The Prime Minister announced on Tuesday plans to create a new Grooming Taskforce to better protect children and young women from sexual abuse and exploitation. The Prime Minister is travelling to Leeds and Greater Manchester to meet with survivors, local police partners and members of the new taskforce.

What are the key takeaways from the announcement and does it go far enough?

Specialist Officers

Specialist officers will be parachuted in to assist police forces with live Child Sexual Exploitation and grooming cases. This might seem like it should be obvious, and it probably should be, however when cases involving exploitation are seen by the police it is often the first responders and junior officers who will deal with cases initially.

I agree specialist officers are extremely important in ensuring that cases are dealt with properly- we have seen first hand the devastating impact it can have when the prosecution and police investigation doesn’t carry the relevant expertise and how badly this impacts on survivors of CSE going through the legal process (the Rochdale grooming case being just one example). Having specialist officers leading those teams will hopefully have a huge impact on the success of prosecutions and live cases.

However, what this doesn’t tackle is detecting these cases in the first instance. I would hope that as part of this Taskforce the government also puts in place specialist training for all officers to identify the warning signs of child exploitation, and to spot these cases as early as possible. Without front line officers having the necessary understanding of the risks and warning signs of child exploitation, many cases would otherwise not make it as far as the specialist units referred to.

Data Analysts

Data analysts will be used to identify the types of criminals who carry out these offences, helping police to catch offenders who might otherwise be missed. The announcement says, “This will include better data on the make-up of grooming gangs, including ethnicity, to make sure suspects cannot hide behind cultural sensitivities as a way to evade justice.”

Whilst it is important that cultural sensitivities do not protect offenders in any way, the focus within the announcement on race is not helpful to the picture overall and detracts from the main issues. Child exploitation isn’t linked to a particular ethnic group and a 2020 Home Office Report concluded that it could not say whether any particular ethnic group was disproportionately represented.

Using data analysts to help identify criminals can only be helpful, but it is important that the message around race does not distract from the overwhelming issues around child exploitation and the need to tackle it.

Sentencing

Grooming gang members and their leaders will receive the toughest sentences for their crimes and the longest time behind bars. These factors will be brought into law as “aggravating factors” which will be considered when sentencing these offenders.

This is undoubtedly a positive step and one which is much needed. We can only hope that this is put into practice and carried out with the vigour it is intended. We have seen too many cases where offenders have been released after 2-3 years and returned to the hometowns of their victims. I have no doubt that the toughest sentences are required for these cases, and I hope that this commitment results in every case moving forward receiving sentences that properly reflect the heinous nature of their crimes.

Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, said:

“Grooming gangs are a scourge on our society and I want to send a clear message to anyone who exploits vulnerable children that they will face the full weight of the law.”

Mandatory Reporting

There will be mandatory reporting for adults working with children if they suspect or identify that child is being abused. This is an absolute bare minimum to bring the rules around reporting for child exploitation in line with those of other serious abuses, such as Female Genital Mutilation which became subject to mandatory reporting in 2015.

Whilst we would hope that previously any professionals working with children would report in concerns of this nature, that may not always have been the case and many reports may have been missed as a result of fear or lack of confidence in their suspicions. Mandatory reporting puts this on a statutory footing and means that adults who fail to report concerns around abuse and exploitation will face criminal sanctions themselves.

Support to the NSPCC Whistleblowing Helpline

Support will be bolstered for the NSPCC whistleblowing helpline and public helpline. Reports can and should be made by anyone concerned about child exploitation. The NSPCC creates a clear pathway for concerned parties to seek advice and to get one step closer to protecting victims of exploitation.

Responding to the announcement, the Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza said:

“I welcome this focus on protecting vulnerable children from exploitation and abuse, and I urge them to extend this same focus to children arriving in the UK who often face similar dangers.

“Any measures designed to make children safer, no matter their background or circumstances, are a positive step, so I’m pleased to see the commitment to taking forward recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. This must go hand in hand with reforms to children’s social care, putting children’s experiences and voices at the heart of the system and ensuring they feel able to confide in the adults they trust to protect them, who in turn will be supported to keep them safe. I look forward to seeing the full details of these proposals.”

This announcement will place Grooming Gangs and Child Exploitation firmly on the national agenda and is a huge step in the right direction to protecting children and young women from the risk of exploitation. It is so important that momentum isn’t lost and that the much-needed changes are implemented with vigour and without delay.

Written by Zoe Butt. Zoe is a Partner at Ridley & Hall Solicitors and specialises in cases involving child exploitation where Children’s Services have become involved.

Zoe Butt – Partner & Solicitor