Lin Sands (NWG Police & Justice Lead) will be facilitating the forums

The forum runs on a quarterly basis, is chaired independently of the NWG Network and provides a variety of speakers within the field of Police and Justice.

The focus of each session will be to consider current challenges, themes and trends in respect of Child Exploitation; they will enable members to discuss specific issues and challenges within a safe and neutral space whilst also providing a platform for local, regional, national and international networking opportunities.

We would ask that if you have one particular theme for the forum discussion, you email Lin ([email protected])

This forum is part of a series that will aim to focus on;

1. How practitioners can successfully engage with exploited children & how building networks with community organisations will enable this to happen.

2. How can we interrupt the exploitation of children: grooming, disruption and manageable safety plans?

3. How we can build the confidence of managers and/or practitioners to undertake an ‘evidence-led’ child exploitation enquiry.

The aim of this Forum is to;

· Consider how the development of community pathways can ensure that ‘the voices of vulnerable victims and witnesses are heard within Child Exploitation investigations

· Recognise how wider engagement with organisations/individuals can contribute to tackling Child Exploitation & make children safe

· Reflect upon how building confidence with groups affected by structural inequalities, may improve their understanding of the Police and increase the likelihood of them reporting exploitation at earlier stages

How do I join?

This event will take place on Microsoft Teams. The joining link will be sent to you 48 hours prior to the event and again 30-minutes before the start through Eventbrite email so please do check your inbox or spam/junk folder for the link.

ADGENDA

This new ‘Financial Year’ forum provides an opportunity to hear about the amazing work that is being done to enable and upskill partners who are seeking to safeguarding children and young adults within Residential settings.

We will also be hearing from DC James Rudge AKA ‘Rudgey’ with an up-to-date summary of how confidence is growing in relation to applying for Civil Orders in our endeavour to tackle and combat Child/Young Adult Exploitation.

And last, but by no means least, we will hear from Det. C/Insp Andy Grant – our independent Forum Chair and Head of the Metropolitan Police Exploitation Team, who will be updating us on progress since the MetPol Child Protection re-inspection in 2024.

The Forum is a place where we can all learn and share experiences relating to all forms of exploitation/abuse from a training and investigative perspective. We promise that you will have an opportunity to hear and consider more about current challenges, what barriers exist but most importantly, how this ‘learning’ serves to ensure that victims/survivors benefit from the best possible response.  

Our Guest Speaker:

Rachael Courage is a trainer and safeguarding consultant for dialogue. Rachael is an experienced Social Worker of 23 years having always worked with children and their families, Rachael has practiced in a front-line child protection team, before working within the voluntary sector, including for the NSPCC and Barnardo’s. Her work here ranged from direct therapeutic post-abuse work, pre and post bereavement work with children, running parenting groups and direct work with young women at high risk of sexual exploitation.

She went on to manage the CSE service and oversaw significant developments such as the pilot and then development of the young men’s service, and the setting up of a new CSE and Missing service in a neighbouring local authority. These services were responsible for conducing all the return home interviews, liaising with the missing person worker from the police, and leading a multi-agency group, identifying the high-risk young people, risk assessing and delivering support. This including training police and other multi agency groups in CSE and working with the Vulnerable Peoples’ Partnership at a strategic level.

Rachael currently works as a child protection conference chair; whilst also delivering training and safeguarding supervision as a safeguarding consultant. In this role, Dialogue was commissioned by NPCC and Children’s Homes, Association and National Association of Fostering Providers to develop a training package around Children Missing from Care, to raise awareness of the risk assessment framework and promote good practice around missing from care, with a strong emphasis on prevention. Rachael wrote and continues to deliver this.

Rachel will be sharing the messages she is receiving from practitioners via her current training work, and to explain how it is being offered to wider audiences.

Our Guest Speaker:

Detective Constable James Rudge ‘Rudgey’, is a regular visitor to our Forum and is seconded to the National County Lines Coordination Centre. (NCLCC). Rudgey spends most of his time advising and supporting Safeguarding partners to apply for and consider the use of Civil Orders to disrupt/interrupt exploitation. Rudgey will be providing us with an overview of the work to date, some of the challenges but many of the successes.   

The aim of the forum is to provide practitioners with an opportunity to;

1. Hear more about the responses from training and upskilling of partners within residential care to safeguard children/adults from Exploitation..   
2. Consider the opportunities that may exist to interrupt/disrupt exploitation more effectively and creatively.
3. What we can learn for future investigations.

The forum will be independently Chaired by Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Grant (Modern Slavery and Child Exploitation (MSCE) Teams, Central Specialist Crime, Metropolitan Police). Andy brings a wealth of knowledge & experience of Public Protection & the practicalities surrounding disrupting & interrupting exploitation