Facing the challenges: Identifying and engaging with young people to prevent Sexual Exploitation

1. Facing the challenges: Identifying and engaging with young people to prevent Sexual Exploitation Jenny J Pearce Not to be reproduced without permission from Jenny.Pearce@beds.ac.uk

2. What are we preventing?

3. UN Violence Against Children • “Children are at times blamed for what has happened, coerced to keep it a secret and often stigmatized and marginalised by their families and communities”, • Children are the most vulnerable yet they are the least protected. • Violence against children is preventable. Investing efforts and resources in prevention is the most effective means to reduce violence against children. Marta Santos: UN Special representative secretary general on violence against children: address to The Council of Europe Launch of the ‘One in five ‘ campaign (www.coe.int)

4. Sexual abuse and sexual exploitation • Police in England and Wales recorded a sex crime every 20 minutes in 2010 • More than 23,000 offences, including rape, incest and gross indecency were logged in 2009-10: most reports concerned children aged 12 to 15 • Girls continue to be 6 times more likely to known victims of sexual assault (NSPCC 2011) • 56% of victims of sexual offences in NI are under 18 • 613 recorded sexual offences against 12-17 year olds in NI in 2010/11 (stats cited in Beckett 2011)

5. Prevalence/ CSE • Prevalence data difficult to capture: • Low levels of reporting by young people • Variable levels of awareness & confusion around definition • Inadequate intelligence gathering & information sharing • Inconsistent recording • Existing counts: • 1875 cases localised grooming (CEOP 2011) • 2409 confirmed victims over 14 month period; 16,500 at risk (OCC 2012) • 3000 CSE service users (NWG 2010) • CSE issue of concern for 1 in 7 young people known to social services in N.Ireland; 1 in 5 at significant risk (Beckett 2011)

6. Prevention is acknowledging there is a problem • This child has a very vivid imagination. I’m not even going to record a lot of our conversation because it’s clearly not true. • I know that she's been in front of a jury and told a story about being raped over there. I know she wasn't believed.....I mean we are asking the court to believe a 15 year old girl against four or five adults. (Pearce, Hynes and Bovarnick 2009)

7. There are financial benefits to developing preventative interventions (cost/benefit analysis) (Puppet on a String / Cut them free, Barnardo’s 2011)

8. What do we want to prevent?The bigger picture! • Violence in the home • ‘Normalised’ sexual violence between peers • A culture of ‘disbelief’ and ‘blame’ • Fear and demonization of teenagers • Gender blind responses • Criminalising children for their reaction to abuse

9. What do we want to prevent?The bigger picture! • The ‘Hot potato’ effect • Poor information sharing between sexual health and child protection • Schools turning their back on exploitation • Child protection services turning their back on vulnerable adolescents

10. How?: An Integrated Strategy • Identify • Engage • Disrupt • Prosecute

11. Identify Why don’t young people come forward ?

12. ‘What Works for Us’ 2010 • ...they question you a lot and say ‘did you try to run away?’ and they think you didn’t try to get away. They think you wanted it. They doubt you. • They lump us all together. Generalise’. • People's stereotype is ‘girls like that, that’s what they do’

13. They looked at me like I was dirt when I came to my case review’ • A lot of their attitude is ‘you’re just a little slapper – a slapper who likes sleeping with older men’ – they think it’s just kids coming onto older men

14. Young people voting with their feetWarrington 2011 ...with my other counselling - I didn’t want it– I went once... they said yeah Yeah - you’ve got to go to appointment. I went and didn’t like it so I didn’t go again. But here I like it so I come all the time me.

15. So how do we identify sexually exploited children and young people?

16. Data Collection, awareness raising and training • High value of local scoping exercises • Data collection and awareness raising go hand in hand (Jago et al 2010) • Follow up with ‘Action Plan’: need an implementation strategy with an ongoing data recording update

17. But? Identified data: the ‘true’ and ‘changing’ picture? • ‘Lazy’ knowledge or sensationalism to be guarded against • Incomplete data should be constantly under review • Of 1065 identified: Average age 15, Boys 8.6% of cases , Of 1040 (79%) were white victims (Jago et al 2011). • Victim and perpetrator representation to be addressed • Local, regional and national demography to be considered

18. Data and awareness raising • 33 agencies responded: 25 NGOs, 22 of whom were Barnardo’s, Only 8 returns from statutory agencies (Jago et al 2011) • Similar experience as CEOP (2011): ‘Out of mind, out of sight’ : reasons for poor response • lack of resources/ time/ knowledge or awareness of problem and • different understandings of CSE/ different thresholds OCC Inquiry 2011-13 much higher return

19. Trainingand awareness raising • Current social work training does not identify or address CSE • 24 areas identified as active in preventing CSE ran training and awareness programmes: • 72% reported training for LSCB staff • 60% reported awareness raising for other practitioners • 44% reported awareness raising with children and young people • 38% reported awareness raising with parents /carers (Jago et al 2011)

20. And? We are probably already working with the families • Of 479 cases living with families (Jago et al 2011): 42% had been identified as a child in need prior to the risk to child sexual exploitation having been identified. • DV noted in 223 of the 1065 identified CSE cases (20%); Witnessing domestic violence was the most frequent experience (100 of 223) • 67 of 461 cases (15%) had Special Educational Needs (Compared to 2.8 % pupils across all schools in England had statements of SEN) • All 147 cases identified in NI research known to social services

21. And? with those ‘Looked after’ 21% of sample in Local Authority Care (Jago et al 2011); 34.7% of CEOP’s (2011) CSE sample in LA care (compared to fewer than 1% of children in care in England) 54% of whom in residential care (Jago et al 2011) (compared to under 20% of in care population in residential care) Beckett 2011 : Not a world away Ofsted : 9th May 2012: children’s homes: 4,840 children, 1,800 girls, 631 suspected cases of being sold for sex

22. And? With those offending and missing 36% of 427 reported going missing over 10 times Of 341 cases where crime was noted : 56% were known victims of other crimes, 9% were both victim and perpetrator of crime UCL 2011: 40% of one case load committed ‘symptom related offences’ (Jago et al 2011 Similar links confirmed in Beckett 2011, CEOP 2011, UCL 2012, OCC 2012)

23. Identifying through The ‘Whole School’ Approach • Health and Safety : would you ever have only one safe room or one safe subject? • The ‘Whole School’ trains the kitchen staff, caretakers, gardeners, all support staff, governors, teachers, parents, children

24. The role of the school and community • The journey to school as important as school itself. • Having staff/practitioners recognise the existence of CSE and related abuse shifts issue from an individual problem to a general problem Shared problems are easier to talk about • Having a clearly identifiable referral pathway

25. Engaging with sexually exploited young people once they are identified

26. Young People need to see that engaging is meaningful (‘What Works for us’ 2010) • Since May last year I’ve been raped three times. Groomed. ….I’ve been in police stations five or six times doing interviews, line-ups’– ‘I put so much effort in on these cases..he still walks around town’ • ... If a case gets dropped again... If I get raped again I’m just not going to bother’ [reporting it] ‘ It’s just too intense -  and all that for a court case that will probably be dropped’ • Fear of seeing perpetrator in court – ‘No way I can face him again’

27. Research and evaluation: what we know about engaging with exploited young people • Chicken and egg: where there is a service there are young people • Engagement takes time, trust • Therapeutic, assertive outreach essential: holding the child in mind • Support needed for victims at every stage: through court and beyond • Multi agency work: good information sharing is the foundation to sustained engagement

28. Showing the young person there is a point in engaging: The Dual Integrated Strategy • ‘I would tell you if I thought there was something you could do’ • Less than ¼ of 100 LSCBs demonstrate strategies for dual approach • Only 1/3 knew of support for the young person during court (Jago et al 2011)

29. Engaging with Health Sexual Health; CAMHS; A and E; LAC nurses. • Engage in child centred work: the voice of the young person Health advocates making messages accessible (Association of young People’s Health)

30. Engaging with the peer group/community issues • The role of the whole school • Supporting local communities: families, carers, faith groups, community leaders • Supporting local workers: a ‘network’ or ‘reference point’ for foster carers, youth workers, teachers, health workers

31. What now? • Conceptual shift: from just safeguarding younger children inside the home to also Safeguarding Young People outside the home • Link strategies to identify, engage, disrupt and prosecute • Multi -agency response • Engage with young people in research, policy development and practice delivery • Challenge ‘Condoned Consent’

32. A reminder What are we preventing?

33. UN Violence Against Children • “Children are at times blamed for what has happened, coerced to keep it a secret and often stigmatized and marginalised by their families and communities”, • Children are the most vulnerable yet they are the least protected. • Violence against children is preventable. Investing efforts and resources in prevention is the most effective means to reduce violence against children. Marta Santos: UN Special representative secretary general on violence against children: address to The Council of Europe Launch of the ‘One in five ‘ campaign (www.coe.int)

34. Young people’s definitions Its when you don't know your choices that other people have all the power Taken from 'Out of the Box: young people's stories' written by young people from Doncaster Streetreach and NSPCC London projects

35. Further reading • Barnardo’s (2012) Cut them Free • Beckett (2011) Not a world away: the sexual exploitation of children and young people in Northern Ireland • Beckett et al (2012) Gang-associated sexual exploitation and sexual violence: Interim report • CEOP (2011) Out of mind, out of sight: breaking down the barriers to understanding child sexual exploitation • Jago et al (2011) What’s going on to safeguard children and young people from sexual exploitation? • Melrose, M and Pearce J (2013) Critical Perspectives to Child Sexual Exploitation and Related Trafficking. London, Palgrave • Pearce (2009) Young people and sexual exploitation: it’s not hidden, you just aren’t looking • Office of the Children’s Commissioner (2012) Interim report of Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups

36. Preventing Child Sexual Exploitation Jenny J Pearce Not to be reproduced without permission from Jenny.Pearce@beds.ac.uk