How young people learn how to move on after CSE

PROJECT

Helter Skelter Project

PURPOSE

To help young people exit or avoid sexually exploitative relationships

FUNDING

Around £80,000 per year for two child sexual exploitation workers serving Cambridgeshire, mainly funded by Comic Relief, the Henry Smith Charity and Tudor Trust

BACKGROUND

In 2007, Helen Rawden, now chief executive of Cambridgeshire charity Link to Change, was running the needle exchange of a charity called Dial Drug Link where she was well acquainted with the life stories of female clients using sex work to support their habit. She was convinced the lives of these women could have turned out very differently had they been supported to avoid or escape sexual exploitation as teenagers.

When Dial Drug Link lost its contract with Cambridgeshire Council to a national organisation, the charity's board met to decide how to use its remaining cash and Rawden asked if she could use it to tackle child sexual exploitation (CSE). "The trustees knew nothing about this thing called sexual exploitation and I was incredibly fortunate that they trusted me," she recalls.

She teamed up with a part-time administrator and they applied for a grant to employ an outreach worker. The fledgling team spread the word about sexual exploitation and started to get a trickle of referrals. The charity changed its name to Link to Change in 2009 and Helter Skelter is its main project.

ACTION

Helter Skelter is based in St Neots, but its two support workers cover the whole of Cambridgeshire. Their 12- to 26-year-old clients are mainly referred by social workers.

The support workers meet young people wherever they feel safe and relaxed, which could include cafes, schools or park benches. Often cases involve a young person who has been groomed on the internet, leading to a meeting and sexual assault. Others display risk factors such as secretive phone or internet use, sexualised dress or using drugs and alcohol when they didn't before.

The process starts with a six-week assessment of the sexual exploitation or risks. This gives young people time to get to know the support worker and identify risky areas of their lives with help from resources including workbooks, games, quizzes and DVDs.

The worker draws up a plan with the young person, which sets out areas they can work on together to build an understanding of grooming, internet safety, consent and safe relationships.

Young people stay with the project for up to 12 months, meeting workers weekly for around two hours.

Some meet daily if they are still in contact with the perpetrator and can stay involved for up to three years, particularly if they need support through an arrest and trial.

Rawden says some don't make a disclosure for many months. "Sexually-exploited children don't know they are sexually exploited and they're often very resistant (to intervention)," she says. "Part of our style is to persuade them they want to work with us, which is why we take it at their pace. It's a combination of the will of the young person and the skills of the outreach worker.

"We don't discharge them until we feel they're no longer in contact with the perpetrator, have a very good understanding of how they came to be in that situation and feel sure it won't happen to them again."

OUTCOME

An internal evaluation of the charity's work from April 2013 to March last year shows 74 active clients. Of the 46 young people discharged, 35 - 76 per cent - were assessed as free from sexual exploitation.

Seventy per cent of 25 young people surveyed said they knew more about keeping safe as a result of the project. Of 30 professionals surveyed, 70 per cent said they'd seen "a lot of change" in young people they had referred, with the remaining 30 per cent noticing "some change".

The charity is being funded by the Big Lottery's Reaching Communities fund and the Henry Smith Charity from this month to provide two workers in Lincolnshire and one in Bedford. The move is part of an initiative by the Child Sexual Exploitation Funders' Alliance, a partnership between the University of Bedfordshire and a range of funders, to help specialist sexual exploitation services expand their work.

If you think your project is worthy of inclusion, email supporting data to derren.hayes@markallengroup.com