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Child Exploitation

Child criminal exploitation is common in county lines and occurs where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, control, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18. The victim may have been criminally exploited even if the activity appears consensual. Child criminal exploitation does not always involve physical contact; it can also occur through the use of technology… Criminal exploitation of children is broader than just county lines and includes, for instance, children forced to work on cannabis farms or to commit theft. However, many of the characteristics of county lines exploitation will be present in other forms of child criminal exploitation. Likewise, victims of county lines may also experience other overlapping forms of exploitation, such as sexual, in addition to criminal Home Office Criminal exploitation of children, young people and vulnerable adults Guidance 2023  Here

Practitioners working with children should familiarise themselves with Section A of this guidance.

Potential risk indicators include:

  • Acquisition of money, clothes, mobile phones etc. without explanation;

  • Gang-association and/or isolation from peers and social networks;

  • Exclusion or unexplained absences from school, college or work;

  • Leaving home or care without explanation and persistently going missing or returning late;

  • Excessive receipt of texts and phone calls;

  • Returning home under the influence of drugs or alcohol;

  • Inappropriate sexualised behaviour for age and sexually transmitted infections;

  • Evidence of and suspicions of physical or sexual assault;

  • Relationships with controlling or significantly older individuals or groups;

  • Multiple callers (unknown adults or peers);

  • Frequenting areas known for sex work;

  • Concerning use of internet or other social media;

  • Increasing secretiveness around behaviours;

  • Self-harm or significant changes in emotional well-being

As a parent / carer what signs should I look out for?

  • Spending time with people you don't know or aren't sure about.

  • Going missing from home or school (even for a few hours).

  • Getting into trouble at school.

  • Having unexplained new items (phones, clothes, etc.).

  • Getting involved with crimes

  • Having unexplained injuries.

  • Losing interest in their existing hobbies.

  • Becoming secretive.

  • Not telling you where they have been or why they returned late.

  • Increased activity on their phone (either calls, messages, or apps) and their response.

As a parent / carer what can I do?

  • Talk to your child and listen.

  • Try and keep lines of communication open with them.

  • Show an interest in what they do and who they are with.

  • Know who your child is with and where.

  • Talk with them about the dangers of county lines and gangs.

  • Let them know it is not their fault if this happens.

  • If you are worried that your child could come to harm, report your concerns to Customer First on 0808 800 4005.

  • If you are worried that your child is at immediate risk of harm, call 999.

Useful resources and support

Groomsafe - Groomsafe is a website dedicated to informing parents, carers, and teaching professionals by raising awareness of exploitation. Groomsafe seeks to safeguard children and young adults against the dangers of specific manipulation whether it is sexual or criminally motivated.

5 Big Questions for Parents/Carers who are worried about their young people and gangs - Youth Intervention Expert Junior Smart talks about the 5 key questions that every parent/ caregiver should consider if they have concerns.

NSPCC - Criminal Exploitation and Gangs - NSPCC advice about how to spot the signs of criminal exploitation and involvement in gangs and what support is available for children.

Child Safety Online - A practical guide for parents and carers whose children are using social media.

Children's Society - The Children’s Society website provides a range of resources. Their #LookCloser campaign encourages everyone to learn the signs of child exploitation and how to report it.

Child Trafficking & Modern Slavery

Child trafficking and modern slavery are child abuse.

Child Trafficking is the movement of a child for the purpose of exploitation. (A child is defined as any person under the age of 18).  Children are tricked, forced or persuaded to leave their homes and traffickers may promise children education or persuade parents that their child can have a better future in another place.

Children can be moved, harboured and transported within the UK as well as across international borders. Most children are trafficked for financial gain. They can be trafficked by parents, extended family members, known adults in the community, organised gangs or by strangers.

They can be trafficked for many different forms of exploitation, including:

  • Sexual Exploitation 

  • Domestic servitude – such as cleaning or cooking

  • Sweatshop, restaurant and other catering work

  • Credit card fraud

  • Begging or pickpocketing or other forms of petty criminal activity

  • Agricultural labour, including tending plants in illegal cannabis farms

  • Benefit fraud

  • Drug mules, drug dealing or decoys for adult drug traffickers

  • Illegal inter-country adoptions

  • Forced Marriage 

  • Organ removal and in some cases ritual sacrifice

Trafficked children experience multiple forms of abuse and neglect.

Physical, sexual and emotional violence are often used to control victims of trafficking and children are also likely to be physically and emotionally neglected.

Trafficked children have little choice in what happens to them and often experience multiple forms of abuse and neglect due to violence and threats made against them or their families. In effect, they are owned by the traffickers.

  • Suffolk Modern Slavery, Human Trafficking & NRM Flowchart for Non-First Responder Organisations – NRM Flowchart

Further Information:

Criminal Exploitation Hubs in Suffolk

The Criminal Exploitation (CE) Hubs is an initiative, building on the success of the Suffolk Against Gangs and Exploitation Team. Working with key partners, voluntary groups, communities, children, and families to support, disrupt, protect, and empower children and communities from the risk of criminal exploitation in hot spot locations.

Locations will be identified through police and community led intelligence, and the Multi-Agency Criminal Exploitation Panels (MACE).

There are two teams, one based in the South and one in the West of the county. The teams adopt a targeted outreach approach to work with children, families, and communities, supporting the work of those already working in the community and partner agencies.

We want to:

If you have concerns around a location or would like to have a consultation with someone from the CE Hubs please complete the professionals form and send to CEHubs@suffolk.gov.uk

Make a Change Team

The Make a Change (MAC) team support all young people up until the age of 18 years who are at risk or are victims of child exploitation. They also provide support and advice to parents and carers.

The team will work with all forms of exploitation, including:

The team provides expertise to the mainstream teams in all areas of exploitation and will offer direct work with young people and children who have an allocated social worker in circumstances where perseverance or specific direct work is required, but does not offer specialism in isolation of the mainstream teams.

MACE Referral Form

Contact the team

Get in touch with the MAC team:

Child Sexual Exploitation

Child sexual exploitation is a form of child sexual abuse. It occurs where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into sexual activity (a) in exchange for something the victim needs or wants, and/or (b) for the financial advantage or increased status of the perpetrator or facilitator. The victim may have been sexually exploited even if the sexual activity appears consensual. Child sexual exploitation does not always involve physical contact; it can also occur through the use of technology.

The child or young person may think that their abuser is their friend, or even their boyfriend or girlfriend. Children and young people may be moved within the UK, also referred to as child trafficking, or trafficked into the UK from other countries for the purpose of sexually abusing them. Child sexual abuse through exploitation can include the grooming of children and young people online for the purpose of sexually abusing them. This might involve:

  • An adult pretending to be a child, befriending the child/young person through online chat rooms, social networking websites, email etc.

  • Asking children/young people to participate in non-contact sexual activities such as engaging in sexual conversations online or through a telephone.

  • Asking children/young people to take and share indecent images of themselves online or through a mobile phone.

  • Asking children/young people to display sexualised behaviours or perform sexual acts that are recorded or shared live via webcam.

  • The creation, storage and distribution of child abuse images, also referred to as child pornography.

  • Arranging to meet a child/young person face to face for the purpose of sexually abusing them.

Who is affected by child sexual exploitation?

This type of abuse could happen to any child or young person from any background.

It happens to boys and young men as well as girls and young women. They could be looked after, leaving residential or foster care, migrant or unaccompanied asylum seeking children or young people.

They may have experienced previous forms of abuse and may be involved in gangs. The victims of abuse are not at fault; abusers are very clever in the way they manipulate, groom and take advantage of the children and young people they abuse.

What are the signs of child sexual exploitation?

  • Regularly missing school or not taking part in education. 

  • Staying out at night, regularly returning home late and/or returning home after long intervals and appearing well cared for.

  • Defensive about where they have been and what they have been doing.

  • Appears with unexplained gifts or new possessions, money, mobile phones, clothes, jewellery etc.

  • Suffers from sexually transmitted infections.

  • Mood swings.

  • Changes in emotional wellbeing, use of language or physical appearance.

  • Displays inappropriate sexualised behaviour.

  • Is secretive or withdrawn.

  • Looks tired, ill or sleeps during the day.

  • Associating with older men and/or developing a relationship of a sexual nature with a significantly older man or woman.

  • Uses drugs and/or alcohol.

  • Receiving more phone calls or text messages than usual.

Resources

Further Information and Advice

Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness Raising

  • Operation Makesafe | The Hydrant Programme Hotel staff across England and Wales are being trained to spot the signs of potential child sexual abuse and exploitation and are working really hard to protect young people and children. This can sometimes mean that they have conversations that feel difficult. We assure you it’s for the right reasons and the intention is never to cause stress or upset. 

Hotels

Taxi Drivers

More Information

Suffolk Pathfinder Programme

  • There is a vast body of research that explores cultural competence for practitioners working with children and families. Increasingly, cultural competence is cited as helpful when working with children who are criminally exploited, and this sparked our interest in this area. There is however limited research regarding what makes a practitioner culturally competent in this field. This leads us to draw on learning from other areas as a starting point. We have considered child criminal exploitation, child sexual exploitation and domestic abuse across a range of disciplines including social work, psychology, and youth work. We have pulled the main themes from these areas together and split them into knowledge, skills, and values to make it easy to digest. We have gathered the reflections of professionals to ensure the literature reflects what is happening in the field. We have also discussed the skills, knowledge and values children and caregivers’ find important in a practitioner.

  • The Pathfinder worked with parents with lived experience to co-produce a webinar based on what they told us they wish they had known at the start of their child’s exploitation. The webinar is approximately one hour and covers:

    • What is child criminal exploitation and how county lines operate

    • The methods that can be used to groom children

    • What to do if your child goes missing

    • The words of parents with lived experience, sharing the changes they noticed in their child and advice for parents who may be experiencing exploitation.

    • Steps a parent can take (including capturing intelligence / evidence)

    • How to work with Services

    • Looking after yourself, family, and home.

    • Further information / signposting

    Tips

    • Practitioners should read the accompanying paper (parent briefing) below.

    • Practitioners should have a good understanding of criminal exploitation (see Pathfinder Resources on Youth Justice Board Resource Hub)

    • Ideally, a practitioner would run through the webinar with a parent / caregiver, allowing for natural breaks to discuss relevant points.

    • If this is not able to happen, the practitioner will need to share the link with the parent / caregiver and ensure that they have appropriate internet access and a suitable device. We would recommend that the parent takes breaks as the webinar contains a lot of information. The parent may need some support to access the webinar. The practitioner should follow up sharing the link to check in whether there are any questions / comments.

    • The Families Learning About Thinking Skills programme (FLATS) was developed in Suffolk by a Clinical Psychologist, and informed by the existing evidence base, in addition to clinical judgement, knowledge and experience.

    • FLATS was originally developed for use with young people at risk of exploitation from local gangs and has been adapted for use with young people potentially affected by criminal exploitation, including through ‘county lines’, and is informed by a range of established psychotherapeutic approaches and designed to target the needs and difficulties underlying young people’s risks and needs.

    • FLATS is an intensive intervention programme, run over 16-weeks, and comprised of: weekly 2-hour group sessions for young people, weekly 1hr 1:1 sessions for young people, access to facilitators outside of these sessions (e.g., through WhatsApp) for support with applying skills in ‘real life’ situations. Additionally, there is a strong family component to the programme, and facilitators provide on-going practical and emotional support to caregivers, to address their own needs and any blocks or barriers which might prevent them from supporting their child.

    In order to support bring children together safely, the Pathfinder created a risk assessment and plan. This can be adapted for other group based interventions.

    If you are interested in running FLATS, please speak with your team Operational Manager or Catherine Bennett.

  • The Pathfinder undertook a rapid review of the literature in terms of seeking to establish what good practice would look like, when working with children who are experiencing exploitation.

    This paper summarises a number of approaches and learning from research, serious case reviews and evaluations. We sought to pull out the main practice points in these documents to create an easy-to-read resource that would be helpful to practitioners and managers.

    We reached out to a small number of professionals to act a as ‘critical friends’ to provide feedback on the paper.

  • The Pathfinder undertook a rapid review of the literature in terms of seeking to establish what good practice would look like, to support children and their families to exit safely.

    This paper summarises a number of themes from research and evaluations from over 50 papers. We sought to pull out the main practice points in these documents to create an easy-to-read resource that would be helpful to practitioners and managers.

    This briefing paper can be used to:

    • Raise awareness for professionals who are new to this area of practice.

    • Provide a helpful refresher to more experienced professionals.

    • Consider the learning and reflect on individual children and families.

  • County Lines present a significant risk to children experiencing exploitation. Exiting a line can increase the risk of harm to a child and their family. The Safety Planning product is designed to help you consider:

    • Trauma within the context of safety planning for children

    • Principles and skills required to approach this area of practice

    There is also an additional resource that contains tactics, and this is hosted on a secure Microsoft Teams (MS) Page that requires permission to access it. This is so we protect the tactics we have identified and ensure the tool is used as intended. If you are undertaking safety planning, please discuss the child and their family’s situation with your manager.

    Should you need further information, please contact: Catherine.bennett@suffolk.gov.uk