New Child Exploitation Hub launched in Northamptonshire

A new multi-agency Child Exploitation Hub was formally launched today (Thursday 18th July) at an event held at Northamptonshire Police headquarters.

The new Child Exploitation (CE) Hub is designed to better protect children who are vulnerable to being criminally or sexually exploited, by having professionals who are working together to support them co-located in one shared base in the county.

Located at the Criminal Justice Centre (CJC) on the Brackmills Industrial Estate, the CE Hub houses police officers, social workers, youth workers, early intervention practitioners, and health professionals, who all specialise in safeguarding children and young people who are at risk of exploitation. Education and other support services will be virtually integrated into the hub to provide support and guidance.

The agencies already work closely with each other but with the creation of the CE hub now have even greater opportunities to reduce incidents of criminal and sexual exploitation, improve responsiveness, and get the right help and support in place to protect vulnerable youngsters from risk of harm, and enable them to achieve improved outcomes.

Detective Chief Inspector Jen Castle, police lead for child safeguarding and Chair of the Northamptonshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (NSCP) Child Exploitation Sub Group, said:

“Child sexual and child criminal exploitation is a growing concern nationally. Sadly, every region in the UK is affected by child exploitation and Northamptonshire is no exception.  Work already undertaken by the NSCP has given us strong foundations for ensuring children and young people affected by exploitation have the right help and support from the multi-agency practitioners who they might come into contact with.

“This new hub helps us to build on those foundations and will support us further in developing high quality practice and responsive exploitation support that children and their families need when exploitation is a risk. The hub is an excellent opportunity for our teams to develop a really strong cohesive partnership, which centres on reducing exploitation and responding to risk.”

Cornelia Andrecut, Director of Children’s Social Care with the Northamptonshire Children’s Trust, said:

“The launch of the hub is a really positive step forward in improving how agencies across Northamptonshire work together to safeguard and support children and young people who might be coerced or exploited.

“The multi-agency hub brings together the knowledge, expertise, and resources of all partners – thus enabling practitioners to share information swiftly, create a fuller picture of risk, help to identify the actions and the support that is required, and to put in place a range of impactful evidence-based interventions.

“Our approach will extend beyond reacting to incidents of exploitation, and include supporting professional colleagues, raising awareness, engaging the local community, having a focus on both prevention and recovery to create a safer environment for every child and young person in Northamptonshire.”

Faye McAllister, Designated Nurse for Children in Care for NHS Integrated Care Board said: 

“The development of a CE Hub is a really welcome resource for the county and provides the opportunity to drive excellence and expertise in safeguarding children who are at risk of exploitation. Healthcare professionals play an important role in tackling this complex and challenging issue and I am pleased that a specialist CE nurse is a part of the core hub team.

“Having practitioners with different skills and knowledge working closely together means that all professionals have access to information to make better, more informed decisions in order to protect vulnerable children at the earliest opportunity.”

Detective Inspector Andy Blaize of Northamptonshire Police said:

“Safeguarding children is a top priority for the Force as we know the impact of criminal and sexual exploitation can be destructive and long-lasting. 

“Our specialist officers have been working alongside colleagues in social care, youth services, and health for a long time. As part of the development of the CE Hub we have expanded our existing teams to ensure we are not only supporting young people affected by exploitation but increasing our capacity to proactively catch, disrupt, and deter exploiters. It’s important that the perpetrators of this type of abuse are quickly identified and dealt with.

“We would always encourage victims to come forward and report offences to our specially trained officers. They will be supported, and their reports will be investigated thoroughly to protect them from further harm.”

What is Child Exploitation?

Child Exploitation is a form of child abuse which affects the lives of children, young people, their families, and communities.  When a child or young person is exploited they are often groomed and given things such as gifts, drugs, money, status, and affection.

Abusers can also use violence or intimidation to frighten or force a child or young person into doing something they don’t want to do, or give them large sums of money or drugs which can’t be repaid in order to control them. Usually this is in exchange for carrying out criminal activity or performing sexual activities. Trafficking children to other parts of the country to take part in criminal or sexual activities is also often a feature of exploitation.

Earlier this year, the Northamptonshire Safeguarding Children Partnership implemented CERAF (Child Exploitation Risk Assessment Framework) a new risk assessment tool for children and young people at risk of exploitation. The assessment tool is available to support all professionals to identify and track risk so that children and young people receive support apportioned to the risk level.

If anyone is worried that a child is being exploited please report your concerns. Contact Police on 101 or 999 in an emergency.  Or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. You can also contact NSPCC 0808 800 5000. For more information visit: www.northants.police.uk/ce