CYP Now - Youth work investment ‘key’ to reducing exploitation over school holidays, Barnardo’s says

Increased investment in youth services and expanded access to the
Holiday Food and Activities Programme are key to reducing the risk of child exploitation over the summer holidays, according to Barnardo’s.

Barnardo's says children are at greater risk of being exploited when not in school. Picture: Adobe Stock

In its new briefing paper Child Exploitation: A Hidden Crisis, the charity warns that the pressure of the cost-of-living crisis on families combined with children being out of school during the summer break could “increase the risk of child exploitation, with those who seek to exploit children seeking to use adversity to coerce children into criminal and sexual activity”.

In a survey of Barnardo’s practitioners, carried out in February, almost half of those asked said they feel that children and young people are at a greater risk of being sexually and/or criminally exploited due to the cost-of-living crisis.

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