Crackdown on the sexual exploitation of children in residential care

Until recently, the issue of child sexual exploitation was largely hidden from the public eye. But a spate of high-profile court cases and official reports on the prevalence of the problem has shone a light on shocking abuse taking place across the country.

Most disturbingly, evidence shows that looked-after children are disproportionately likely to become victims of sexual exploitation, particularly those living in residential care who frequently run away.

The government has announced a range of measures to tackle the problem. It plans to tighten up the criteria that councils must meet before placing a child in a residential home outside their local area – a factor known to increase the risk of a child going missing from care and therefore their vulnerability to exploitation.

Meanwhile, regulations that prevented information sharing between police and children’s homes are to be swept away and an expert group is to review the residential care system, with a focus on improving staff training and qualifications.

Debbie Jones, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), argues that a “frank and open discussion about the quality of residential care”, and how it meets the needs of the most vulnerable children, is long overdue.

“It is important to note that many local authorities are reliant wholly or in part to a market of private providers to supply placements in residential children’s homes,” she says.

“This can offer flexibility to meet the needs of individual children, but we believe there needs to be a review of the risks of the dominance of private, profit-making providers on the stability, quality and cost of providing these placements.”

Jones adds that children who are at risk in their local community should continue to be placed in homes outside the area for their own safety. She also warns that sexual exploitation is not an issue restricted to children in the care system who run away. A focus solely on these children “risks failing to identify the wider dangers to all children and young people at risk of exploitation”, she says.

Directors of children’s services took part in closed debates about child sexual exploitation and the future of children’s homes at their annual conference last week – the results of which will be published later this month – to feed into the government’s work on the issue.

Here, we examine the nature of the problem and the plans for reform thus far.

Commissioner report
The government’s plans to reform children’s homes come off the back of a report by the deputy children’s commissioner Sue Berelowitz.

Ministers asked her to produce a fast-tracked report on emerging findings from her ongoing Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups inquiry, after the sentencing of nine men who groomed and abused young girls in Rochdale in May.

Berelowitz’s report found that looked-after children are disproportionately vulnerable to being groomed or sexually exploited, although the majority of known victims are not in care.

According to the report, some residential homes are specifically targeted by abusers, because “there is a constant flow of vulnerable children for perpetrators to exploit”.

It warns that some children who are being sexually exploited are forced to “introduce” other children within homes to their abusers.

Young men and boys were found to be perpetrating abuse, alongside adults, in private houses, warehouses, transport-ation vehicles, public spaces, parks, schools, hotels and hostels.

The report recommends that the government takes several steps to protect looked-after children from sexual exploitation, including stopping children’s homes from opening in “high-risk” areas; banning the placement of children in care in bed-and-breakfast accommodation; and carrying out monthly independent inspection visits of homes.

Berelowitz’s inquiry will publish an interim report in September, before concluding in autumn 2013.

Council responsibilities
The government is taking a number of immediate steps to protect children in residential care from sexual exploitation.

Ministers have put together a “task and finish group” to make urgent recommendations on stringent criteria that local authorities should have to meet before placing a child in a care home outside their local area. At present, 45 per cent of children’s home residents are outside their home borough.

The government argues that it is difficult to accept that all of these children benefit from such distant placements.

The group will consider whether independent reviewing officers should have a role in stepping in to get a child’s care plan changed if there is an emerging pattern of the young person going missing.

It will also report on what councils should do to monitor the quality of local homes, and how best to “map” risks posed to children in homes located near accommodation for adult offenders, or in areas where there are high levels of prostitution.

The group will consider how to develop a new data collection system to resolve the “huge discrepancies” between local authority and police figures on children who go missing from care.

In addition, the government has ordered Ofsted to immediately lift the regulations that prevent children’s services telling the police and other agencies the location of care homes.

The government will consult on changes proposed by the group in the autumn.

Children’s home staff
Ministers are setting up a second expert group to develop an action plan to drive up the quality of children’s homes.
This group will pay particular attention to improving the qualifications and skills of the residential childcare workforce, as well as recruitment and staff training and development practices.

Berelowitz’s report warned that “the workforce tasked with caring intensely for some of our most troubled children is one of the least qualified workforces in the social care sector”.

It added that the majority of staff in children’s homes are “not specialists working with highly troubled children and young people, nor in child sexual exploitation” and branded support and training for staff as “inadequate”.

The expert group will gather evidence on a range of issues including the location of children’s homes; models of home ownership; commissioning practice; and how residential care can offer a more therapeutic environment to the most vulnerable children.

It will also consider what type of staff development is needed to manage children’s challenging behaviour, including when it is appropriate to use restraint and if such controls should ever be used to protect children from becoming victims of sexual exploitation.

The effectiveness of current arrangements to drive improvement across the children’s home sector will also be scrutinised.

The expert group will report to ministers by December, when they will set out a clear timetable for reforming the system.

Action plan update
The government has also issued a progress report on the national Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation Action Plan, which sets out ongoing work with the courts, police and social services to prosecute and jail abusers; protect young people at risk; and help victims of crimes.

As part of the action plan, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the National Police Improvement Agency are developing proposals for training frontline police officers on child sexual exploitation.

Meanwhile, the Home Office is supporting the Metropolitan Police Healthy Relationships Training (Heart) programme to safeguard teenage girls at risk of sexual violence. A total of 360 young women have taken part in Heart so far, and a further 180 will do so this year.

The Department of Health is working with partners to identify where existing training and guidance for health professionals can be improved. The curriculum for new doctors now includes competences on meeting the health needs of children who are victims of abuse.

A short film on child sexual exploitation has been commissioned to go on NHS Choices, the online “front door” to the NHS, to raise awareness among young people, parents and healthcare professionals.

The College of Social Work is considering how to help local safeguarding children boards and directors of children’s services make sure that child sexual exploitation is addressed in social worker training.

Expert view: care must prevail over cost

By Steve Page, chief executive of Acorn Care and Education, and spokesman for the Children’s Services Development Group (CSDG)

"There are 7,910 young people in residential children’s homes in the UK, many of whom, with excellent care and support, will lead independent and fulfilled adult lives.

"?However, parts of the system are letting children down.

"CSDG welcomes the government’s announcement on measures to reform residential care. Given the vulnerability of the young people involved, we owe it to them to continue to improve the system.

"The issue of out-of-area placements that has dominated media headlines is something of a red herring, behind which the deeper problem of poor decision making ?is hidden.

"There are many factors that determine the best placement for a looked-after child. Geography is one and, where possible, CSDG would support placing young people near to home – although it is important to consider that we serve some children best by removing them from the damaging and painful connections that led to them becoming looked-after in the first place.

"Despite the best intentions, high-quality specialist care placements are not always available in the local area. Developing a children’s homes landscape that we can be proud of is dependent upon providers working with local authorities to develop local solutions to meet need. In some cases, this will require local authorities working together, which has not always been easy.

"We can pay lip service to quality, but if commissioning decisions and care packages are driven purely by cost, children will end up in provision that does not meet need.

"Focusing on providers, rather than the needs of the child, is a recipe for entrenching the problem, rather than solving it.

"Preventing children from running away from care or protecting them from sexual exploitation cannot be achieved through better information sharing between agencies alone, although this will help. It is about the entire sector pulling together to ensure that the highest quality is the minimum accepted standard."