Milton Keynes Child Exploitation Strategy: Prepare, Protect, Prevent, Pursue, Lecture notes of Communication

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Milton Keynes Local Policing Area - Violence, Missing & Exploitation Reduction

Framework

Tackling Child Exploitation Strategy

Contents page

• Statement
• Priorities
• Prepare
• Protect
• Prevent
• Pursue
• Local profile
• Levels of concern
• Multi-Agency coordinated approach
• Looked After Children
• Missing and Exploitation Hub (MEH)
• Missing and Exploitation Panel (MEP)
• MK Youth Risk Meeting
• Strategic Exploitation Panel (SEP)
• Cross Borders Group
• Locality Meeting
• DCI Risk Meeting
• Output and Outcome measures
• (A) Definitions Appendices
• (B) Abbreviations
• (C) Process Map Exploitation Concerns

• Demonstrate collective ownership through the work of the MK Together Risk Board, working to an agreed framework of actions informed by an evidence-based Milton Keynes Multi-Agency Exploitation Profile, which identifies both thematic and specific risks and vulnerabilities.
• Develop a set of agreed indicators that evidence progress in addressing and preventing exploitation.
• Information and resources are accessible to MK children’s workforce.
• Identify key community groups and out of hours front line professionals for roll out of training/awareness raising ( eg Night-time economy staff, taxi drivers, fast food outlets, Walk-In Centre, A+E) to support early identification of both potential victims and perpetrators of exploitation.
• The safety of children from exploitation is prioritised across the partnerships, including partner agencies and community leaders and that this is reflected and owned within their respective strategic ambitions.
• A contextual safeguarding approach is used so that risks to children are considered in the systems and context in which they live, and the valuable contributions of their wider support networks are recognised.
• Confidentiality will not prevent the sharing of information that could safeguard a child. All agencies understand their responsibility and have pathways for effective information sharing.
• All agencies adopt an early help intervention approach for children at risk of experiencing adversity to reduce the child’s vulnerability to being exploited.
• Professionals, wider workforces, community and faith groups staff are knowledgable enough through accessing specific training relating to exploitation to be able to identify and respond effectively and at the earliest opportunity to children who are reported missing or who are being exploited.
• Vulnerabilities around key transitions are identified and understood and partners will take account of these in planning appropriate responses to strengthen steps to safeguard those individuals or groups identified as particularly vulnerable. Prevent

Pursue

• Have an understanding of the reasons why children go missing at both individual and strategic level to inform the degree of convergence or divergence with other factors affecting exploitation risks and vulnerabilities.
• To identify and protect children who are being coerced, trafficked or exploited by providing a timely and proportionate multi-agency response and support to the child, family and community.
• All agencies and professionals adopt a collaborative respectful approach with the survivor/victim and their family in response to the concerns.
• Multi-agency information and intelligence is gathered and shared to identify children who are vulnerable to exploitation, to map hotspots, trends and risks in missing episodes, victim and perpetrator identification and criminal activity involving exploited children, including County Lines.
• Development of an exploitation and missing profile relevant to Milton Keynes is regularly updated to enable strategic opportunities to target individuals, locations or themes where increased concerns have been identified.
• A Memorandum of Understanding will be produced between the partnership and any setting where increased concerns or vulnerabilities are identified, to reduce risks.
• Effective information and communication is shared with other local authorities and external partners to ensure that Milton Keynes children placed in other areas, or moving regularly across the Borough boundaries, and children from other LAs placed or housed in Milton Keynes are effectively safeguarded from exploitation.
• The collation, sharing and analysis of information and intelligence between agencies and as part of the Exploitation Profile is effective in supporting a joint understanding of those who are exploiting others.
• Information is used to identify individual perpetrators and organised crime groups/ gangs, to map links between these known perpetrators and victims. Protect

397 children were reported missing 1173 times – this includes 64 children placed in Milton Keynes by other Local Authorities who were reported missing 282 times. Following referrals to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM - Modern Slavery Act 2015) - 19 Reasonable Grounds (RG) and 2 Conclusive Grounds (CG) decisions were made for children. Levels of concern Milton Keynes Safeguarding Partnership has adapted and added to the NWG (National Working Group) risk categories that were originally devised to address the exploitation of children. For more detail see the Exploitation Strategy Levels of Concern supporting document Multi-agency co-ordinated approach By increasing the knowledge and sharing the insight of those who come into contact with exploited children (professionals, statutory agencies and the wider community) we can build and maintain an accurate, contemporary, local profile of exploitation. This will provide a comprehensive understanding of the types of risk, locations, victims/survivors, and those who perpetrate or facilitate this abuse. A shared objective to ensure the response is cohesive and complementary to other services will support more timely flow of relevant information, ensuring earlier identification and support to victims, and minimise gaps in services. The implementation of a Contextual Safeguarding^1 approach will enable scope far beyond the individual and will address (^1) https://www.csnetwork.org.uk/en/about/what-is-contextual-safeguarding Community School/ College/Work Peers/Friends Family Individual

existing and potential risks in the wider contextual environment in which exploitation is taking place. Recent developments within Thames Valley Police (TVP) in reponse to HM Government Violent Crime Reduction Strategy have seen the creation of a Violent Crime Taskforce (VCT). Details of this team and the wider local police response are published in the Milton Keynes Local Policing area - Violent, Missing & Exploitation Reduction Framework. For additional information see Identifying and Responding to Child Exploitation. Looked After Children (LAC) Children who are looked after are at an increased vulnerability to being exploited and it is the responsibility of the local authority by whom the child is ‘looked after’ to have robust interventions to reduce this vulnerability and to respond proactively to concerns identified. Social workers, Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) and those who support looked after children, either in their residential setting or though support work, need to have access to training to increase practitioners and support staff awareness of exploitation. Other local authorities who place looked after children within Milton Keynes local authority boundary (Host Authority) will be expected to provide MK CSC details of exploitation, trafficking, gang association, missing person occurrences and sexually problematic behaviour as well as completion of a TVP ‘Grab Pack’. The ‘Grab Pack’ is where information relating to a child who regularly goes missing, or is the subject of exploitation concerns, is collated on one form within Thames Valley Police. It enables the police to have quick and ready access to information about either a local or a placed child in Milton Keynes so that officers can refer to it in their response to locating the child. Milton Keynes Local Authority will develop and maintain a list of approved premises that have met standards set out by the local authority and undergo regular checks to ensure compliance. Children placed by MKC outside of Milton Keynes where there are concerns relating to exploitation and trafficking will be raised within Milton Keynes Strategic Exploitation Panel (SEP) meeting.

MK Youth Risk Meeting This multi-agency meeting is chaired by the Violent Crime Taskforce (VCT) and provides a forum to ensure effective co-ordination of agencies to support disruption in respect of youth violence, gang/ASB groups and County Drug Lines (CDL) networks. Strategic Exploitation Panel (SEP) The multi-agency Strategic Exploitation Panel monitors the intervention supporting children with significant exploitation or missing concerns. SEP will problem-solve and address barriers to implementing effective plans by offering strategic support, protective and disruption options to address places, individuals, groups and organisations of concern. SEP will identify and coordinate strategic multi-agency approaches to specific themes of concern around exploitation highlighted by other multi-agency meetings including: MAPPA, MEP, MK Youth risk meeting, Cross-Border Group, Localities Meeting, Targeted Tasking Co- ordination Group (TTCG) and Complex Strategy Meetings. Cross Border Group (CBG) The purpose of the Cross-Border Group (CBG) is to build collaborative working relationships with neighbouring authorities. It is a point of contact for members to discuss individual and shared concerns where exploitation may be occurring across counties, and enables good practice from other areas to be disseminated. Locality meeting This is a quarterly multi-agency forum between school safeguarding leads and partner agencies from either the North or South of Milton Keynes. Its aim is to identify at the earliest opportunity concerns relating to children’s behaviour that could be indicative of exploitation, missing or youth violence. It also provides information to schools on current trends as well as discussing potential perpetrators, and local areas of concern associated with exploitation.

Full details of the function of each meeting/panel can be found in the MK Together Missing and Exploitation Panel Functions supporting document DCI Risk Meeting TVP meeting in respect of children where TVP are actively engaging in reducing the child’s violence, exploitation and missing concerns. Police can check governance and allocate additional resources where needed. CSC and YOT representative are also present at this meeting. Full details are contained in the TVP ‘Milton Keynes Local Policing Area - Violence, Missing & Exploitation Reduction Framework’. Output and outcome measures Conducting Return From Missing Interviews (RFMI) in a timely manner, face-to-face with the child, supports most effective intervention:

• RFMI – % responded to within 72 hrs of notification that Child has returned from Missing
• RFMI – % interview with child takes place within 72 hours of return notification
• RFMI – % where 72 hour timeframe not met reason why not is clearly recorded
• RFMI – % conducted face-to-face
• RFMI – % where not face-to-face reason why not is clearly recorded In cases where Missing is the primary or a significant concern there is an evidenced reduction in:
• Frequency of episodes
• Duration of episodes
• Identified risk factors either associated with or contributing to missing episodes Exploitation:
• Plans are in place to address Individual and Contextual risk factors and to strengthen Protective/Resilience Factors for each child identified as vulnerable, groomed/targeted or exploited.

Appendix B – Abbreviations ASB Anti Social Behaviour CCE Child Criminal Exlpotation CDL County Drug Line CSE Child Sexual Exploitation CSEP Child Sexual Exploitation Project Worker DMM Daily Management Meeting (TVP) ESP Early Support Project IRO Independent Reviewing Officer LAC Looked After Child MASH Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub MAPPA Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements NRM National Referral Mechanism OCG Organised Crime Group RFMI Return From Missing Interview TTCG Targetted Tasking Coordination Group TVP Thames Valley Police

Apendix C - Process map of exploitation concerns