Agenda item

7.1

The Committee received a report of the Chief Executive Officer, Sheffield Futures, attaching the Sheffield Sexual Exploitation Service – Annual Report 2017/18.

7.2

In attendance for this item were Dan White (Sheffield Futures), Jane Haywood, MBE (Independent Chair, Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board) and Victoria Horsefield (Assistant Director, Children and Families Service and Professional Advisor to the Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board).

7.3

Dan White referred to the introductory report, which contained information on the service user profile for 2017/18, key achievements in 2017/18, developments in 2018/19 and priorities for the Service for 2019/20.

7.4

Members of the Committee raised questions, and the following responses were provided:-

·             The reasons for the significant drop in referrals in the West area of the City was due to a mixture of people moving, more people becoming aware of the risks involved and the work of the Service in that area. This was being looked at further to make sure that adequate support was in place, as social media remained a big risk.

·             The large increase in the number of children looked after being referred to the Service, as compared to the figures in 2016/17, was believed to be mainly due to the increased use of social media.   The Sheffield Sexual Exploitation Service continued to work very closely with the Children Looked After Service and other partners to gather evidence and disrupt patterns of behaviour. There was a continuing requirement for monitoring and vigilance as safeguarding issues were never “solved”, and effort around awareness-raising was required as an ongoing activity.

·             The Alexi Project had been seen as one of the major achievements in 2017/18.  The Project had researched child sexual exploitation, violence and trafficking, and looked at ways voluntary sector expertise could contribute to supporting statutory child sexual exploitation services.  The hub and spoke model that grew out of this meant that the voluntary sector ‘hubs’ would expand their support, learning and expertise across geographical neighbourhoods, and Sheffield had been identified as one of only 15 national hubs.  This had resulted in Sheffield working with neighbouring authorities to provide one to one support for young people identified as being at risk from child sexual exploitation, as well as delivering a comprehensive programme of training for professionals.  The Service was always looking for the reasons why young people were going missing and whilst being fully aware of the problems of trafficking, aimed to pick young people at risk up at an early stage. In 2018/19, the Children Missing in Education Service was merged with the Child Sexual Exploitation Service, and there were cases of girls being found in other cities, linked to trafficking, and being successfully returned home.

·             The Service provided a considerable amount of training, but mostly at a universal level.  However, sexual exploitation awareness and training was part of the core and advanced training offer for school staff, and schools were key participants in the “It’s not OK” campaign.  The majority of schools had made this part of their curriculum, either through Personal, Social and Health Education or elsewhere.  It was agreed that a piece of work was required to try and track this activity within schools. 

·             It was accepted that there were times when children, who had been identified as being at risk from child sexual exploitation, had been removed from their home and placed in local authority care, in a residential home, or other facility, where they may continue to be at risk. The plans to reform the residential sector would provide more support to families to allow more young people to remain in the family home. 

7.5

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)      notes the contents of the report now submitted, together with the Sheffield Sexual Exploitation Service – Annual Report 2017/18, and the responses to the questions raised;

(b)      thanks Dan White, Jane Haywood and Victoria Horsefield for attending the meeting, and responding to the questions raised; and

(c)      requests (i) Dan White to prepare a briefing note for circulation to those Members on the Committee during the 2019/20 Municipal Year and, if deemed necessary, arrangements be made for this issue to be scrutinised by the Committee during that year and (ii) Victoria Horsefield to undertake a piece of work to track the rolling out of the child sexual exploitation awareness training “Friend or Foe” within schools.