Children with disabilities more susceptible to CSE

The Scottish government introduced a national action plan to tackle CSE at the end of last year, following a report by the Scottish parliament's public petitions committee. Barnardo's instigated the inquiry. It revealed that for many organisations, CSE received scant attention, while there was a tendency for it to be overlooked or discounted as a potential threat to vulnerable children.

Even as we recognise that better training is needed for authorities such as the police, social work and teaching professions, we also know that a significant number of young children do not consider themselves to be "exploited", misunderstanding the very nature of sexual exploitation and issues around consent. This is despite them being pressured to exchange sex for drugs, alcohol, shelter and even acceptance.

The Scottish parliament heard over and again from those working with young people about the gaps in understanding, the low number of protection orders for those over 12, the reluctance of authorities to step in, and the distinction of "exploitation" from "abuse". At the end of it all, there is still one group that is highly vulnerable yet completely unacknowledged in this document. That group is children with disabilities.

In evidence given to parliament, Professor Kirsten Stalker, Professor of Disability Studies at the University of Strathclyde, highlighted that our perception of the safety of children with disabilities is most likely misplaced. Her analysis of 17 studies looking at 18,000 children concluded that children with disabilities were three to four times more likely to suffer abuse generally. Stalker said there was a definite knowledge gap about young people with disabilities in relation to CSE. She said a scoping study of abuse of all kinds against disabled children found there was still a view that because they were disabled they were somehow protected from abuse.

Struggling to be heard

Case studies and anecdotal evidence show that children with disabilities have struggled to be heard when abuse has taken place. This is the fault of investigating authorities, which do not make enough effort to hear the testimony of those whose very disabilities make them more vulnerable to predatory attention. For instance, communication learning difficulties make it harder to report abuse or be understood. It is not good enough to rely on other people to speak for them. It is also not right to simply highlight an ongoing need for education while failing to address how to reach a significant number of people where we can assume there is real risk of exploitation, sexual or otherwise.

It seems disingenuous to think that those who prey on the young, weak and vulnerable would hesitate to exploit a young person with disabilities.

Stalker gave evidence that many young disabled people may feel lonely, without many friends, and find it hard to keep up with their peer group. This may make them particularly vulnerable to approaches and grooming by older men. ChildLine, she said, had already found that teenage girls with learning disabilities had been groomed and asked to send explicit pictures over the internet. Stalker's evidence was echoed by others working in the field who told of young people with learning difficulties and mental health problems who had been pulled into sexual exploitation by their peers and older people.

The Scottish government's child protection statistics record disabled children's rates of abuse as very low. This does not correspond to the evidence available. If governments believe that effective education is a vital aspect in reducing CSE, they must ensure it reaches all children and young people, so it does not make an already vulnerable group even more so.

• Tam Baillie is children's commissioner for Scotland