Responding to Children and Young People who Experience Running Away and Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)

Emilie Smeaton

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Format of the Presentation

Introduction Indication of prevalence The relationship between running away and CSE Diversity Recommendations and required actions to meet the needs of children and young people who experience both running away and CSE

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Indication of prevalence
Projects with a focus upon working with sexually exploited young people reported that anywhere between 2557 per cent of young people they work with experience both running away and CSE. Projects with a focus upon working with young people who run away report that between 1112.5 per cent of young people they work with experience both running away and CSE. Projects with a focus upon working with young people who experience running away and/or CSE report that anywhere between 5090 per cent of young people they work with experience both running away and CSE.

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CSE as a risk of running away

If I hadnt have left home, then the things that happened to me wouldnt have happened because I would have been in a safe environment. If you leave home and spend time in dangerous places, it is more likely that you are going to get raped and more likely that you are going to get sexually exploited. Leanne

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CSE as a survival strategy of running away

If youre on the streets and youre begging for money or something like that people will see that you are vulnerable and will see that you are desperate for money and they will offer you it [money]. Men arent shy about offering you money or something like that. Theyll say do you want to come into this toilet with me? Ive got some money; Ill give you 20 quid. And 20 quids very tempting when it took you all day to make a couple of quid. 20 quid for ten minutes is very tempting for a young person. Ben

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Perpetrators exploiting the vulnerability of young runaways

If kids are on the streets, if they run away or their parents kick them out, there are adults out there who will take advantage of them and cos youve got nowhere else to go, youll do it [have sex with them]. Its better than sleeping out and getting raped by someone you dont know who could do anything to you. Theres always someone who will take advantage of you. When youre a kid, its hard to say no to an adult who says they want to help you and offers you a place to stay cos what other choice do you have? Lily

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Running away to seek attention and care

I ran away because I felt unwanted and I wanted attention. Nicola

Cos you feel like youre on your own [when you feel uncared for] so you just want somebody else there for you. Pretty much anyone would do at that time when you feel that low. Shar Running from hate to what you think is love. Jasmine

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Running away and spending time with friends involved in CSE

Theyd [Shars friends] like meet them [older males] in the park or on the streets. Theyd ask for my number and my friends would give it to them. Shar

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Running away to be with an older boyfriend or girlfriend

She was 22. I hadnt had sex before, my first time was with her. I used to run away so that I could see her. Leo I slept in the night shelter for just one night and then they found out me age and I wasnt allowed to stay there and so the next night me and me boyfriend slept out on the street for about two months. Abi

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Running away because of the desire to have sex

I felt like just wanted in way that I had never felt wanted before: like more of a lust than love. And then when I was with a guy, I felt like I was being loved in a way that I hadnt been loved by my parents and stuff. I liked those feelings of being wanted and the sex and how it made me feel and I wanted those feelings. Tom

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Running away to escape CSE

I ran away so me X [the young persons relative] couldnt find me and couldnt make me do all that stuff. There was no-one to help me with it all so all I could think to do was run away and be somewhere where he couldnt find me. Nicole

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Running away because of responses to disclosures of CSE

The police woman acted like she had already made her judgement before she had already met me so I stood up and said Ive had enough of this and that was the first time I ran away. They [the young persons family] dont believe me; their attitude is we dont believe you. Lucy My dad barely looked at me. I couldnt bear being somewhere where I felt like I wasnt wanted and didnt fit. Lauren
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Running away because of the pressure of a police operation

It was all the questions that did it [led the young person to run away during the police investigation]. Some days I just couldnt take any more and I ran away to have a break from it. Jasmine It was just all so stressful: being asked time and time again about the men [who had sexually exploited the young person], worrying what the court hearing was going to be like. I just had to get away from it all. Tom

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Drugs and alcohol in the relationship between running away and CSE
I didnt go for the fun or to see those people [who sexually exploited the young person]; I went for the drink and drugs to take like all my feelings away. I felt like not good enough and I felt depressed. Shar I got off my face as this was the only way I was gonna get through the evening. We knew what was going to happen so we would just think need to get wasted for this and enjoy the drugs they gave us. Ben

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The role of the internet in the relationship between running away and CSE
I saw him and suddenly got attracted to him and added him on Facebook, started talking to him [messaging via Facebook] and we got together. I went round to his house and we watched a film and then obviously had sex. Tina

I wanted a boyfriend and met this man on Facebook who said he wanted to be my boyfriend. He arranged for a taxi to come and pick me and up and told me not to tell anyone where I was going. Liam

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Parents role in running away and CSE

When I ran away when I was young [aged nine], I got sexually abused [through selling sex] because my real mum, she was doing prostitution so I though oh, if me mam does, it must be okay because its normal to take after your mum isnt it? So I did that and ever since then Ive just ran, ran, ran. Maria

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Trust and the relationship between running away and CSE

You run away because you want to trust someone and find someone to trust and then you think youve found someone to trust so you trust them and then you realise that they made you trust them you so they could exploit you. Ellie

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Feeling isolated and experiencing running away and CSE

[If] I could have talked to them [other gay young people] I wouldnt have gone on to the internet to talk to someone about how I felt. So if I hadnt done that, I would havent got into the whole sex[ual exploitation] and running away thing. Tom
Ive always felt like part of me was missing. As a small kid I didnt feel all there and I didnt feel like I belonged to anyone. Lauren
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Experiencing running away and CSE and becoming a sex worker

If youve done it [had sex] for somewhere to stay, you might as well do it for money its the same thing really as youre only having sex so you can survive. Fay Its also the uncertainty of wheres my next meal coming from? Where am I sleeping? If you dont have cash there, all of these things are an issue and they are an obstacle that you need to overcome. Now the quickest way to get money, as Im sure most people will know, is to sell sex. Ben

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Diversity
Boys and young men. Diversity and cultural issues relating to Asian, Eastern European, Roma and Traveller communities. Young people with learning difficulties/disabilities. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) young people.

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Recommendations and Required Actions

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Managing risks

Awareness-raising among general public, professionals and parents and carers. Policymakers and practitioners should recognise that the links between running away and CSE can take a number of different forms and ensure policy and practice responses, processes and protocols are flexible to respond to individual needs. Professionals working directly with young people who experience running away and/or CSE should be knowledgeable about both issues to support with managing risks and meeting needs. Education providers should implement awareness-raising and preventative strategies addressing running away and CSE and allow specialist projects to access young people. Steps to address perpetrators.

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Making informed risk assessments

To address the continuum of vulnerability and risk and gaps in risk assessment, necessary to implement a tiered approach to identifying vulnerability relating to parents and carers, the police, other professionals who come into contact with young people and social care professionals.

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Roles and responsibilities: Safeguarding Boards

It is crucial that all Safeguarding Boards take responsibility for their lead role and undertake the action required of them by statutory guidance and by learning from research. Action: 1. With support from Welsh Government, Safeguarding Boards to take responsibility and undertake the actions required of them to address running away and CSE to ensure a consistent approach.

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Roles and responsibilities: multiagency working

Multi-agency approaches should be established in all local areas at both strategic and operational levels. Actions: 1. Safeguarding Boards to co-ordinate a multi-agency approach that includes social care, health, education, the police, youth justice, CPS and the voluntary sector. 2. Non-statutory agencies working with young people and their families to ensure they have up-to-date knowledge about how statutory services operate. 3. Statutory agencies to acknowledge and integrate the value the voluntary sector is able to bring to direct work with young people and their families.

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Role and responsibilities: police responses

The police should be part of multi-agency responses to running away and CSE and receive awareness-raising training to respond appropriately to young people and their parents/carers.

Actions
1. All frontline police officers should receive awareness-raising and training about running away and CSE so they can respond effectively to young people and their parents/carers. 2. Safeguarding boards should ensure the police are part of multi-agency responses to running away and CSE.

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Roles and responsibilities: health

Due to their important role and unique position in relation to coming into contact with young people, health services should be part of multiagency responses and also prioritise developing their services delivery to they can support with meeting young peoples needs: Actions 1. It is important to raise awareness of running away and CSE and work with health professionals who decide health priorities based upon assessment of local need to encourage health providers to consider particular health issues and make them aware of the role that health can play in meeting the needs of young people who experience both running away and CSE and influence commissioning of health services.

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Roles and responsibilities: health

Actions continued 2. There should be local arrangements set in place to enable appropriate information sharing between health services and other agencies to safeguard young people. 3. Health professionals, particularly local safeguarding nurses, should receive training addressing running away and CSE. 4. Sexual health clinics should identify a lead health professional who is informed about running away and CSE and can identify young people at risk and develop trusting relationships with them.

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Improving and sharing knowledge and information

Necessary to improve data collection and information-sharing: by individual projects; among a range of agencies; by the local authority; and at a national level. Actions 1. Local authorities to be supported by central government and Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to establish a multi-agency informationsharing process to ensure information is shared about individual running away incidents and local patterns of running away alongside information of trafficked and sexually exploited young people. 2. With support from ACPO, local police forces should use learning from previous police operations and work with local projects to enable them to provide information that can be turned into police intelligence.
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Increasing services and processes to respond to young people

Safeguarding Boards to undertake scoping activity in local areas to identify level of need and ensure this is reflected in commissioning processes so that service provision can adequately meet young peoples needs. Local authorities to ensure provision of clear processes and protocols for professionals to follow where there are a concerns that a young person is experiencing running away and CSE. Actions: 1. Safeguarding Boards to co-ordinate scoping activity. 2. Local authorities to follow statutory guidance in the provision of processes and protocols to ensure voluntary and statutory sector professionals are clear about action to take.

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Reaching a diverse range of young people

To address the hidden nature of running away and CSE and reaching all young people who experience these issues, strategic responses and service interventions should ensure that a number of evidence-based approaches are adopted to meet the needs of a range of young people. Actions 1. Commissioners of services and service providers supporting young people should ensure a range of interventions are set in place for harder to reach young people. 2. Organisations and projects working with young people should ensues practitioners are supported to incorporate good practice and other learning from research and practice into their work with young people.
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Diversity
There is need to improve responses to young people from diverse backgrounds. Practitioners need to be supported to develop knowledge and understanding of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities within the local area which would support with improving risk assessments. Actions 1. Government should address gaps in work with BME communities and faith organisations to raise awareness of running away and CSE. 2. A similar process should take place at the local level. 3. To support with the above, champions within BME communities should be identified who can lead on improving awareness and responses to young people who experience running away and CSE.

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Diversity
4. 5. 6. Alternative indicators of, and responses to, running away and CSE should be developed with representatives from BME communities. Work should also take place with the gay community at national and local levels. Commissioning of services and service design and delivery should include different approaches to interventions to meet the needs of different groups of young people. Statutory and voluntary sector agencies should employ specialist running away and CSE workers with knowledge of learning difficulties/disabilities to improve outcomes with young people with learning difficulties/disabilities.

7.

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Supporting parents and carers

Parents/carers should be provided with appropriate and effective support to meet their needs and assist with their parenting. The research suggests that a good practice model of support for young people who experience running away and CSE should incorporate a specialise parents support worker. Actions 1. Recognition of the importance of working with parents/carers should be included in local arrangements and planning to meet the needs of young people who experience running away and CSE. 2. Commissioners should ensure processes for services to meet the needs of young people should include provision of a specialist parents support worker. 3. Statutory and voluntary support services should incorporate meeting the needs of parents/carers to achieve positive outcomes with young people who experience running away and CSE.

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Downloading the research report and further contact

To download the full research report, please go to: http://www.barnardos.org.uk/15505_cse_running_from_hate_2l_web .pdf For further information about the research please contact: emiliesmeaton@paradigmresearch.co.uk

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