Child Sexual Exploitation

Any child or young person may be at risk of sexual exploitation, regardless of their family background or other circumstances. Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) occurs in all communities and amongst all social groups. 

Perpetrators may be adults who are known to the child or young person they can be family members or extended family members. Or adults who are not known to them who groom and target children for the purpose of sexual exploitation. 

Part of the cycle of CSE can be adults further groom the child or young person to bring other children and into their circle, for the purpose of CSE (See SPB Organised and Complex Abuse). All practitioners should work on the basis that this is happening in their area of practice.

CSE causes significant harm to children and young people, including significant damage to their physical and mental health and has lifelong impact into their adult lives. It can have profound and damaging consequences for their family, including siblings (who may also be at risk of abuse).

CSE involves:

"Forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including assault by penetration (for example, rape or oral sex) or non-penetrative acts such as masturbation, kissing, rubbing and touching outside of clothing. They may also include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images, watching sexual activities, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse. Sexual abuse can take place online, and technology can be used to facilitate offline abuse. Adult males do not solely perpetrate Sexual abuse. Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children" - Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018. 

CSE takes many different forms. It can include contact and non-contact sexual activities and can occur online or in person, or a combination of each. It occurs where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into sexual activity (a) in exchange for something the victim needs or wants, and/or (b) for the financial advantage or increased status of the perpetrator or facilitator. The victim may have been sexually exploited even if the sexual activity appears consensual. CSE does not always involve physical contact; it can also occur through the use of technology (Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018).

What marks out CSE from other forms of child sexual abuse is the presence of some form of exchange, for the victim and/or perpetrator or facilitator. It is critical to remember the unequal power dynamic within which this exchange occurs and to remember that the receipt of something by a child/young person does not make them any less of a victim. It is also important to note that the prevention of something negative happening can also fulfil the requirement for exchange.

The perpetrator always holds some kind of power over the victim, increasing the dependence of the victim as the exploitative relationship develops. Whilst age may be the most obvious factor, this power imbalance can also be due to a range of other factors including gender, sexual identity, intellect, physical strength, status and access to economic or other resources.

CSE is never the victim's fault. Even if there is some form of exchange: all children and young people under the age of 18 have a right to be safe and should be protected from harm irrespective of the level of communication and exchange between the child or young person and the perpetrator.

See also Child Sexual Exploitation: Definition and Guide for Practitioners (DfE 2017). This advice is non-statutory and has been produced to help practitioners to identify CSE and take appropriate action in response. This advice includes the management, disruption and prosecution of perpetrators.

CSE has links with other forms of crime, for example, domestic violence and abuse, online and offline grooming, the distribution of abusive images of children, criminal exploitation and child trafficking. The perpetrators of CSE are often well organised and may use sophisticated and opportunistic tactics to gain access to children. They may target areas where children and young people gather, use parties to create networks for abuse or use technology to organise both online and offline abuse.

Children and young people can be moved from one place to another to be sexually exploited. They may also be sexually exploited by people with whom they feel they have a relationship, e.g. a boyfriend / girlfriend. In these circumstances there may be an overlap with other forms of abuse, and practitioners should decide on the best way to work with the child to keep them safe.

When working with children who are being sexually exploited, it is important to consider who else in their circle of contacts (including siblings) who may also be at risk.

When children experience, or are at risk of, CSE the relationship between their needs and vulnerabilities, the harm they are experiencing, and the risk posed by the abuser/abusers can create a dynamic and complex situation for the child and the practitioner. It is important that practitioners receive the supervision, support and training required to work with the child and that leaders and managers provide effective oversight and supervision of frontline practice who must remain professional curious.

Anyone who has regular contact with children is in a good position to notice the changes in behaviour and physical signs that may indicate involvement in CSE. It is important to try and identify children at risk of harm from CSE at the earliest opportunity to provide early intervention and provide the right help at the right time (See Statutory Guidance).

Some children may be more vulnerable. This may include children with special needs, those living away from home, leaving care, migrant children, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, victims of forced marriage, child trafficking and modern slavery and those involved in gangs. all children are potentially at risk and practitioners should be careful about making assumptions as to who the victims or perpetrators may be. Some children and young people may have additional barriers to disclosing CSE, those who identify as LGBTQ+, those from black and minority ethnic communities (BME) (See SPB Safeguarding Practice Guidance on specific topics mentioned in this chapter).

Identifying cases of CSE is a difficult task, children rarely self-report that they are being sexually exploited, and due to the nature of the grooming methods used by their abusers, often do not recognise that they are being abused. Practitioners should be aware that particularly young people aged 16 and 17 may believe themselves to be acting voluntarily and will need practitioners to work with them so they can recognise that they are being sexually exploited. Once they are being sexually exploited, threats from their abusers and fear of repercussions or being partly blamed for their own abuse can make it difficult for children and young people to seek help.

Please see NSPCC Child Sexual Exploitation & how to Keep Your Child Safe for further information on the signs and indicators of CSE, different types of sexual exploitation and the effects of CSE. 

The Department of Education Child Sexual Exploitation: Definition and Guide for Practitioners (2017) highlights how Practitioners should be aware of the key indicators of CSE. More importantly, they should also remain open to the fact that CSE can occur without any of the following risk indicators being obviously present:

• Acquisition of money, clothes, mobile phones without plausible explanation;
• Gang-association and/or isolation from peers/social networks;
• Exclusion or unexplained absences from school, college or work;
• Leaving home/care without explanation and persistently going missing or returning late;
• Excessive receipt of texts/phone calls;
• Returning home under the influence of drugs/alcohol;
• Inappropriate sexualised behaviour for age/sexually transmitted infections;
• Evidence of/suspicions of physical or sexual assault;
• Relationships with controlling or significantly older individuals or groups;
• Multiple callers (unknown adults or peers);
• Frequenting areas known for sex work;
• Concerning use of internet or other social medi
• Increasing secretiveness around behaviours;
• Self-harm or significant changes in emotional well-being.

Responding to CSE - College of Policing identifies a number of methods which are used by abusers to coerce a child:

• Giving presents – especially during the grooming phase.
• Offering food treats.
• Giving rewards such as mobile phone top-ups / credit.
• Giving the child or young person attention.
• Offering false promises of love and/or affection.
• Offering false promises of opportunities – e.g., modelling, photography, acting.
• Supplying alcohol.
• Drugs – either supplying drugs to facilitate exploitation, and/or young person being sexually exploited as a means of paying off drug debt.
• Constructing situations whereby a young person must pay off debt.
• Mental manipulation.
• Physical violence.

Many children and young people are groomed into sexually exploitative relationships. Some young people may be sexually exploited through informal economies that involve the exchange of sex for rewards such as drugs, alcohol, money, gifts or accommodation. Often young people are bullied, coerced and threatened into sexual activities by peers or gang members, and this is then used against them as a form of extortion and to keep them compliant (see SPB Domestic Abuse and Bullying).

Grooming is rarely a linear process, and the methods used by abusers will vary considerably both in the time they take to groom children and in the tactics, they use in order facilitate the abuse. Some of these methods are also used in other forms of child exploitation.

Due to the nature of the grooming methods used by abusers, it is common for children and young people who are sexually exploited not to recognise that they are being abused. 

Practitioners are advised to use tools to support their practice judgement, the Continuum of Children’s Needs and the Multi-Agency CSE Risk Tool, as a means of identifying, indicators of CSE, understanding levels of risk and the actions to take dependent on risk.  Indicators may not be exclusive to CSE and are more likely to be seen as a combination of factors. A risk is that some of the indicators may be explained by normal adolescent development and associated changes in behaviour. Others may be explained by other types of abuse, and neglect, the child may be going missing and this may also include the child is being criminally exploited (see SPB Jersey Children who go Missing from Home and Places of Education). 

The young person's voice must be central to the assessment, and this should capture the lived experiences of the child, and take account of their context, their gender, ethnicity and culture.

The presence of a number of indicators should prompt questions around the possibility of CSE, practitioners should remain open to the potential for other explanations and be curious about what is happening in the child's world. Children will often demonstrate their distress through external behaviours as a way of communicating to the outside world that something is wrong.

Practitioners must listen to what children and young people say and be aware of what children and young people may be “trying to say” in their behaviours (See Respecting and Capturing the Voice of the Child Procedure). All practitioners must work to understand, where possible, the wishes and feelings of children and young people, (taking into account their age, capacity and disability). 

Sometimes, this distress may be displayed through aggressive, harmful or challenging behaviour in school or at home including, running away, misusing substances or displaying harmful sexual behaviour. Young people's offending behaviour should be understood in the context of wider issues and experiences, such as previous abuse or trauma, which may include experiences of being subject to CSE and/or exploiting other children. Practitioners should work in a trauma way and be trained in methods of practice which support trauma informed practice such as the Trauma Recovery Model. 

A child cannot consent to their own abuse (see SPB Children’s Sexual Development, Consent and Risks). It is important to understand:

• A child under the age of 13 is not legally capable of consenting to sex (it is statutory rape) or any other type of sexual touching.
• Sexual activity with a child under 16 is an offence.
• It is an offence for a person to have a sexual relationship with a 16 or 17 year old if they hold a position of trust or authority in relation to them.
• Where sexual activity with a 16 or 17 year old does not result in an offence being committed, it may still result in harm, or the likelihood of harm being suffered.
• Non-consensual sex is rape whatever the age of the victim.
• If the victim is incapacitated through drink or drugs, or the victim or their family has been subject to violence or the threat of it, they cannot be considered to have given true consent therefore offences may have been committed.
• CSE is therefore potentially a child protection issue for all children under the age of 18 years and not just those in a specific age group.

Practitioners must also consider other factors which might influence the ability of the person to give consent, e.g. learning disability / mental ill health.

Although young people may sometimes appear to be making an informed choice, they cannot and do not 'choose' abuse or exploitation. Recognising the underlying factors that can exacerbate risk will help practitioners understand and interpret apparent 'choices' and avoid the danger of apportioning blame.

Please see the Sexual Offences (Jersey) Law 2018 for more information.

Parents, carers and anyone in a position of responsibility with a child should also know how to monitor online activity and be prepared to - monitor computer usage where they are suspicious that a child is being groomed online.

Online CSE (see SPB Jersey Safeguarding Children from Online Abuse and Exploitation) can be particularly challenging to identify and respond to. Technology allows perpetrators to be in contact with multiple potential victims at any one time. It also offers a perception of anonymity, for both children and young people and perpetrators, making it easier to say and do things online that they would not do offline. This eases the grooming process and facilitates more rapid sexualisation of perpetrator approaches to potential victims.

Where exploitation does occur online (through the exchange of sexual communication or images, for example) these can be quickly and easily shared with others. This makes it difficult to contain the potential for further abuse and presents significant challenges around content removal. Online abuse is further complicated by the fact that it can transcend national borders.

Child on Child (also known as Peer on Peer Abuse) is any form of physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse, and coercive control exercised between children, and within children's relationships (both intimate and non-intimate), friendships, and wider peer associations.

Child on Child Abuse can take various forms, including (but not limited to): serious bullying (including cyber- bullying), relationship abuse, domestic violence and abuse, CSE, youth and serious youth violence, harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) and/or prejudice-based abuse including, but not limited to, gender-based violence (See SPB Safeguarding Practice Guidance on HSB, Bullying, Safeguarding Disabled Children and Racism).

Online child on child abuse is any form of child on child abuse with a digital element, for example, sexting, online abuse, coercion and exploitation, child on child grooming, threatening language delivered via online means, the distribution of sexualised content, and harassment." (Child on Child Abuse – A Resource for schools and colleges - Farrer & Co).

It is important to consider the context in which any child on child abuse is taking place, as this will inform the best to approach working with and supporting the child. You may need to refer to guidance on other forms of abuse such as domestic abuse and/or involvement in gangs and criminal exploitation (See SPB core procedures on Domestic Abuse and Gang activity, youth violence and criminal exploitation).

As sexual exploitation occurs within and between street gangs, where sex is used in exchange for safety, protection, drugs and simply belonging. This can result in children both experiencing CSE and being put in a position of acting in the exploitation of other children. Children who are seem as perpetrators of CSE must be viewed as children who are being exploited themselves first and foremostly. (see Children and Young People who go Missing from home or education).

A significant number of children and young people who are being sexually exploited may go Missing from home or care, and education. Some go missing frequently; the more often they go missing the more vulnerable they are to being sexually exploited or other forms of exploitation including criminal exploitation. (see SPB Chapter Children who go Missing Children from Home and Education). 

Independent Return Interviews with the child or young person can help in establishing why they went missing and the subsequent support that may be required, as well as preventing repeat incidents. Information gathered from return interviews can be used to inform the identification for Referral and Assessment of any CSE cases.

Where a child (including an unborn child) or young person presents with a health or development need) or where there is a safeguarding Need (see Statutory Guidance – Levels of Need) practitioners must:

• Follow the SPB Child Protection Procedures, the SPB Children and Young People Safeguarding Referrals Procedure;
• Refer to the Children and Families Hub (along with a Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Risk Assessment where possible);
• The CSE Risk Assessment Tool will be used to inform rather than determine practitioners’ decision making. Many young people are abused or exploited who have no obvious indicators of risk;
• In parallel (where required) refer an adult or young person with their consent to supportive domestic abuse services;
• Where a child may have been physically abused, suffered neglect or sexual abuse consideration must be given to following the Child Protection Medical Pathway and/or the Child Sexual Abuse Pathway;
• Where there is immediate risk of harm, practitioners must call the police on 999;
• The police must be notified if there has been a criminal offence;
• Where sexual exploitation is also related to a vulnerable adult, practitioners must raise a safeguarding concern with referral to the Single Point of Referral for Adults at risk of harm.

A multi-agency Strategy Meeting should be convened to consider both the child and young person’s involvement as a victim and potential perpetrator in some cases, considering any abuse and unmet needs they may have experienced themselves. The strategy meeting will consider the need for statutory intervention through Article 42 Enquiry.

Sharing Information

All CSE enquires must be passed to the Children and Families HUB. This is to ensure that all information about the young person, their associates and perpetrators can be shared leading to a full picture of the level of involvement in CSE and risks to the young person being obtained in a timely manner. 

All information that the referring agency has relating to the child or young person. Perpetrators, locations and other young people with whom the young person associates must also be included on the enquiry form.  

What to do with concerns if not sure - Whenever a practitioner is considering making a CSE enquiry on behalf of a child or young person, they may wish to discuss this with the Safeguarding Lead in their agency. If practitioners need further advice on the relevance of indicators or whether to make an enquiry about a young person, MASH can be contacted for discussion where the MASH Decision maker can offer advice and support.

The child or young person should be informed that referral is being placed and their views on this sought (where it is safe ant there is time to do so). 

Parents/carers should be viewed as partners (where safe to do so) and informed of concerns (unless the young person strongly objects to this). 

Action on Referrals 

On receipt of a referral, the Children and Families HUB will check to see if the young person has an open case to with Children Social Services. Where this is the case they will pass the enquiry and CSE risk assessment tool to the allocated social worker and their manager where they must follow the Child Sexual Exploitation Pathway for the child or young person. 

Where the young person is not known to Children Services, the case will be passed from the Children and Family Hub to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). The MASH manager will follow the Child Sexual Exploitation Pathway and allocate an initial RAG rating based on the assessed level of risk. 

For those subject to MASH process, multi-agency information will be gathered from partner agencies and passed in a time scaled manner (dependant on risk) to the MASH decision maker (see SPB Jersey Referral Procedures).  

Once information has been gathered, the MASH decision maker will refer cases on to the appropriate resource dependent on assessed risk:

• Level 1 Risk – The child or young person should be referred on to the appropriate key agency to complete a wellbeing assessment (with parental consent) and an Early Help Approach (see Statutory Guidance). There should be the offer of a targeted service designed to provide support for the child or young person to divert them from CSE. The allocated key worker making the Wellbeing Assessment will be the young person’s lead practitioner and should conduct an assessment to identify the child or young person’s needs. The lead worker should develop a practitioner network and diversion plan to help the child or young person develop their understanding around risk, build resilience and reduce the risk of them becoming further involved in CSE. The plan should be reviewed, where risk reduction should be praised and where risk increase must result in a further enquiry.
• Level 2 Risk - This is at the initial stages of involvement and risk of CSE, where there is no obvious risk of significant harm. Where the child or young person has an allocated social worker they will be the child or young person’s lead practitioner, where there will be a multi-agency Assessment of their Health and Development Needs (see Statutory Guidance, SPB Jersey Assessment) , develop a plan of care dependant on need in partnership with the young person’s practitioner network. A diversion plan should be formed and reviewed, risk reduction praised and where risk increase must result in further enquiry.
• Level 2 and level 3 Risk - where the child or young person is at a risk of harm or significant harm. The child or young person will be referred to Children Services, where consideration will be given to holding a Strategy Discussion/Meeting, the need for Article 42 Enquires and a Multi-Agency Sexual Exploitation (MASE) Meeting (See SPB Jersey Child Protection Procedures, Article 42 Enquiries).

Assessments must involve multi-agency collaborative working together with the child, young person and their parents/carers (where this does not prejudice the child’s welfare). Parents should be seen as partners, children and young people as experts in their lived experiences, (See SPB Jersey Respecting the Voice of the Child). Practitioners working with on assessing risk and protective factors should also consider their wider network in schools, friendship groups and local neighbourhoods. Assessments need to be regularly updated as children's circumstances and the risks they face can change rapidly.

Support put in place should aim to reduce the immediate risk of harm to children, as well as including longer term strategies to support their recovery and promote meaningful change. There is a difficult balance to strike between protecting the child from harm and supporting and empowering the child.

Working with sexually exploited children is a complex issue, which can involve serious crime and investigations over a wide geographical area. It is important that agencies work together and cross-reference and share information effectively when there are emerging concerns. 

The prosecution and disruption of perpetrators is an essential part of the process to reduce harm. It is the responsibility of the police to gather evidence, investigate and interview perpetrators, prepare case files for consideration by the Law Officers with the intention of obtaining successful conviction of offenders. Information gathering and sharing is essential in this process to understand local patterns to disrupt and deter perpetrators and to identify, help and protect children. 

Effective early information sharing and intelligence gathering can:

• Help build a coherent picture of risk sources and potential targets for abuse.
• Identify and support a child's needs at the earliest opportunity, reducing the duration of harm and escalation to more serious abuse.
• Help identify and understand the links between different forms of exploitation and hidden, or related, crimes.
• Identify locations being used for the purposes of exploitation.
• Identify networks or individuals who pose a risk to children.
• Provide evidence in applications to the court for civil and criminal orders.
• Enable quicker risk assessment of a potential victim of trafficking; and
• Assist in the development of effective safety plans.

Raising awareness of CSE with the wider community including parents and carers as well as public services such as transport and recreation and the business community is important and helps in developing an understanding of the local risks and patterns of offending. Schools have a crucial role in prevention by educating young people to understand the risks especially when young people are involved in developing prevention and awareness resources.

Children may be frightened of the consequences of disclosure and may need to be given time to discuss their experiences. The need to share information discreetly in a timely fashion has been shown to be vital in these cases.

 Practitioners involved with a child or young person experiencing CSE must work together where there must be multi-agency actions taken to consider disruption strategies to support the child or young person to leave the situation they find themselves in.

Many CSE cases cross police force boundaries and therefore there should be cross boundary cooperation and information sharing. This may involve Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) who can support the police by helping to coordinate crossboundary or international investigations involving child sex offender networks or in the management of high-risk offenders which may involve grooming through chat rooms and social networking sites or involvement with paedophile rings.

Help must be provided in a timely, flexible and ongoing manner. Children and their parents / carers should feel part of the solution and confident they will be believed. Practitioners need to be child focused and adopt a strengths-based, outcomes-focused approach when working with the family.

Children, young people and their parents can self-refer and will be offered support from Dewberry House, the islands sexual abuse referral centre, (SARC) Dewberry House at any point. Children and Young people, and their families do not need to make a complaint to the police to access support from this service. 

The Child

When specific concerns are identified about CSE it is vital that children and young people receive the services they need, delivered in a way that recognises the complexity of their situation and maximises the likelihood of engagement.

The support / interventions needed will vary according to the individual child/young person and could encompass preventative / resilience building work or recovery-based interventions.

Work with children and young people who are at risk of or have experienced CSE needs to be managed in a sensitive and understanding way.

Where children and young people should be involved in decisions about their care, protection and on-going support and be kept informed on any issues that affect them.

Some children and young people will not see themselves as victims, nor want support or intervention. If this is not approached with sensitivity and understanding of the victim’s viewpoint, they may be further isolated from the help they need.

Building positive relationships and trust with victims is an essential part of helping to reduce the risk of harm and creating safe spaces for disclosure. Many victims are only able to disclose after the provision of support, months or even years down the line.

Support services should offer young people persistent, consistent and assertive support that reaches out to them. Young people need to know and experience the tenacity of someone who is genuinely concerned for them. This means continuing to try to engage them even if they turn support down or display negative behaviours to practitioners trying to support them.

If the child continues to have contact with the perpetrator, this should not be misinterpreted as an informed choice or an indication of absence of harm or rejection of support but recognised as part of the complex power dynamic of the abusive relationship, like that in some situations of domestic violence and abuse.

Services should be non-judgemental, and it is important to avoid language or actions that inadvertently contribute to children being ascribed responsibility or blame. Abusers cause CSE not by the behaviours of children. Abuse does not occur because of a child or young person’s vulnerability or actions. It occurs because there is someone who is willing to take advantage of this vulnerability.

Support and services put in place need to be coordinated across all agencies, and it can be helpful to ask the child to identify a key practitioner who is known and trusted by them and who can be the main point of contact. All support plans must build upon the resources and strengths available to a young person including an understanding of the risks and protective factors in schools, peer groups and local neighbourhoods.

It is important to understand the impact of abuse and trauma on children and young people and the need to work at their pace. Children need to feel confident that they can be protected from harm and that there is a future for them beyond the abuse. There are no quick fixes. Practitioners must avoid making assumptions about the child and their needs.

They may not be ready yet to engage with therapeutic or educational interventions.

Where criminal proceedings are ongoing, special consideration must be given to managing the support required for a victim and their family before and during the court process.

Victim First Jersey can lead on this work (please see further information below).

Parents and Carers

In cases of CSE the risk of harm to children is external or in the community. Parents and carers are often traumatised and under severe stress.

Family members (including siblings) can themselves suffer serious threats of abuse, intimidation and assault at the hands of perpetrators.

Where assessment shows it is safe and appropriate to do so, parents and families should be regarded as a part of the solution. If they are not a source of risk, parents and carers (and children and young people's wider support networks) offer an especially important protective resource.

Parents and carers are usually the people who spend most time with their children, know them best, love them and are invested in their well-being.

Practitioners should adopt a strengths-based approach and seek to engage parents as safeguarding partners, empowering them about how to support and protect their child and working with them to enhance protective factors around the child or young person. This might include:

• Helping parents to strengthen their relationships with their children, particularly in understanding teenage development and what makes their child vulnerable.
• Helping parents to obtain a better understanding of CSE including the different forms abuse, the grooming process, online abuse etc.).
• Helping parents to understand how their children may respond to trauma and the behaviours they display.
• Being non-judgemental and respectful.
• Giving parents and carers enough information to help them to protect their children.
• Enabling and empowering parents (for example, let them know what type of information to record about suspects and how to share this with the police and Children's Social Care).
• Consider whether there are any barriers to prevent parents accessing support.

Be mindful when organising the planning of meetings and explain to them the processes and outcomes. This also applies to police investigations.  

The police and criminal justice agencies lead on the identification and prosecution of perpetrators. All practitioners, however, have a role in gathering, recording and sharing information with the police and other agencies, as appropriate and in agreement with them. 

It is important to recognise that legal representatives supporting both Police and Children’s Services undertake specialist training in respect of CSE. 

The collation of intelligence is important and the definition of specific areas as ‘hotspots’ for trained observation will assist enquiries and prevention. Areas that attract young people but are less regulated than formally organised spaces. Any area that has a concentration of fastfood outlets and takeaways, taxi facilities, cinema, leisure centre, restaurants, shopping malls, parks is a potential area of recruitment. Any area that has high levels of runaway activity needs to be mapped as a hotspot. Similarly, probation services need to map areas of employment for known offenders, if patterns of employment arise in these areas this intelligence needs to be forwarded and shared with other agencies. 

It is important that intelligence systems around Missing Persons (MISPERS) and CSE are interlinked within all organisations. 

Practitioners and foster carers should bear in mind that sexual exploitation often does not occur in isolation and has links to other crime types, including:

• Child trafficking (into, out of and within the UK).
• Domestic Violence and Abuse.
• Sexual violence in intimate relationships.
• Grooming (both online and offline).
• Abusive images of children and their distribution (organised abuse).
• Organised sexual abuse of children.
• Drugs-related offences (dealing, consuming and cultivating).
• Gang-related activity.
• Immigration-related offences.
• Domestic servitude.

Young people need to have access to supportive practitioners or agencies to support them through court processes if prosecutions are to be successful. Consideration of the best service to provide this is essential. 

Victims will be allocated to a Sexual Offences Liaison Officer and where there will also be an officer in charge of the case.

Children and young people who require the support of independent advocacy. 

Victim First Jersey will offer additional support and the allocated Sexual Offences Liaison

Officer, the officer in charge of the case and Victims First Jersey will work in partnership to support the victim and identify any special measures they may require. Child witnesses, who are not victims will also be supported by the police and Victim First Jersey. 

A young person will not be deterred from accessing pre-trial therapy as this could ensure their emotional wellbeing through a court hearing. A pre court familiarisation visit will take place and all aspects of cross examination will be explained. Interviews need to be in accordance with ABE guidelines and undertaken by ABE trained staff.

Staff throughout the justice system need to be familiar with child sexual exploitation and the impact this can have on children’s health, wellbeing and development into adulthood. If a young person is involved in statutory legal proceedings because of or in addition to criminal proceedings, the impact of CSE upon the child’s needs must be considered. Given the complexity this may add to any proceedings the child needs to have independent legal advice within statutory proceedings and this will be authorised by the courts. 

Practitioners should have access to regular Internal agency safeguarding supervision.

Agencies should consider multi-agency reflective supervision where cases are complex, stuck or drifting. 

Professional challenge should be welcomed and partnership working depends on resolving professional difference and conflict as soon as possible.  Where staff experience professional differences, they must follow the SPB Resolving Professional Difference/Escalation Policy.

Crime Stoppers

States of Jersey Police

Jersey Domestic and Sexual Abuse Support (JDAS)

Jersey Action Against Rape (JAAR)

Freeda (Free from Domestic Abuse)

SPB Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategy

Sexual Offences (Jersey) Law 2018

Child Sexual Exploitation: Definition and Guide for Practitioners (DfE, February 2017) - definition and a guide for practitioners, local leaders and decision makers working to protect children from child sexual exploitation. 

Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse

Barnardo’s - Child Sexual Exploitation – resources and research on CSE.

Child sexual exploitation: Practice Tool (2017) (open access) - further background information about child sexual exploitation and additional commentary around some of the complexities of practically responding to the issue.

Early Intervention Foundation – Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: Understanding risk and vulnerability

Modern slavery and human trafficking

Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation: Progress Report - gives an update on action the government is taking to deal with child sexual exploitation.

Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation: A Resource Pack for Councils - includes case studies.

Responding to Child Sexual Exploitation – College of Policing

Child Sexual Abuse – The Children’s Commissioner

Victim and Witness Charter Standards of Care for Victims and Witnesses in the Criminal Justice System