Birmingham review reveals 'serious CSE problem'

A report detailing the findings of the review reveals that 83 of the 132 children are considered to be victims or at significant risk of CSE.

Of those children, 44 are in care and 56 are under the age of 16.

The We Need to Get it Right report also shows that the authority’s early help team – based in its multi-agency safeguarding hub (Mash) – has identified 49 children who display vulnerabilities to CSE, such as a history of local authority care or of child protection involvement.

The report, compiled by the council’s education and vulnerable children overview and scrutiny committee, admits that there is a “serious CSE problem” in Birmingham but claims that limited resources are preventing the authority from understanding its true extent.

It highlights the council’s ability to carry out return interviews, conducted when children reported missing return home, as a particular cause for concern.

The report claims that there are just 2.2 full-time workers to triage up to 25 missing children referrals a week, prioritising cases that pose only the most significant CSE risk.

“If cases of missing children have to be triaged to prioritise return interviews we will be missing valuable opportunities for intervention,” it states.

The committee is also concerned that only 3.6 full-time family common assessment framework co-ordinators are available to support children through the Mash, which received more than 600 referrals each week during August 2014.

“We have not been assured that adequate therapeutic support is available for children,” states the report.

“The closure of youth provision may be having unconsidered consequences for CSE.”

To tackle the problem, the committee has recommended that the council reviews its resources and uses any additional funding to improve its handling of CSE.

It also suggests that the authority reviews and updates its corporate parent strategy in order to better protect children in care.

Responding to the report, councillor Brigid Jones, cabinet member for children and family services, said: “This report makes difficult reading.

“The council is committed, as are our partner agencies, to tackling this crime together, and scrutiny colleagues recognise we are starting to make real progress in this direction.”