This article was written by Sheila Taylor MBE CEO NWG Network and published in the Learning the Lessons 39 Police Conduct publication September 2021

Becoming a victim of child exploitation has devastating effects on our children, their lives and their family’s lives. Whether you are already managing the strategic or operational response within your area, providing the research and validated learning from past cases or developing provision or resources, everyone is aiming to improve the outcomes for young people and their families.

In this article, Sheila Taylor MBE talks about the long term impacts of child sexual exploitation on children and the network she founded to help professionals.

It has become obvious over the past few years, the more we engage with adults who have been abused through exploitation, that the terminology
we use to introduce them is, in itself, a challenge.
Over time we have been requested to use the terms victim, survivor, thriver, those with lived experience, living with the experience and expert by experience.
These varying terms offer an insight into how people view their own experiences, different aspects of the impact of exploitation and how it may be reflected in how they see themselves.
The impact on all those who have experienced abuse through exploitation manifests in different ways, at different times, and to different triggers. Some survivors have been extremely brave and publicly spoken of their experience and trauma, others have gone about fundraising to support organisations that support young people today, advocating in other ways. Others carry their trauma well-hidden and develop a life they feel able to live and leave that experience buried and unspoken of.

However, many survivors suffer significant mental health issues, problems with fertility and pregnancy, ongoing sexual health concerns and physical pain associated with trauma and unhealthy coping mechanisms such as drug and alcohol addictions. Until recently the long-term effects on both survivors and their families have not been clearly recognised.

There have been a number of research papers on the effect of child abuse, including the independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) who have taken a keen interest in understanding those long-term effects in the hope of raising awareness of the issues.
The Truth project has taken testimony from many survivors of abuse from across significant numbers of institutions including care homes, faith groups and sport.

For more than 20 years, through various avenues, I have been in the privileged position of hearing accounts from individuals who were going through exploitation at that time, who had recently been extricated or removed from the experience, and from a wide range of experiences of those with historical accounts. None of it is easy to hear and is impossible to imagine what that can mean for each individual and
equally impossible to write down in a way that allows those without experience to understand those long term effects.
I have learnt, through those years of being involved in ensuring all young people in today’s society, that each has their own horrific experience. This has not only impacted them but also on their family, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and colleagues.

Young adults who have been subject to abuse require long lasting support and have additional risks

Much research has suggested that young adults who have been subject to abuse require long-lasting support and have additional risks. This can include alcohol and drug misuse, mental health issues, becoming enmeshed in criminal behaviours, domestic abuse, honour-based abuse, estrangement and difficult family relationships, difficulties forming personal relationships.
They may also have employment and housing issues, social care involvement with their own children, difficulty finding their place in society, communication difficulties, and mistrust of practitioners and the legal process. These are a broad overview of the range of issues but in no way demonstrates the impact.

Many survivors can remain ‘trapped’, functioning at an age and maturity corresponding to the age of when the exploitation happened. No child can journey through their abuse without any impact.

About the NWG
The NWG Exploitation Response Unit (formerly National Working Group For Sexually Exploited Children and Young People) is a charitable organisation formed as a UK network of over 14,500 practitioners who disseminate information down through their services, to professionals working on the issue of child exploitation (CE) and trafficking within the UK.
They offer support, advice, provide updates, training, share national developments and influence the development of national and local policy informed by practice.
The NWG Exploitation Response Unit is the only child sexual exploitation network working across voluntary/statutory agencies tackling child sexual exploitation, with links across Europe, South East Asia, Africa, Canada and the USA exchanging knowledge, understanding and dedicated to seeking ways to find alternative solutions.
More information
www.nwgnetwork.org

 download issue 39 (child sexual abuse)