West Midlands Police have issued a Child Sexual Exploitation Problem Profile with information from the region’s seven local authorities to make recommendations to ourselves of how to improve and to share good practice.
West Midlands Police’s current Child Sexual Exploitation Problem Profile has been published and can be found here: https://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/cse-problem-profile-724_15/
Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson has stated that “this report raises difficult issues, but the way to tackle hidden crimes is to bring them out into the open and that is what we are doing.”
David Jamieson has also called on local authorities and the police to continue to work together to continue to implement the recommendations of the report in full and as quickly as possible.
West Midlands Police have agreed with a request from the Police and Crime Commissioner to regularly publish information on Child Sexual Exploitation to fully reassure the public that we are doing everything possible to prevent these crimes.
West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson said,
“The West Midlands like every area across the country has child sexual exploitation issues. It is something that the police, local councils and I recognise and are working hard to tackle. We are not afraid to be critical of ourselves, especially if it means that we find out more about what the issues are and children are safer as a result.
“Crimes stay hidden if we duck and shy-away from the tough questions. This report raises difficult issues, but the way to tackle hidden crimes is to bring them out into the open and that is what we are doing. It is only by facing up to these issues that we will protect potential victims and bring the perpetrators to justice.
“The police take this issue very seriously, that is why we have increased the number of officers working in the Public Protection Unit from 300 to 800 and are working closely with the region’s local councils to keep children safe from harm.
“This report poses tough questions that the police and local authorities need to work together on to answer. We need a concerted effort and a joined-up approach to tackle child sexual exploitation in the West Midlands.
“The report has been co-ordinated by the police so that we have a better understanding of the child sexual exploitation issues in the region and so that we make sure that our children are protected.
“There are self-recommendations for the police and local authorities in the report. These recommendations are being implemented and need to be enacted in full as soon as possible.
“This is an important report that the public should know about. West Midlands Police have agreed to release this information on a regular basis. Child sexual exploitation is too serious an issue to be hidden away. I am pleased that this information will now be published regularly and put in the public domain.
“We have invited HMIC to inspect ourselves to show that improvements are being made rapidly.”
The recommendations from the Child Sexual Exploitation Problem Profile:
1. Ensure there are clearly defined parameters set for data submissions to allow for comparison across Local Authorities.
2. Ensure all datasets from Local Authorities are populated in accordance with the Bedfordshire dataset to enable effective analysis and triangulation to take place against all datasets.
3. WMP and Local Authorities to develop an engagement strategy with communities where offenders are disproportionally represented.
4. WMP to review offender profile as datasets become more available.
5. WMP to ensure the effective use of the CSE Special Interest Marker on both crimes and non-crime incidents by the consistent use of an ‘Indicator of Need’ matrix agreed by all agencies.
6. WMP to ensure the effective usage of the CSE sub-heading on IMS.
7. Improve CSE intelligence collection.
8. WMP to ensure the consistent usage of the ‘CSE’ or ‘Child Sexual Exploitation’ free text within the ‘Warning Markers’ field of COMPACT.
9. WMP to upgrade COMPACT to Version 5 to facilitate improved analysis of CSE data through Flints & Corvus until a full review as part of IIP.
10. WMP to inform Local Authorities on all absences and absent found reports in relation to children.
11. A process to be established between WMP and Local Authorities to share and make use of information gained from home debriefs to better inform the joint risk assessment around individual children where appropriate.
12. WMP to review its recording approach in relation to absent children.
13. Raising awareness among Local Authority professionals that males can also be the victims of CSE.
14. Gain an understanding of Walsall Local Authorities processes that enabled them to identify 29 per cent of CSE victims as male.
15. Local Authorities to gain an understanding of why there is a decline identified CSE from 16 years of age.
16. Local Authorities to ensure an effective transfer in service provisions from child safeguarding to adult safeguarding at 18 years of age.
17. Local Authorities to ensure educational methods for children with disabilities or learning difficulties to be adapted to their level of understanding.
18. Consistency of data to be agreed across Local Authorities to better understand victims, offenders and locations.
19. Local Authorities to improve data sharing in relation to CSE home locations to assist with mapping and the identification of offenders.
20. Effective liaison between WMP and Partner agencies where placements are made outside the home Local Authority area.
21. Local Authorities to consider alternative opportunities to capture information on perpetrators.
22. Local Authorities to develop processes to capture on-line CSE.
23. To gain and understanding of the processes Solihull Local Authority have in place to capture the ‘nature of exploitation’.
24. Local Authorities to consider the development of CSE, OCSE and Online Safety Skills bespoke lesson plans as part of PHSE.
25. Birmingham Local Authority to implement staff training to increase CSE awareness.
26. Birmingham Local Authority to improve data collation in accordance with the Bedfordshire dataset.
27. Coventry Local Authority to ensure a category is created within the Liquid Logic system to capture CSE.
28. Coventry Local Authority to consider improvements in data collation in accordance with the Bedfordshire dataset.
29. Coventry Local Authority to complete a risk assessment on all children and young people that have been raised as a concern through MASE meeting.
30. Gain an understanding of Dudley’s Children’s Social Care grouping of referral categories.
31. Dudley Local Authority to consider improvements in data collation in accordance with the Bedfordshire dataset.
32. Dudley Local Authority to ensure a standardised approach to data recording.
33. Sandwell Local Authority to ensure a category is created within the referral recording system to capture CSE.
34. Sandwell Local Authority to establish the risk assessment for all cases recorded as ‘Not Known’
35. Sandwell Local Authority to establish how locations of note have been identified.
36. Consideration for WMP to use the MARF form.
37. WMP to embed itself within Walsall Local Authority MAST.
38. Walsall Local Authority MAST to implement a robust system for identifying and retrieving CSE.
39. WMP to implement training to Wolverhampton Local Authority to raise awareness and understanding of Police 392.
40. Wolverhampton Local Authority to consider improvements in data collection in accordance with the Bedfordshire dataset.
41. WMP to promote FIB email address to Local Authorities to submit their found person debriefs.
42. CSE training to be given to all professionals to include institutionalised assumptions and cultural awareness to assist in overcoming preconceptions of CSE.
43. Local Authorities and Partnerships to monitor CSE children once identified until CMOG or equivalent meetings.
44. Local Authorities to consider a unified CSE screening tool.
45. WMP and Local Authorities to ensure a process is established to enable victim, offenders and locations to be identified in Tactical Tasking and Co-ordination Group (TTCG) to be passed to CMOG or equivalent, and for information obtained through CMOG to be passed to TTCG.
46. Local Authorities to consider a co-located CSE team within MASH arrangements.
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