Issue - meetings

The Panel considered the report of the Executive Director of Children’s Services which provided an overview of the multi-agency response to child exploitation in Southampton, including child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation.

Hilary Brooks, Executive Director, Children’s Services, Southampton City Council; Phil Bullingham, Service Lead - Safeguarding, Improvement, Governance and Compliance, Children & Families, Southampton City Council; Laura Tanner, MET (Missing, Exploited, Trafficked) Team Manager, Children and Families, Southampton City Council; Simon Dennison, Children’s Resource Service Manager, Children’s Services , Southampton City Council; Detective Chief Inspector Nick Plummer, Public Protection, Hampshire Constabulary; Superintendent Kelly Whiting, Southampton District Commander, Hampshire Constabulary; were present and, with the consent of the Chair, addressed the Panel. 

In discussions with the officers, the Panel noted the following:

• That safeguarding children from the risk of exploitation when they are outside of their homes required close partnership working from many agencies, which included the Council, schools, Hampshire Constabulary and health services.
• There had been multi-agency training delivered to schools and other community agencies which had improved practitioners awareness of the signs of exploitation and had also improved the use of the Sexual Exploitation Risk Assessment Framework (SERAF) tool to assess children who might be at risk of exploitation.
• Southampton, Portsmouth and Havant had the greatest number of children at risk of child sexual exploitation.  The areas where a high number of children at risk had been identified aligned with areas of deprivation
• Assessment of those children identified at risk of exploitation commonly identified other precursor traumatic events in their home life, such as domestic abuse, being a victim of assault or being linked to drugs intelligence.
• That information sharing quickly, within 72 hours, continued to be a challenge.  Police in the city shared information on the key issues and main incidents daily.
• The police usually investigated to prosecute but with child exploitation the police had to investigate to safeguard.  Investigations often centred on a particular child and they often had to move quickly to keep the child safe.
• The MET team was able to support high risk vulnerable children until the service was confident that risk levels had been reduced and they were no longer at high risk.
• The MET Hub had an increase in the high risk cohort due to improved identification of high risk factors..  As a result the MET Hub has had to prioritise this cohort.

RESOLVED

  (i)  That, at the appropriate meeting of the Panel, an update would be provided on the development of the Vulnerable Adolescents Service.