Called Family Help: Contextual Safeguarding Service, it will involve exploitation specialists, youth workers and social workers working in partnership to help children “at the earliest opportunity when risks have been identified in their lives outside of the home”, the council said.
The new service has been launched through the London borough’s role as a pathfinder local authority in the DfE's Families First for Children (FFC) programme. It was selected through an open bid in April to be one of seven second wave pilot areas for the programme.
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Analysis: Police forces struggle to tackle child sexual exploitation cases
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Special Report: Tackling Youth Violence
Others selected at this stage - to test improvements in social care - were Luton, Lewisham, Walsall, Warrington, Warwickshire and Wirral.
The FFC programme began under the previous Conservative government as one of several measures unveiled in its response to the independent review of children’s social care recommendations to improve early help and prevent children being taken into care.
In Redbridge, it sees a merger of early help and social work services for children at risk of exploitation.
"This merger means that from the point that a referral is received, the young person will have the opportunity to build a consistent relationship with one practitioner for the duration of their intervention, eradicating the need for ‘step up, step down’ and any changes of the worker as the intervention progresses," the council said.
The programme has awarded a £2.5m grant for Redbridge to develop models of improved support for children that can be rolled out England wide. The borough is also looking at ways that extended family members can be used more frequently to support children.
The exploitation early help service has been launched in Redbridge as “more work must be done to ensure every single one of our children can build a positive future” said the council’s cabinet member for children, young people and education Lloyd Duddridge.
Among sector leaders in Redbridge to welcome the launch is Irfan Shah, chief executive of Frenford Clubs, a youth club organisation in the borough.
Shah described the the service as “a significant milestone" that "will greatly impact our community”.
Child protection services in Redbridge have been rated as “outstanding” by Ofsted, in its most recent inspection of its children’s services in June this year.
Inspectors found that there was already “promote intelligence sharing” in the area among the council and its partners to “quickly identify children affected by serious youth violence and sexual and criminal exploitation”.
National picture
A recent analysis of serious case reviews found that nationally, practitioners are struggling to respond to extrafamilial harm to children, with "little evidence" that interventions are keeping them safe.
The 2023-24 annual report from the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel found that social workers and multi-agency colleagues are failing to pick up on early indicators of risk, such as missing episodes.
