2.1 Children affected by harm outside of the home (including exploitation, trafficking & gangs)

Some children experience abuse and exploitation outside the home. This is often referred to as ‘extra-familial harm’ as it occurs outside of the family home and can occur in a range of extra-familial contexts, including school and other educational settings, peer groups, or within community/public spaces, and/or online. Children may experience this type of harm from other children and/or from adults. Children of all ages can experience harm outside of the home.

Forms of extra-familial harm can include:

• Sexual exploitation
• Criminal exploitation
• Serious Youth Violence
• Radicalisation
• Bullying & Social Isolation
• Teenage Abusive Relationships
• Along with other types of modern slavery & trafficking

Modern Slavery & Trafficking

A Home Office Report- A Typology of Modern Slavery Offences in the UK - recognise 17 Typologies of Modern Slavery:  

Labour exploitation:        

• Victims exploited for multiple purposes in isolated environments
• Victims work for offenders
• Victims work for someone other than offenders

Domestic Servitude 

• Exploited by a partner
• Exploited by relatives
• Exploiters not related to victims

Sexual exploitation 

• Child Sexual Exploitation- group exploitation
• Child Sexual Exploitation- single exploiter
• Forced sex work in fixed location
• Forced sex work in changing location
• Trafficking for personal gratification

Criminal exploitation 

• Forced gang-related criminality
• Forced labour in illegal activities
• Forced acquisitive crime
• Forced begging
• Trafficking for forced sham marriage
• Financial fraud (including benefit fraud)

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 consolidated existing slavery and trafficking offences into two offences:

• Human Trafficking, defined as “arranging or facilitating the travel of another person with a view to exploitation”. Travel includes within a country, not just across international borders.
• Slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour – the Act states that this offence has the ‘same meaning’ as for the purposes of Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights which protects your rights not to be held in slavery or servitude or made to do forced labour.

There are different strategies and approaches to tackling modern slavery and human trafficking in place in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. All emphasise the importance of identifying, supporting and protecting victims of modern slavery, disrupting perpetrator behaviour, prosecuting perpetrators and addressing the conditions that foster trafficking.

Trafficking is defined as: 

Act: recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, and/or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation. 

Means: threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation   

The means does not need to be proved if it relates to:

• A fraudulent job offer
• Deceit regarding conditions of work
• Where exploitation involves children        

Purpose: Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. 

(Article 3c of the United Nations Palermo Protocol 2000)

There are four identified dimensions that are central to understanding the crime of modern slavery and trafficking:

1. Recruitment

Victims are coerced or deceived into slavery or trafficking. For many modern slavery offences, multiple offenders may be involved and the recruiter may be different from the exploiter(s).

Victims approach offenders- some victims will be looking for opportunities to better their lives, but are deceived into situations of slavery; this can include responding to job adverts, online offers etc. Victims and recruiters are generally strangers.

Offenders offer opportunities to victims- victims are approached by recruiters with opportunities or job offers but are deceived about the nature of these. Recruiters are often known to victims.

Offenders target very vulnerable victims- recruiters deliberately target victims who have limited understanding of high levels of vulnerability; recruiters can sometimes create this vulnerability. This can include children, people with mental health issues, substance dependency and those who are isolated in society.

It is not always obvious to children and young people that they are being exploited, they may be given access to things and experiences they would not normally have access to, and they may therefore want to share these with their friends and peers.

It is not unusual for children and young people to ‘recruit’ others into modern slavery, sometimes they will not consciously know this is what is happening and at other times they may have done so to lessen the demand on themselves. So even children who may appear to be causing harm to others should receive a safeguarding response.

2. Profit

There are different extents to which modern slavery is driven by profit.

Run like a business- The primary motive for offending is maximising profits, usually by exploiting multiple victims and minimising outgoings.

Limited financial gain- The offenders take more limited financial gain from the victims. For example, using victims to provide very cheap labour.

No financial gain- The exploiters make no financial gain from the offence. The motivation may be solely for personal gratification or gaining non-monetary advantage over others.

3. Organisation

Highly organised- Offending is highly organised, with the involvement of recognised Organised Crime Groups, who may be involved in many types of criminality.

Some organisation- The offence often involves multiple offenders who cooperate in different stages of the crime, but are not necessarily part of a recognised Organised Crime Group. This can also include individual offenders who plan to occupy a position in which they can develop trust of those they wish to exploit.

No/minimal organisation- there is minimal organisation. The offenders are often opportunistic individuals who take advantage of situations as they present.

4. Control

Unlike the other dimensions, control methods used by offenders do not exist on a scale, as more than one method of control may be used by any offender.

Repeated violence- the exploiters use repeated physical or sexual violence to control the victim.

Threats and occasional violence- the exploiters use threats and some violence, either directly on the victims or by threats to their families.

Substances- The offenders control the victims access to substances (drugs or alcohol) that they are dependant on or cultivate dependency as a means of control.

Financial- financial control ranges from withholding payment for labour to debt bondage. This requires victims to earn a certain amount of money to pay back debts owed to offenders (possibly for good they thought had been given as gifts, things, like drugs or money, they were asked to look after that may have been stolen from them, or transportation and accommodation costs).

Emotional- Victims are deceived into believing that they are in a relationship with the offender, or the offender uses existing ties to exploit the victim. It also includes using cultural controls, such as religious oaths or concepts of honour or obligation.

Social Isolation- Offenders control victims through restricting their contact with society. This ranges from having their passport and papers withheld to more extreme cases where the victims are kept in total isolation away from anyone other than the exploiters. This can happen to people in their own home, where offenders invade the property for their own purposes. This is sometimes referred to as cuckooing by the Police, however this term can desensitise people from the harm that is done to someone who has had their home invaded.

The National Referral Mechanism

The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the UK’s system for identifying victims of modern slavery and human trafficking. If a first responder has concerns that a child may be a potential victim of modern slavery or human trafficking then a referral should be made to the NRM, as soon as possible; a child’s consent is not needed for a referral to be made. First responders are:

• police forces
• certain parts of the Home Office:
• UK Visas and Immigration
• Border Force
• Immigration Enforcement
• National Crime Agency
• local authorities
• Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA)
• Salvation Army
• Migrant Help
• Medaille Trust
• Kalayaan
• Barnardo’s
• Unseen
• NSPCC (CTAC)
• BAWSO
• New Pathways
• Refugee Council

Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTG) are an independent source of advice for children who have been trafficked and are separated from their country or family. In the West Midlands Barnardo’s provide this service. This is somebody who can speak up on their behalf and advocate for them. If the first responder considers a child to be a potential victim of modern slavery or human trafficking who is separated from their country or family, they should refer them to the ICTG service 0800 043 4303  complete a referral form and send to trafficking.referrals@bypmk.cjsm.net

A first responder will complete an NRM referral form recording their encounter with a potential victim. Sufficient information will be included to enable a decision on whether the subject has "reasonable grounds" for being treated as a victim of trafficking. A reasonable grounds decision includes "I suspect but cannot prove". General indicators of a potential victim's behaviour, circumstances and responses to questions will assist in the assessment. The competent authority aims to make reasonable grounds decisions within 5 days of receiving a referral and emergency support is available for potential victims who would otherwise be destitute during this time. A positive reasonable grounds decision entitles the potential victim to a ‘recovery’ period for a minimum of 30 days, and until the conclusive grounds decision is made.

When a Competent Authority makes a positive reasonable grounds decision they then must conclusively decide whether the individual is a victim of human trafficking /modern slavery. The Competent Authority is responsible for making a conclusive decision on whether, ‘on the balance of probabilities’, there are sufficient grounds to decide that the individual being considered is a victim of human trafficking or modern slavery. This is referred to as the Conclusive Grounds decision (there are some pilot areas for Children that are following a different process see Modern Slavery: statutory guidance for England and Wales (under s49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015) and non-statutory guidance for Scotland and Northern Ireland (accessible version) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The expectation is that a Conclusive Grounds decision will be made as soon as possible following day 30 of the recovery and reflection period. A conclusive grounds decision should be made as soon as possible after at least 30 calendar days of the Recovery Period have passed, providing there is sufficient information to make the decision and it is in the child’s best interest to make the decision at that time. When the conclusive grounds decision is received; all partners should respond to the needs of the person who has been recognised as a victim of the crime of trafficking/ modern slavery; providing the support that is needed and investigating the crime that has happened.

For Children, support is expected to be provided through multi-agency work coordinated by a Social Worker. All professionals involved should be aware of the NRM decisions and continually reflect in their safeguarding approach to ensure that it is informed by an understanding of the impact of suffering exploitation and modern slavery for the child. This should include an understanding of the likelihood of trauma and the need for a trauma informed approach from all multi-agency partners. Even children who appear to have harmed others should have this safeguarding approach.

If the potential victim of modern slavery and trafficking is the subject of criminal proceedings several agencies need to be notified as soon as the conclusive grounds decision is positive.  The Competent Authority must ensure that the police are notified of the positive reasonable grounds decision as soon as they make it. Generally the Competent Authority must ask the police to notify prosecutors (the Crown Prosecution Service of the positive reasonable grounds decision as soon as they make it as section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 created a defence for trafficking victims who commit certain offences when they are compelled to do so (in the case of adults) or when they commit them as a direct consequence of being a victim of slavery / exploitation, if a reasonable person, in the same situation with the same “relevant characteristics” would do the relevant act (in the case of children), on or after 31 July 2015. Under Section 45:

(1) A person is not guilty of an offence if –

1. The person is aged 18 or over when the person does the act which constitutes the offence.
2. The person does that act because they were compelled to do it.
3. The compulsion is attributable to slavery or relevant exploitation, and

(2) A reasonable person in the same situation as the person and having the person's relevant characteristics would have no realistic alternative to doing that act.

A person may be compelled to do something by another person or by the person's circumstances.

(3) Compulsion is attributable to slavery or to relevant exploitation only if –

1. It is, or is part of, conduct which constitutes an offence under Section 1 (MSA) or conduct which constitutes relevant exploitation, or
2. It is a direct consequence of a person being, or having been, a victim of slavery or a victim of relevant exploitation.

(4) A person is not guilty of an offence if –

1. The person is under the age of 18 when the person does the act which constitutes the offence,
2. The person does that act as a direct consequence of the person being, or having been, a victim of slavery or a victim of relevant exploitation, and
3. A reasonable person in the same situation and having the person's relevant characteristics would do that act.

(5) For the purposes of this section – ‘relevant characteristics’ mean age, sex and any physical or mental illness or disability.

‘relevant exploitation’ is exploitation (within the meaning of Section 3) that is attributable to the exploited person being or having been, a victim of human trafficking.

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/human-trafficking-smuggling-and-slavery

Traditional safeguarding processes have predominately focused on the individual and their families/ carers. However this procedure is focused on the significant harm that children and young people can experience outside of the family home.

The different relationships that children and young people form in their neighbourhoods, education provision, online and in peer groups can feature violence and abuse.

Parents and carers have little influence over these contexts, and children and young people’s experiences of extra-familial abuse can undermine the parent/ carer and child/ young person relationship.

Children and young people who have existing adverse childhood experiences, are within the care system, or are care experienced, have learning difficulties and disabilities, are neurodivergent, gay, lesbian, or questioning their sexuality are thought to be more vulnerable and are highly represented in data around extra-familial harm and exploitation. However extra familial harm does not exist because of a child or young person’s vulnerabilities, It was hard to escape a report produced by the national panel recognised that known risk factors around vulnerability don’t always act as predictors for significant harm. This report also identified that parental engagement is nearly always a protective factor; parents and extended family members need effective support in helping them manage risk from outside of the home.

The Social Model of Consent to abusive activity presents four areas where professionals and others supporting children and young people  could actively focus their attention to understand the context of the abuse. They could look at whether children and young people are: 

1. Being groomed into exploitation and abuse by adults or other children;
2. Experiencing poverty and therefore engaging in what has been termed ‘survival activity’;
3. Influenced by the ‘normalisation of physical & sexual violence’ as projected through violent pornography and/or through peer group patterns, online gaming, drill videos etc. that accept violence as part of everyday life; 
4. Overlooked or ignored by a culture of ‘wilful ignorance’, where professionals or others in contact with children and young people turn away from the truth of what is happening.

“We have to reform our systems to engage with and address these external influences on children and young people who are often inappropriately blamed for apparently consenting to exploitation.” (University of Bedfordshire) 

Children and young people are unlikely to recognise they are victims of extra-familial harm or exploitation. If they do, they may also blame themselves for victimisation, falsely assuming responsibility for their experiences. Where children and young people feel in any way responsible for their victimisation they are unlikely to report these experiences or seek support[1].

This lack of understanding can have a serious impact on children and young people. Not being equipped with this knowledge means that many have to deal with their experience alone and not seeking necessary support available to them. Not reporting also means that they are likely to be unable to make the offending behaviour stop, or to seek justice and redress for their suffering.

There is evidence that children and young people fear the repercussions of reporting being victims of any criminal activity. Research has found that children identify a range of risks associated with reporting crime including reputational damage, implications for their family and fears of significant physical reprisal.

Professionals therefore need to gain an insight and understanding of the unwritten rules at play in peer groups, education provision, neighbourhoods and online spaces from the perspective of the children and young people who are navigating them in their everyday lives. 

[1] Victim Support (2017) Children and Young People Affected by Crime, Policy Statement, p.3

Understanding Adolescence

Although children and young people can be victims of extra familial harm at any age, it is more likely to be those who are in their adolescence.  

Adolescence is a word used to describe the process of developing from a child to an adult and it has often been linked to beginning at the ages of 10-12 and ending at the age of 18  when legally in the UK adult status is gained, however as the term relates to a transitional stage of physical and psychological development, most research currently suggests that the brain does not fully develop until someone reaches the age of 25, meaning adolescence exists even when someone has reached the legal age of adulthood.

Adolescence is a time of significant growth and development inside the brain; the brain needs a lot of remodelling before it can function as an adult brain The main change is that unused connections in the thinking and processing part of your child’s brain (called the grey matter) are ‘pruned’ away. At the same time, other connections are strengthened. This is the brain’s way of becoming more efficient, based on the ‘use it or lose it’ principle. This pruning process begins in the back of the brain. The front part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, is remodelled last.

The prefrontal cortex is the decision-making part of the brain, responsible for the ability to plan and think about the consequences of actions, solve problems and control impulses. Changes in this part continue into early adulthood. Because the prefrontal cortex is still developing, adolescents might rely on a part of the brain called the amygdala to make decisions and solve problems more than adults do. The amygdala is associated with emotions, impulses, aggression and instinctive behaviour.

Adolescence is a time of necessary experimentation and can be a particularly challenging period. The risks that adolescents are faced with are particularly difficult and wide ranging and are as harmful if not more so than those experienced by younger children. Adolescence is a time of vulnerability to particular risks and developing skills, propensities, adaptations, social contexts and social relationships that can feed into risks but also provide unique opportunities to build resilience in the face of them (Research in Practice).

As young people can develop physically to look like young adults, it has been recognised that in some occasions professionals have not considered their developing brains, and have expected them to act and make decisions as if they were an adult, this is referred to as adultification. Research has shown that black young men and women are more likely to experience adultification; Adultification bias within child protection and safeguarding

Differentiating between peer groups, street gangs and organised crime groups

Peer groups

Having friends and feeling connected to a group gives an adolescent a sense of belonging and of being valued. Friendships can help adolescents learn important and valuable social and emotional skills, like being sensitive to other people’s thoughts, feelings and wellbeing.  Forming healthy peer group relationships can influence how someone dresses, speaks and is often the first step to forming inter-personal relationships. It is therefore important that professionals have the ability to recognise and support healthy peer groups and friendships.

While peer relationships can be positive, they can also strongly determine someone’s acceptance of harmful and abusive behaviour; this can be the consumption of alcohol, smoking cigarettes, substance misuse, becoming involved in crime, intimate partner abuse, and/or sexual offending.    

Street gangs

Frequently linked to the definition of street gangs is the narrative of a group of friends roaming the street looking for opportunities to commit violence and criminal damage. They are likely to go out fighting with knives and guns, and sell drugs, but they are not identified as being “strong criminals” and do not exist to make serious amounts of money.  Street gang members are often referred to as being ‘kids’ carrying weapons. They may be involved in street robbery; mobile phones, cash etc. and their activities are more likely to be opportunistic than thoroughly planned.

Organised crime groups

Organised crime groups have more structure, they function like a major business locally, nationally, or internationally, with a goal of making a large profit from criminal activity.  There is often a recognition of hierarchy within the system, sometimes being associated with criminality through family connections. People who are involved or related to people in organised crime groups highlight how difficult it is to disengage, leaving is associated with being disrespecting of the group.

Involvement in multiple groups

As with all relationships we form in life, we make friends and associates in the different spaces and places we navigate both in the physical world and online. It should therefore be no surprise that children and young people can be involved in multiple groups. Professionals need to build positive relationships with children and young people to understand how they navigate the world they live in, and where the extra-familial harm and abuse may be located.

Because extra-familial harm takes place outside of the home, it is important to consider wider indicators than those for an individual person. Activity taking place in a peer group, education provision or neighbourhood may also provide an indication to the possibility of extra-familial harm, and some behaviours in a family or household may indicate an increased risk of harm occurring outside of the home too.

For the individual

• Demonstration of hostile or aggressive behavior
• Obsessed by mobile phone
• Going missing or not where they are expected to be
• Socially and emotionally isolated
• Found with drugs/ weapons/ unexplained money/ gifts
• Recruiting others into activities they would not usually have access (the child or young person may not recognize these as exploitative situations)
• Concerns raised regarding sexualised or sexually harmful behaviour
• Cold, callous attitude towards offending & appears to lack of empathy
• Harmful/Oppressive attitudes towards young women, relationships and consent
• Obsession/ pre-occupation with pornography
• Evidence of bullying behaviours
• Evidence of distributing sexually inappropriate images of others
• Allegations have been made against them in respect of threatening, violent and/or abusive behaviours, including when ‘no further actioned’
• Cruelty to animals
• Recent or rapid disengagement from education

Familial/ Home

• Current domestic abuse
• Current experiencing of abuse and neglect
• Family members, such as siblings, have recruited others into exploitative situations
• Concerns raised regarding sexualised or sexually harmful behaviour within family
• Harmful/Oppressive attitudes towards young women, sexuality, relationships and consent within the family
• Family members gang-associated or involved in criminal behaviours

Peer

• Demonstration of aggressive or offending behaviour within the peer network
• Disclosures made by others about the peer network have been withdrawn
• Peer group has recruited others into exploitative situations
• Concerns raised regarding sexualised or sexually harmful behaviour within the peer group
• Harmful/Oppressive attitudes towards young women, relationships and consent shared within the peer group
• Obsession/ pre-occupation with pornography within the peer group
• Evidence of sexual bullying and/or distributing sexually inappropriate images within the peer group
• Peer group have been involved in anti-social or offending behaviours
• Members of the peer group have been missing together
• Members of the peer group have witnessed abusive behaviours and not challenged them

Education Provision

• Use of exclusions/managed moves for those who have been victimized within education provision
• Harmful sexual behaviour and problematic behaviours (including bullying) which have been unaddressed
• Systemic triggers for behaviour trends have been unaddressed
• Victim-blaming language or stereotyping language in behaviour records
• Evidence that students have been recruited into exploitative situations via education associations
• Harmful/Oppressive attitudes towards young women, relationships and consent expressed by students
• Normalised attitudes to harmful behaviours such as self-harm, drugs and alcohol misuse, eating disorders etc.

Neighbourhoods

• Active risk of robbery or street-based crime in the locality
• Young people subject to attacks in location in retaliation to disclosures
• Young people recruited into exploitative situations within the locality
• Locality associated with sexual exploitation or a hotspot for other forms of sexual violence
• Locality has appeared in abusive online content – such as ‘bait out’ videos (bait out- online groups or pages that invite people to share images/videos without consent which can often end up on public platforms)

“Children are clear about what they want in an effective safeguarding system…. Stability- to be able to develop an ongoing stable relationship of trust with those helping them.

Effective partnership working with parents and carers, children and young people, happens when practitioners build positive, trusting and co-operative relationships by:

• approaching families and their wider networks and communities with empathy, respect, compassion and creativity
• avoiding reinforcing family shame, suffering and blaming
• using strength-based approaches, working with parents to identify what is working well and how their strengths could support them to effect positive change
• adapting their responses to the specific challenges being faced
• ensuring they understand the families’ background, ethnicity, religion, financial situation, ability, education, gender, ages, sexual orientation and needs
• being mindful of negative stereotypes and discrimination which might lead to false assumptions. Language should be respectful, clear and not punitive. Practitioners should ensure that all materials provided to parents, families and children are at a level they understand. Where appropriate, material provided to children, parents and families should be translated into their first language. Professional interpreters should be provided where needed. Practitioners should not need to rely on family members or partners for interpretation services, including British Sign Language.” (Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023)

Multi-agency Principles for responding to extra- familial harm & child exploitation.

The multi-agency Practice Principles for responding to child exploitation and extra-familial harm are designed to support effective partnership working across different local contexts; providing a common language and framework to better respond to child exploitation and extra-familial harm. Research In Practice:

There are eight Practice Principles, which together support a more holistic response to child extra-familial harm and child exploitation, characterised by

1. Putting children and young people first.
2. Recognising and challenging inequalities, exclusion and discrimination.
3. Respecting the voice, experience and expertise of children and young people.
4. Being strengths-based and relationship-based.
5. Recognising and responding to trauma.
6. Being curious, evidence-informed and knowledgeable.
7. Approaching parents and carers as partners, wherever possible.
8. Creating safer spaces and places for children and young people.

These Principles are interdependent. No one Principle is more important than any other, and none can be considered in isolation from the others. Similarly, none are the domain of any one person or any particular role.

Children and young people are at high risk of undergoing secondary victimisation by being considered perpetrators of crime rather than victims of extra-familial harm. Equally, there is the risk of victims reliving traumatic experiences by being asked to repeat significant events to various professionals.

Practitioners need to be mindful that children and young people who are being exploited should be seen as victims and not treated as criminals. They should also be treated through the lens of modern slavery and child safeguarding legislation and practice. It is important to consider the making words matter practice & knowledge briefing

Vicarious trauma

The science behind trauma

When someone is threatened, their bodies prepare to respond by increasing their heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones, such as cortisol. These chemicals are intended to help us respond in ways which will aid our survival, whether we "fight" the threat, "flee" from the threat, or "freeze" to prevent attack or deaden the pain from the inevitable attack. However, when traumatic events are completely overwhelming, are repeated too often, or are constantly triggered the very chemicals that are meant to help us begin to do harm to our bodies.

This kind of prolonged activation of the stress response systems can disrupt the development of brain architecture and other organ systems and increase the risk for stress-related disease and cognitive impairment, well into the adult years. This understanding of brain chemicals and construction helps to explain the behaviour of victims who bond to those who abuse them. The repeated triggering of a trauma will actually teach our brains to be in a constant state of "fight, flight or freeze." As our brains are use-dependent, if they are constantly used to respond to trauma, that response becomes a person's "normal state". For those who are harmed and abused by others the trauma chemistry creates new brain pathways and becomes "normal" to bond the victims to those who cause the harm and abuse.

Vicarious trauma is a process of change experienced when someone is empathetically engaged with survivors of traumatic experiences.

It is not unusual for parents, carers, siblings and other close family members to experience vicarious trauma when they learn about the harm and abuse that their children are suffering. Professionals can also experience vicarious trauma when continually exposed to the trauma, violence, harm and abuse being experienced by those they are working with.  

While individuals respond to vicarious trauma in a number of ways, a change in their world-view is considered inevitable—people can either become more cynical or fearful, or they can become more appreciative of what they have, or both.

It is important that professionals have access to good quality support and reflective supervision. Trauma should be discussed as part of supervision and time created for reflection, reading, writing, and talking to others as part of their role. Professional and/or therapeutic assistance may need to be sought. 

The opportunity for parents to reflect, read, write, learn & process will be necessary in the support provided by professionals; care should be taken to share information about the harm or abuse a child may have experienced in a thoughtful & sensitive way. For example a parent should not hear for the first time that their child has been raped in the middle of a multi-agency meeting. It may be necessary to consider referring to therapeutic assistance for parents, carers, or siblings when appropriate.

Showing ‘hard-hitting’ films has been perceived as preventative or protective measure in order to raise awareness and educate teenagers about child exploitation. However these films can themselves provide harm and trauma for children and young people being asked to watch them, can provide triggers for those who had already experienced trauma and abuse, and messages delivered with them are often victim blaming.  (Can I tell you what it feels like? 2018). Professionals need to know how to explain and explore exploitation and extra-familial harms without using these films. 

Any agency or practitioner who has concerns that a child may be at risk of harm outside of the home should consider any local safeguarding pathways, procedures, and thresholds. These may include screening tools to help identify concerns. Professionals should contact their relevant Children’s Social Care Service and Police Force for advice if needed.

Any referral where there is evidence a child is at significant risk as a result of extra-familial harm should in addition to the information requested on an individual referral form, state:

• Information about contexts of concern; peer groups (include other associated children/s name and any information known about them), education provision, neighbourhoods, online gaming/social media platforms.
• Any known risk factors (refer to the indicators outlined above)

“Where children may be experiencing extra-familial harm, assessments should determine whether a child is in need under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 or whether to make enquires under section 47 of the same Act, following concerns that the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. A good assessment should:

• build an understanding of the child’s strengths, interests, identity and culture
• respond to each of the vulnerabilities and/or challenges that the child may be facing, including any within the home
• gather information on past experiences of trauma and how this may impact on the child’s current experience of harm and on how they interact with practitioners
• explore how the child's experiences within their families and networks, including their friends and peer groups, interplay with the risk of harm outside of the home and identify what needs to change;
• support parents, carers and family networks to understand what is happening to the child, working with them to ensure they can best meet the child’s needs and play an active part in the solutions and processes to help create safety for the child
• understand the risk of extra-familial harm for siblings – for example, where older children are exploited, younger siblings may also be at risk of being targeted.”

(Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023)

Assessments of extra familial harm should always consider the interactions each individual within a household has in the online world. Professionals need to feel confident talking to children about online harm and abuse and have the skills to recognise and respond effectively to risks or instances of online abuse and exploitation. The online environment can hide abusive dynamics that would be more obvious in physical world relationships.

Although online abuse can exist in autonomy, it can also be transient, so someone can experience online abuse from people they know in the physical world, or they may be abused in the physical world with people they have met online. Being unable to escape the abuse because of frequent contact through technology can make children and young people feel powerless.

However technology is an intricate part of life today and there is a lot of benefit to its use. Banning or restricting children’s access has far reaching implications for their health and happiness. Not allowing children to use devices or the internet hampers their ability to engage with the world they live in, it can also transfer risk to others whose devices they may try to use instead.

Professionals should always follow their organisations policy for viewing online activity of parents, carers, children and young people.

Relocating children is often considered for those who face risk beyond there family home. This option is often bought about through escalating demands for service responses and escalating risk. However without sufficient planning frameworks that help determine when relocation is an adequate response and fully involve the child/ young person and their family, there can be significant consequences for young people and their families.

The focus of relocations is often the physical safety of a specific young person. However while only focused on physical safety professionals can miss how this can negatively impact emotionally and relationally. Asking parents and carers to give consent for their child to be relocated can have damaging consequences on their relationship, with children and young people feeling rejected and abandoned by their family. Moving can also break otherwise healthy peer relationships and relationships with professionals in organisations that are locality bound. The intensity of the trauma bonds created by those who offend will often mean that a child or young person will feel extreme anxiety and pressured when separated from them, this along with the possible feeling of abandonment and isolation can increasing the possibility of self-harm, suicide, and mental health concerns. This can all be further negatively impacted if the child or young person is neurodivergent and affected by any change in their routine.

Children and young people can also be at greater risk in the localities they are relocated, especially if they attempt to navigate these to return home.

Children returning to areas they were relocated from can often be at more risk when they return as they will have to negotiate the threat from their abuser; thinking and waiting for this can cause extreme anxiety, so to take control it is likely they will arrange to meet their abuser. Sadly this has two consequences, the child or young person will blame themselves for what they have done. They are also likely to suffer new and increasingly nasty abuse and harm and suspicion that they have talked to police and other professionals.

While one child is relocated it can often be inevitable that another will be targeted to take their place. Professionals should be alert to the possible risk to siblings, friends, and other children and young people too.

Where there are concerns that more than one child may be experiencing harm in an extra-familial context, practitioners should consider the individual needs of each child as well as work with the group. The children in the group may or may not already be known to local authority children’s social care. Working with the whole group enables practitioners to build an understanding of the dynamics between those within the group and the extra-familial context. Practitioners will need to build an understanding of the context in which the harm is occurring and draw on relevant knowledge and information from the child(ren) and wider partners in order to decide on the most appropriate intervention(s). Practitioners should consider the influence of groups or individuals perpetrating harm and identify patterns of harm and risk and protective factors in these contexts. This may include working across safeguarding and community safety partnerships to agree a plan for keeping a child(ren) safe.

Key decisions should be recorded, ensuring these decisions are communicated to both the child and their parents/carers, so that everyone understands the action that has or will be taken to safeguard and promote their welfare. It is important that all partners are clear how actions contribute to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child. (Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023)

It is important that any assessments and plans of contexts, including peer groups, education provision and neighbourhoods have a social care lead with a focus on the rights of young people and involving young people in a safeguarding approach to understand and make changes to the context for everyone to be safe. When this does not happen it can end up being heavily influenced by the remit, culture and practices of criminal justice i.e. dispersal, cctv, behaviour-based responses, moving young people out of spaces, talk about ‘intel’ and ‘data’, etc. rather than relationships with young people and their welfare and safety in these contexts. For more information visit https://www.contextualsafeguarding.org.uk/

Sometimes, if there is a possible ‘threat to life’, it may result in the Police issuing an Osman Warning to a person whose life is identified as being threatened. The notice covers threats to life or serious injury, often where there is not enough evidence to justify the arrest of an offender (for example where police receive intelligence relating to a threat, but no direct evidence) or in cases where an arrest can be made but the suspect cannot be traced. The police can also serve “reverse OSMAN warnings” on the potential source of the threat.

If there is an immediate threat to life of a child, young person or their family members with whom they live or spend time, an automatic referral by the Police to Children’s Social Services should take place.  This should initiate a Strategy Discussion and consideration of the need for immediate safeguarding action, unless to do so would place the child and family members living with the child at greater risk.

The nature of harm outside of the home, modern slavery & trafficking is not confined to geographical boundaries. Pathways are diverse and differ between abuse types.

Offenders involved will take advantage of organisational and geographical vulnerabilities since they know there are weaknesses in the way different organisations operate both internally and externally.

For example, the National Crime Agency[1] highlights there are a number of factors that help determine why groups might embark on County Lines activity. These include the perception of ‘space’ in drug markets outside of urban areas and the anticipation of increased profits because of less capable competition. Operating outside of their own areas, where they are ‘known’ and subject to law enforcement targeting, often gives groups the perception of increased anonymity. It is important these risks and associated threats are reduced by working effectively to share intelligence in a timely manner.

There may be occasions where a child may want to live with each parent/carer (if they are not living together) during the week, especially if the child feels threatened or intimidated by others where they normally reside. This may increase the child’s vulnerabilities since relevant safeguarding parties may not be aware of the family circumstances if child is living in different parts of the West Midlands or in other parts of the UK. Similarly, there may be occasions where a child is educated outside their Local Authority area. This may also increase the child’s vulnerabilities since relevant safeguarding parties may not be aware of all of the family circumstances to take appropriate safeguarding actions to reduce the risks associated to gang affiliation or criminal exploitation.

It is vital that information is shared to address any cross border concerns. Relevant professionals need to keep abreast of any changes in family circumstances and emerging threats to support any intervention, prevention and enforcement work.

[1] National Crime Agency (2015) Intelligence Assessment – County Lines, Gangs and Safeguarding, p.2

Home Office Child Exploitation Disruption Toolkit - Disruption tactics for those working to safeguard children and young people under the age of 18 from sexual and criminal exploitation.

Criminal, Civil and Partnership Disruption Options for Perpetrators of Child and Adult Victims of Exploitation - This toolkit aims to provide guidance for relevant agencies, to assist in combatting exploitation. It provides a menu of options to consider in developing disruption and safeguarding plans.

Further information about other disruption tools and powers can be found in the 'Disrupting Serious and Organised Criminals - Menu of Tactics' . This document has been produced by The What Works Centre for Crime Reduction, which is part of the College of Policing. The document is a tool designed to assist anyone involved in tackling organised crime by identifying a range of tactical options to disrupt those criminals. The Menu is a collation of a range of existing tactics and powers which are available to law enforcement and partner agencies.  It is aimed at prompting a creative, problem-solving approach to disrupting criminal activity.

West Midland Police Intel Form / FIB form for professionals to complete and submitted to  C8_FIBDEPT@westmidlands.police.uk with any information that may be important and relevant for the police in order to build intelligence.

Crime and Disorder Act 1998 - listed Responsible and Co-operating Authorities have a statutory responsibility to do all that they reasonably can to prevent crime and disorder in their area and share information to protect communities from serious and organised crime. Publically commissioned private and voluntary sector providers must also contribute to prevention efforts through due diligence and information sharing to protect communities from serious and organised crime.

Children Act 1989 and 2004 - outlined the statutory requirements each agency working with Children and Families must adhere to, to ensure that there is a co-ordinated approach to safeguarding.

Modern Slavery Act 2015 - provides the legislative framework to equip law enforcement agencies and local partners to effectively prosecute and convict the perpetrators of modern slavery. The Act consolidated and simplified previous slavery and human trafficking legislation in England and Wales into a single statute, and introduced provisions to strengthen law enforcement and afford better protection to victims.

Serious Crime Act 2015 - improved the legislative powers available to local partners to tackle serious and organised crime. This Act gave effect to a number of proposals and commitments made in the Government’s Serious and Organised Crime Strategy (2013) and updated existing law dealing with the cyber-crime, serious crime prevention orders, gang injunctions, child cruelty, female genital mutilation (FGM) and the commission of certain terrorism offences abroad. When this Act was introduced it included a new offence of participating in the activities of an organised crime group and a strengthened preventative capability through Serious Crime Protection Orders. Councils should work alongside law enforcement agencies, sharing relevant intelligence, to make the best use of these new powers to disrupt and halt such crime.

Criminal Finances Act 2017 - introduced new powers to help law enforcement agencies tackle money laundering, corruption, terrorist finance and recover the proceeds of crime.

Children and Social Work Act 2017 – identified safeguarding partners are required to make arrangements to work together and with relevant agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in the area.

Domestic abuse bill 2021- the supporting statutory guidance states in relation to teenage relationship abuse; “ if the victim and perpetrator are at least 16 years old, abuse in their relationship can fall under the statutory definition of domestic abuse. Whilst young people under the age of 16 can experience abuse in a relationship, it would be considered child abuse as a matter of law. Abusive behaviours by one young person toward another, where each are aged between 16 and 18 could be both child abuse and domestic abuse as a matter of law.”

Department for Education Working Together 2023

Department for Education Child Sexual Exploitation: definition & guide for practitioners

Home office Criminal exploitation of children and vulnerable adults; county lines

Home office Modern Slavery; statutory guidance for England & Wales

Department for health & social care A trauma informed health & care approach for responding to child sexual abuse and exploitation

Ministry of Justice Serious and organised crime policy framework

Contextual safeguarding network publications and practice resources produced by the contextual safeguarding research programme.

Research In Practice- multi-agency practice principles and resources to support professionals in implementing them. 

CEOP online safety centre

Internet Watch Foundation

Ineqe Safeguarding Group safety cards for popular online and gaming platforms 

Brook have designed a tool to help professionals in spotting the signs of sexual and criminal exploitation