Once again through a serious case review, we see the devastating effect of failing to recognise the indicators of grooming and exploitation for young people. Victims are seen as making adult decisions without professionals being curious about what was happening to make those young people appear they were in control. The lack of understanding around what is perceived, as consent proves difficult across the UK not just Oxford.

For professionals who believe sexual exploitation is not evident in their area, this must surely be your trigger to ensure you have all the training in place for the front line practitioners who engage with young people in order to identify the abuse and develop comprehensive responses to those who you have concerns about.

Many young people tell us what has happened to them, either through language in direct disclosures, or in other cases through their behaviour and yet even today, they still fail to be recognised. It is so important to start from the position of believing the child and proactively trying to protect them from further abuse. As victims of systematic rape and sexual assault, engaging with those in authority is scary and an unknown path to tread. A fear of reprisals and/or being judged can be so difficult for young people; it requires time to develop trust and respect, not something that has always been previously shown to them.

In our engagement with professionals around sexual exploitation it is clear that there is a big gap in awareness of the legislation that can be used to tackle the issues and there has to be investment in bringing professionals up to speed with legislation and mechanisms to protect young people through the court process.

We hear from so many parents requesting assistance when they believe ‘something is not right’ with their young people, and yet systems and professionals still hold parents responsible. Young people can receive threats against their parents or siblings, which leads them to believe they are protecting their family. It makes it impossible for them to speak out. In many cases parents are a good form of protection but they need assistance to know how to do that effectively, manage the distress it causes families, and across the UK it seems easier to blame them than assist them.

It is good to see Oxford has now built a specialist service with the Kingfisher team to tackle sexual exploitation. Caution needs to be exercised across the UK with cases to ensure they receive attention if they fail to make the threshold of the specialist services that have developed recently.

We still need to work together with well-trained frontline practitioners who can then escalate concerns to a specialist service if they continue to be worried about an individual.

Sheila Taylor CEO MBE

NWG Network