Childrens commissioner’s interim report published

Posted by Mark Raw in Childcare Industry

The long awaited Childrens commissioner’s interim report from the ongoing 2 year enquiry on child sexual exploitation in the UKas been published on the 21^st November, with the final report scheduled for publishing in autumn 2013.

http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/press_release/content_486

Maggie Atkinson, the Children’s Commissioner for England, said:

“This report is a wake-up call.  Each and every one of us owes it to all victims to be vigilant, to listen and to act to stop the sexual exploitation of children. Identifying the warning signs listed in the report is the first step to identifying and protecting children.

“We welcome the increase in awareness of child sexual exploitation and the progress agencies have made in their approaches to tackling the issue.  However, much still needs to be done to prevent exploitation and rescue child victims.”

The report goes further to give the factual account of individuals about their experiences and being coerced and embroiled in CSE at different levels.  For me it’s the different levels that have being highlighted that should cause us the concerns with our own children and those in our care. 

The gangs and gang culture involved in this practice are for some a new area that was not though about before and should make some parents take further action to protect their children from their supposed fiends and even more reasons to bring in stronger laws to help manage the gang culture in major cities up and down the country.

Professor Jenny Pearce, University of Bedfordshire goes on to say in the report “Our interviews with children living in gang affected neighbourhoods across England leave us shocked by the extreme levels of sexual violence that are assumed to be inevitable in the everyday lives of the children concerned.  Evidence shows routine serious sexual assault of girls for whom saying ‘no’ is not an option because they are threatened and forced into sex.  Although boys needed prompting to talk, they spoke about sex being used as both intimidation and humiliation between boys who are in conflict with each other. 

The report covers the expected areas supplying statistical facts towards the race creeds & ethnic cultures and ages which allow you to draw your own conclusions with some statistics that would surprise you, of the 1514 identified perpetrators, 545 were classified as white, 514 Asian and 244 black.  The remaining 211 were classes as unknown (which is somewhat a concern).

Children and young people Now magazine has a good article that demonstrates the various important statistics.  http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1075410/inquiry-identifies-thousands-victims-sexual-exploitation?utm_content=&utm_campaign=211112_Daily&utm_source=Children%20%26%20Young%20People%20Now&utm_medium=adestra_email&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cypnow.co.uk%2Fcyp%2Fnews%2F1075410%2Finquiry-identifies-thousands-victims-sexual-exploitation

What I find most disappointing is that, not only has the exploitation of children been going on for years, as the TV is keen to now point out all the old figure heads children used to look up to are being questioned 20-30 years later. 

In this day and age when we are so much more aware of signs, professionals and parents and others that work with children.  We should be much more pro active at stopping this from starting and dealing with things when we are too late, but at times I see that with children in care it quite often boils back down to lazy staff, poor relationships with staff and poorly staffed homes that don’t do enough to stop this before it’s too late and the young person is lost to the perpetrators. 

We has responsible adults and provider of services essentially based on a moral code to what right for the young person, should not be too scared to say that at times the best solution is to move the young person out of the area and allow a fresh start away from the pull and possibility of seeing their perpetrators again.  All too often, I see and hear of children placed in house or in the same area as they were experiencing the exploitation that they can never really escape it and just live in fear.

That said I’m not too naive to think it does not happen to other children from all walks of life from those in poverty and need through to those with expensive private education all are targets, it just that the methods are different.