeguarding Team supported children doing transition.  Schools were challenged around transition and children not being allowed into school but there were usually mitigating circumstances involved

Resolved –

(1)       That The Area Committee was invited to consider the contents of        this report and how members can support local activity.

(2)       That The Area Committee would receive a further update on the           progress of the response to exploitation in 12 months’ time.

(3)       That Partners would seek further funding opportunities from     Government funding streams to enable to continuation of   service provision as outlined in this report.

Action: Chief Executive