Blair Keltie, Service Manager for Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and Missing Children, will deliver a presentation on the reality of CSE and a discussion on how it should be tackled in Wiltshire.
Minutes:
Blair Keltie, Service Manager for Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and Missing Children at Wiltshire Council, was in attendance to provide a presentation on CSE within Wiltshire.
Blair Keltie had been appointed in November 2014 as CSE Manager to develop a dedicated CSE team. A definition of CSE was provided to those present. Central government had defined adolescents as those between 10 and 18 years of age.
The role of Blair’s team was to guard young people who were noted as typically taking risks, and as such needed to be guarded when doing this. Many young people were explained as being in loving relationships, when in fact those relationships were abusive.
One problem which needed to be tackled was the fact that young people rarely divulged information to others, which made reaching a conviction difficult.
It was explained by Blair that CSE was taking place in the Malmesbury community area, and was not a new incident. People’s understandings of CSE were new instead.
The CSE abuse models were explained to the Area Board. Organised exploitation and trafficking were explained as run by criminal gangs for profit. The “boyfriend” model was described as a form of abuse from older boyfriends, demonstrated through grooming that led to sexual exploitation and violence. The “inappropriate relationship” model involved one abuser with inappropriate control over a young person. Wiltshire was noted as only having incidents of the “boyfriend” and “inappropriate relationship” models.
Common indicators of CSE included: repeated and high incidents of missing from home; secretive use and ownership of multiple mobile phones; entering into stranger’s cars; older friendship groups; and possession of unexplained money and unaffordable gifts.
The CSE Team worked closely with the Missing Children Team. A total of 117 missing children reports had been received in June, this was noted as a significant number which required following up.
Awareness of CSE signs needed to be raised amongst youths, as many young people did not realise that they were victims. The CSE team worked closely with police in a multi-agency safeguarding hub where the CSE team first worked with young people to help them understand, and then worked with the police to achieve a prosecution.
Pro-active steps available to the CSE team were described. The team are able to visit older men and ask why they are in a relationship with a younger person. Those present were encouraged to be more confident with reporting to the police someone in their community that they are concerned about. Blair Keltie explained that he was happy to work with Local Youth Networks, as they knew where the young people were active in communities.
Blair also explained that community areas were able help with regards to CSE through considering it as a potential issue during any planning processes, or through partaking in an online training course. Blair was available to provide half-day training courses.
Other examples of pro-active steps that could be taken within the community to help prevent CSE and raise awareness were given. Raising awareness within the community was noted as contributing to the safeguarding of children. This included agencies, professionals, public mindfulness of CSE, and being aware of warning signs. Taxi drivers and hoteliers were noted as important in this awareness.
A question was asked on the issue of video games being used as a gateway for CSE, such as blogs and forums. It was noted that games could be a common tool for grooming, which wasn’t isolated to social networks.
It was asked if there was a link between the CSE Team and schools. It was noted that there was a need to educate schools, pupils, and students so that they understood what an abusive relationship was. The team’s work centred on helping to enable a successful prosecution.
Those with concerns were directed to a list of numbers online (http://www.wiltshirelscb.org/contact-us-updated) and to contact local police.