A meeting involving key strategic leads from leading national bodies has been held to share the development of a pioneering approach to addressing Child Sexual Exploitation.
The multi-agency Child Sexual Abuse Outcome-led Framework, led by the Police and Crime Commissioner in Staffordshire, is believed to be the first of its kind in the country.
The new approach provides an overarching, joint document to gather information on how local organisations collectively address and measure the impact on Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and the contribution to addressing this issue. It covers prevention; building resilience and education and awareness; as well as identification and information sharing, interventions and service commissioning. The framework is linked to Staffordshire’s CSE strategy and is designed to help inform targeted action to keep children safe and protected.
Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis said:
“We are leading the way, establishing a co-ordinated approach to tackling sexual exploitation across agencies and organisations. There is a lot of interest around this framework created in Staffordshire, which aims to eradicate isolated, independent work by those who deal with this area, across agencies and organisations.
“This is about creating a co-ordinated and effective response across agencies and is clear evidence that public services across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent are strengthening their joint approach to stop child sexual exploitation.”
Supporting victims and witnesses is one of four priorities in Mr Ellis’ Safer, Fairer United Communities strategy for more local, effective policing and community safety in the county.
Children and their parents have spoken of their experiences in order to help either prevent others from being harmed or to improve their journey to recovery. Professionals have participated in the knowledge that the Outcomes Framework is part of a bigger drive to tackle CSE.
The creation of the new framework follows work carried out by Chanon Consulting supervised by The International Centre: Researching Child Sexual Exploitation, Violence and Trafficking at the University of Bedfordshire, with officials from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s team in Staffordshire who have met with victims, parents and safeguarding experts from the public and voluntary sectors.
The Framework was presented to a meeting of around 30 people on Monday, November 23. The meeting was held at the Local Government Association offices in London.
The meeting included representatives from NHS England and social care organisations as well as the Home Office, Ministry of Justice, OFSTED, Department for Education, HMIC, the Care Quality Commission and the College of Policing.
The framework sets out an agreed set of measures by agencies across Staffordshire to prevent Child Sexual Exploitation.
Those attending the meeting in London and stakeholders across Staffordshire have also been urged to give feedback on the CSE Framework as part of its development. More information, including the CSE Framework document can be found here.
