Northamptonshire Establishes New Child Exploitation Hub, Adopting a ‘Team Around a Child’ Strategy

The recently established Child Exploitation (CE) Hub, operational since earlier this year, seeks to enhance the protection of children susceptible to criminal or sexual exploitation. In October, the Northamptonshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (NSCP) released two reports, which determined that indicators of child sexual abuse had been overlooked. One of these instances ultimately led to a rape conviction. Following these findings, the participating organizations emphasized the establishment of the hub as a means to deliver specialized assistance. But what are its functions, and how is it expected to contribute to preventing child exploitation in Northamptonshire? The CE Hub commenced operations in July, situated at the Criminal Justice Centre on the Brackmills Industrial Estate in Northampton. Detective Sergeant Simon Manwaring, affiliated with the Missing Person Investigation Unit located at the hub, stated: “The missing person investigation unit is set up to be force experts in missing investigations – we deal with anybody from children in care to adults.” He further added: “As a hub we are a one stop shop for anything to do with child exploitation and all of our research shows that often missing instances in relation to children will go hand in glove with child exploitation, and whether that is sexual exploitation or criminal exploitation.” Over the past year, Northamptonshire recorded 4,599 missing person reports. Of these, 66.4% involved children under 18, with 52.5% of that group being looked-after children. Furthermore, government statistics indicate that a minimum of 43,000 children in England are subjected to criminal or sexual exploitation. A novel disruption team, spearheaded by Sergeant Abdul Salique, has been established by the police, marking a first for the force. Sergeant Salique commented: “When [children] are missing from their homes and truanting from school that’s when they are most susceptible to being exploited by gangs or individuals.” He elaborated: “That’s why as a team, we start our day locating the most high risk missing children within our county.” The hub houses police officers and social workers who possess specialized expertise in safeguarding children and young individuals vulnerable to exploitation. These teams also engage in close collaboration with professionals from health, education, and various other services. Laura Isherwood, who manages the seven social work advanced practitioners, stated: “We work with the police and look at welfare led approaches to tackling exploitation and looking at how we can safeguard children and support them to exit the exploitation they maybe experiencing safely.” She added: “Working together we’re able to share information in real time so it avoids any delays.” The hub has already observed a rise in the volume of exploitation cases it is managing. Detective Sergeant Ray Anderson, who heads the Child Sexual Exploitation team, remarked: “Since the CE Hub launched a couple of months ago the number of child sexual exploitation cases has almost tripled.” He further stated: “I want to bring everyone that is exploiting to justice and stop the exploitation. “That’s what we will always work towards – the best possible outcome with the resources we have available.” Karen Hoer, a director at We Nurture Childcare and a police volunteer, provided her perspective. She noted that the co-location of all teams streamlines the process of information exchange. Hoer commented: “We’re often very reactive so when there are children being let down across the whole country there are always reviews that take place and it is always about joint working.” She concluded: “I think this hub is really forward thinking, they want everyone to come together to have this team around a child, it’s very much about prevention and instead of being on different floors, they’re all in one place.” For updates on Northamptonshire news, follow BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram, and X. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the content of external websites. Information regarding our external linking policy is available.