Agenda item

To receive and consider the Child Exploitation Strategy and Implementation Plan.

Background:

• Child Exploitation Manager presented the report and noted that the Child Exploitation team ran Parent and Community Internet Safety Sessions through schools in North and South Powys. Promoted by schools, all parents and community members could attend, and the sessions would be running next in October 2024.
• In June 2021 the first Powys Child Exploitation Strategy and three-year Multi Agency Implementation Plan was implemented with the aim of creating harsher communities for perpetrators and safer non-blaming communities for children. This would be achieved through strong leadership and multi-agency collaboration under three sections; prevent, protect and support.
• In 2022 the exploitation strategy was utilised to develop the Regional Exploitation Strategy and the new implementation plan presented today aligned with that document.

Prevent:

• A collaborative learning approach was embedded to support practise and development through the multi-agency community of practise learning sessions.
• Seventeen learning sessions had been facilitated with consistent good attendance and positive feedback.
• On average between fifty and eighty professionals across various agencies attended those sessions.
• The sessions explored:
  • Increasing awareness of different forms of exploitation and how these interlink.
  •  Understanding thresholds, supporting parents and young people as partners within assessments,
  • Interventions and measuring change
  • Supporting a greater understanding of disruption tactics and responsibility (e.g. national referral mechanism).
• Data recognised increased disruption tactics followed on from those community practises such as a Slavery and Risk Trafficking Order which had been issued in the county.
• The team increased visibility of their work by facilitating 12 awareness raising sessions in collaboration with the Youth Service, PCSO teams, college licensing and Bernardo’s Counter Trafficking Service, mostly around internet safety.
• Participated in 8 multi-agency outreach sessions that focussed on spaces and places and raised awareness within areas that young people congregated and spent time together across Powys.
• Awareness raising videos had been created for children, parents and carers through collaboration with the Youth Service. These videos were re-utilised throughout the year for Child Exploitation Week in March and Safeguarding Week in November.
• Funding was secured for an Arad Goch production called ‘Crossing the Line’ which was rolled out across all high school sites.
• In 2022 online and in-person parent and community learning sessions were implemented. Further sessions would take place in Machynlleth and Ystradgynlais in October 2024.
• The team attended a Pan Powys Sixth Form Pupils Voice Group where sixth form students considered a Child Ambassador Programme and feedback was used to develop the programme. This had been piloted at two high school sites with the aim of implementation across all high school sites in Powys.

Under the ‘Protect’ element of the paper the team…

• Embedded the Exploitation Safeguarding Strategy meeting process, which was held weekly and attended by agencies.
• Invited Parents to Safeguarding Strategy Meetings as partners.
• Created a consistently attended Strategic MACE and implemented cross-partnership data collection which had allowed the development of understanding of the scale and nature of exploitation in Powys.
• Collected data on a quarterly basis and supported the monitoring of the effectiveness of responses to children, young people and their outcomes.
• Developed a greater awareness of contextual safeguarding within MACE.
• Piloted a toolkit which focussed on space and supporting safe change collaboratively with other agencies.

Under the ‘Support’ element of the paper the team…

• Undertook direct intervention via three Child Exploitation Intervention Workers.
• Continued to build knowledge as a trauma informed and strength-based service, supported by monthly meetings with an in-house psychologist.
• The sessions had been consistently well received by the team and examples include, developing children’s formulations, developing confidence in utilising CBT approaches, mindfulness, emotional wellbeing and positive affirmation resources, and drafting therapeutic ending letters.
• Engaged with the Independent Child Trafficking Guardianship Service which was Bernardo’s led and were both regular attenders at the Safeguarding Strategy Meetings.
• Mapped out post-18 support services to aid transition and recognised that as a process as opposed to an event.
• Piloted the Post-18 Exiting Prostitution Toolkit.

The New Implementation Plan:

·       Continued to build upon areas that had worked well within Powys including the Prevent, Protect and Support structure of work.

The Prevent Element continued to:

·       Build upon collaborative awareness raising.

·       Embed ambassador programme in schools.

·       Community of Practices.

·       Build upon the cross-partnership data set to develop other actions as required, such as thematic audit and identifying specific training needs.

·       Ensure the Safeguarding Strategy Meeting process remained in place and used a targeted focus, e.g. introducing the Philomena Protocol for missing children.

·       Develop practise guidance to support peer on peer harm.

The Support Element continued to:

·       Utilise feedback from intervention work to ensure the exploitation team continued to learn and develop.

·       Ensure that the service continued to use data to support transitional safeguarding for young adults.

The Head of Children’s Services added that the Child Exploitation Strategy was an updated strategy which had an action plan attached.

Recognition and observation of children’s lived experiences of exploitation in Powys was increasing and the challenge of keeping up with changing methods of child exploitation was noted.