Labour MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion, has urged the government to insert a clause into the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to incorporate a definition of CCE into the Modern Slavery Act.
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“The absence of a legal definition affects not only law enforcement but also efforts to protect children who are often too scared to tell someone they are being exploited,” she wrote in an article for The Times Red Box.
The controversial bill, which is currently passing through the House of Commons, has already come under fine over the inclusion of clauses that youth work organisations claim discriminate against disadvantaged young people and those from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Charity Catch 22 is also calling for the creation of a legal definition of CCE as part of a national child exploitation strategy.
It says that such a strategy would bring together the different forms of exploitation, "specifically addressing child criminal exploitation and county lines, and the link with missing children”.
According to the charity, one in 10 children who had gone missing and completed return home interviews had been a victim of criminal exploitation.
The strategy should also incorporate other UK national strategies including those around child sexual abuse, modern day slavery and domestic abuse as well as improving CCE training and awareness for practitioners, parents and carers, Catch 22 says.
Kate Wareham, Catch 22’s director of young people and families, said: “It is not enough to just find a child and be relieved they are home. If repeat missing incidences are happening, even if just for a few hours, we need to be asking ourselves where these young people are. Going missing from home or care is a key indicator of county lines-related child exploitation, but opportunities to intervene are often unrecognised and missed.
“Too often, those in a position of care, including statutory bodies, missed the signs; by the time services like ours are involved, grooming has occurred over a sustained period and the young person may be deeply involved in criminal activity.”
