Welcome from the National Programme Manager The Children’s Society’s Disrupting Exploitation Programme (DEx) works one-toone with young people and parents/carers who are victims of child criminal exploitation*. Funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, DEx has been working across Greater Manchester, Birmingham and London since We are committed to influencing systemic change to improve outcomes for children and young people. I would like to take the opportunity to introduce
myself. I joined DEx as National Programme Manager in January. My priorities for the programme are enhancing youth voice, sharing learning from the programme particularly to support grassroots youthh organisations and developing our cultural competency. I hope you find this newsletter useful and
encourage you to provide us feedback on this ‘test and learn’ issue. By sharing our learning
we can better work together to support young people. Ghino Parker *Follow this link for an explanation of child criminal exploitation. The young people we work with may also be at risk of/experiencing child sexual exploitation. Snapshot from the front line We asked Faye, Project Worker from Salford, Greater Manchester, five questions to find out more about her 1-2-1 work with young people who are at risk of exploitation.

Where do you get your referrals? I get a lot of referrals from Salford Youth Service and local charity Salford Foundation. Also from an ‘edge of care’ service. I’m developing contacts to invite more referrals.

How do you open up a conversation with a young person about exploitation? I start talking about wellbeing, healthy relationships, peer groups and peer pressure – I relate it to something they’ve talked to me about from their life and use this example to scale up to the issue. I pose questions to leave
a young person thinking.

What are the main risks factors for young people on your caseload? I see a lot of issues around who the young people associate with and peer pressure. In the winter months I saw more online activity – for
example people being groomed through gaming. Now its starting to get warmer and lighter it’s more about place: young people going to hotspots like Manchester City Centre or Salford Quays.

April 2022
Disrupting Exploitation

What strengths and protective factors are you seeing? More than ever before different agencies are sharing information and if something comes up about one of my caseload I’m made aware pretty much the same day. The flexibility and time I can spend with young people – I can work with them over a long period, I can show commitment. I’ve also seen some schools being really flexible, for example providing a
shorter timetable to a student who needs it. And examples of excellent youth centres and
parents as strong protective factors.

Name one systems change you’d like to see that would support the young people you’re working with One of the areas I work in has minimal youth facilities and these are really needed. Also more work to support the transition from primary to high school and from high school to College, especially since Covid has impacted on transition even more. Gang injunctions: are you seeing them too?
We’re looking into the use of gang injunctions issued to those aged under 18, building a national picture of their prevalence and impact. Are they being used in your area? If so would you be willing to share an example of the impact? We’d love to hear from you, please contact Christine Grover.

Youth Voice
We are currently developing three regional Youth Roundtables to increase youth voice in our programme and provide opportunities for young people to develop new skills. If you are working with young people who’d like to have their say around exploitation, and responses to it, then use the links below to
contact the team for your region:
• Manchester
• London
• Birmingham
Resources and training
We have a number of free resources created by DEx and our colleagues within The Children’s
Society which you can use, download and
share:
• Our latest DEx podcast with Coaching
CiC Elevated Minds is available now
through Spotify or Apple Podcast. Our
podcast library features episodes on
topics such as Girls and Gangs, School
Exclusions and Exploitation and Racism in
the Criminal Justice System.
• Our virtual ‘shelf’ of resources holds a
large number of resources that you can
download and share.
• We have a set of resources for education
providers.
• Read a blog by our Policy Manager on the
laws we are calling for to break the cycle
of exploitation.
• You can read more about the DEx
programme.
You may also be interested in these excellent
resources produced by other organisations:
• New: Towards Hope video by Pace
• In case you missed it: Blurred Lines
• a 22 minute film about County Lines –
accompanying lesson plans and
resources available here.

Training: find out about our offer of Systems Change training overleaf. Spotlight: Systems thinking tools and techniques Featured tool: The ‘Iceberg model’ The tool in 100 words or less: The visible part of the iceberg is only the tip. Much like the way a problem presents – we see the ‘event’ of a young person being exploited but need to look closer if we want to understand the issue of exploitation and how we can tackle it meaningfully. What are the patterns of risk and protective factors? The underlying structures
that facilitate these? The mental models that shape the way we respond to the issue? The Iceberg Model encourages you to think through each ‘level’ to gain a deeper understanding of the problem.
How we’ve used it: with partners in Birmingham looking at responses that disrupt exploitation in hotels in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games.

Would you like free and accessible Systems
Change training?
We’re offering online workshops to partners on
either of the following dates:
• 10am-12noon on Thursday 9 June
• 1-3pm on Tuesday 21 June
Email Julie to find out more and book a place.
Systems Change
Our Systems Change Work
At The Children’s Society we think of ‘systems
change’ as fundamentally transforming the
world around young people in order to tackle
the root causes of their disadvantage.
Our systems change work focuses on practical
actions that can lead to bigger changes.
Examples of our recent systems change work
have included:
• Training student social workers from
Birmingham City University on child
exploitation
• Taking part in a London Metropolitan
Police trial to provide an electronic
custody brochure with information for
young people in custody about support
services available to them
• Collating a report on Youth Voice,
• SEND and Exclusions, which is due
• to be published in May 2022.
• Delivering a session to school governors
looking at challenging exclusions
• Gathering intelligence on the use and
impacts of ‘gang injunctions’ with
• under 18s

Look out for more details on these pieces of work in future issues or contact Christine Grover for more details.

Policy and practice

West Midlands Internal Concealment Protocol The West Midlands Regional Exploitation and Missing group is developing an ‘Internal Concealment Protocol’. This multi-agency group is led by the West Midlands Violence Reduction Unit in partnership with Birmingham Children’s Trust and consists of statutory and voluntary sector partners. The protocol has been designed to provide clear guidance in all cases where Forced or Coerced Internal and Intimate Concealment is known or suspected. Internal and intimate concealment describes when drugs, weapons, sim cards and other items are concealed within
the body or underwear, or injested. It is commonly adopted by those exploited to traffic drugs as part of County Lines and in other cases may be used to prevent theft of drugs and money whilst sleeping.
The protocol aims to set out clear steps to ensure that all necessary safeguarding measures are put in place to support children and vulnerable adults who are exploited in this way. Once in place it could be replicated in other areas with the learning gained.

Commission on Young Lives reports

The Commission on Young Lives is an independent commission ‘to evidence and design a new national system to prevent crisis in vulnerable young people and support them to succeed in life’. To date they have produced two reports looking at exploitation. You can find short summaries of these reports through the links below. They also have a Call for Evidence open until November.
• Out of Harms Way
• A New Partnership With Families:
Supporting Families to Keep Teenagers
Safe from Gangs, Exploitation and Abuse

Data: what do we know about the extent of
child exploitation?

Each and every child impacted by exploitation
has their own unique story. However, data isuseful to identify trends in activity, and whenmaking a case for our work. Some key datapoints are listed here (with links to sources):

• The police recorded over 12,000 child
sexual exploitation related crimes in
England and Wales in 2019/20
• An estimated 27,000 children in England
identified as a gang member (Children’s
Commissioner, 2019)
• 5,468 children were referred through the
National Referral Mechanism in 2021 in
England and Wales (part of the Modern
Slavery Act – visit our NRM guide for an
explanation)
Violence Reduction Units or Community Safety
Teams may provide local statistics.