A 14-year-old girl is in danger of sexual exploitation after runningaway from home but social services want her to return to her father.
A practitioner at a Barnardo's project for sexually exploited girlsexplains how she had to balance the need to help the girl withmaintaining good relations with social services.
I was a practitioner at a Barnardo's service for sexually exploitedgirls, and one of them was a 14-year-old with a history of running awayand placing herself in dangerous situations. She had been staying in acrack house for about three months and had been befriended by peoplethere who were sexually exploiting her. One of the people living in thehouse had contacted police anonymously to say she was having sex withsomeone who was HIV-positive.
When she reappeared we tried to get a meeting with the local authorityunder the protocols for sexually exploited children but theyrefused.
She was sent home to her father, but she had a bad relationship with himand previous allegations that he had physically and sexually abused herhad been investigated.
She went missing again for about a week and then came back to theservice.
We were obliged to inform social services, but they said to send herhome in a taxi. The council was trying to reunite her with her fatherbut she was refusing.
Our dilemma was whether to go for an easy life with social services andsend her home, or say it was not in her best interests and negotiate aplace in a children's refuge. At the time we were trying to get aservice level agreement with social services so we ran the risk of notgetting it if we went against them. And what if she didn't go to therefuge, met someone dangerous there or led other children there todangerous people?
Eventually we got a meeting with social services. The girl said shewanted to be looked after. In the past, the girl had been offered fostercare but had only stayed for a few days. They used that as an excuse totry to reunite her with her father. But eventually a placement was foundfor her.
I told them that all the local councils paid for the refuge and thatevery effort would be made to see if reconciliation was an option. Ithink that reassured them that we were not encouraging her to continuerunning away.
The placement seems to have been successful and to my knowledge she isstill there now. Also social services now has a nominated childprotection advisor who gives us a sympathetic response.
- Have you ever faced a tough professional choice? Call Stovin Hayter on020 8267 4767 or email stovin.hayter@haynet.com.
