Serious Case Review: Sexual exploitation gang went unnoticed

After three trials and one of the largest police operations of its kind, nine men were convicted in November last year for their role in a child exploitation gang that targeted vulnerable young girls in Derby.

Among their victims were two looked-after children who were abused before and while in the care of Derby City Council.

A serious case review (SCR) into the two girls' cases found they were let down by social workers and other children's professionals. Social workers mistook the girls' challenging behaviour for teenage rebellion rather than as signs of abuse.

The SCR report says that if Derby council had taken the girls into its care earlier they would have been "more resilient" and "less vulnerable as adolescents to all kinds of exploitation and abuse".

Lack of good partnerships between social work, health and police was a factor in the poor support the girls received. While social workers "worked hard within their sphere" to support the girls, they failed to work well with others professionals.

This made abuse more difficult to spot and meant social workers were not aware of the risk that the looked-after children faced from this gang of child abusers.

Exploitation strategy

Derby has pledged to improve social workers' training in spotting abuse and understanding sexual exploitation.

A child exploitation strategy is also under development. Social workers and colleagues in health and the police have already formed a group to co-ordinate support for victims, carry out health, mental health and emotional wellbeing tests and discuss witness protection.

Further north in Blackburn with Darwen, social workers, police and health workers have already seen the value of such a group.

Blackburn with Darwen's dedicated sexual exploitation team, called Engage, has representatives from social work, the police, health and charities.

Set up five years ago, the co-located team works to identify abuse early on, convict abusers and support victims.

Nick McPartland, who has a background in social work and manages the group, claims that many social workers "simply do not understand sexual exploitation".

"It is different from many other child protection cases," he says. "The victims are often young girls who see themselves as the girlfriend to the often older boyfriend. It takes time for them to see themselves as a victim and their boyfriend and his friends as abusers and paedophiles."

Identifying abuse

He advises that social workers measure the risk of abuse against a set of sexual exploitation indicators such as whether the child has been missing, playing truant, misusing drugs or alcohol, or self-harming.

McPartland adds: "Identifying abuse and supporting victims cannot be done without being able to work in partnership."

Whose Child Now?, a Barnardo's report published in 2009, found that eight out of 10 councils do not have a specialist sexual exploitation support service. The charity was due to publish a follow-up report in January 2011.

Barnardo's assistant director for research and outcome evaluation Julie Harris says children in care who have been abused are among the most vulnerable to exploitation.

She says: "These factors should be identified early and taken account of in care and placement planning to reduce the risks of sexual exploitation."

KEY LESSONS

• Social workers should be assessed on their ability to spot abuse and offered further training
• Training needs to focus on understanding sexual exploitation and how abusers groom and target vulnerable young people
• Social workers need to work closely with police and health professionals to create a joint sexual exploitation strategy. They should consider setting up a dedicated, multi-agency child exploitation team
• Runaways are particularly vulnerable to abuse. Social workers and the police need to ensure they have a missing children protocol focusing on the importance of information sharing
• Schools need to run sessions on online safety and the risks of abuse and exploitation