This article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/21/child-risk-sex-exploitation-gang in my view has less clarity than clarity.
The headline says "45 children a day at risk from sexual exploitation by gangs".
Are these in addition to those children who are being exploited?
Are these in addition to those children not being exploited?
Are these in addition to those children not being exploited by gangs?
Are these the same 45 children per day?
Is it 45 different children per day?
Are they exploited one day and then it stops?
"Local authorities, police forces and health professionals are ignoring warning
signs displayed by at-risk teenagers, who are too often seen as problematic or
complicit in their own abuse,"
"As many as 16,500 children were identified as being at "high risk" of sexual
exploitation – displaying three or more warning signs including running away
from home, drug or alcohol misuse and criminality."
So in the whole article the only information we are told is "displaying three or more warning signs including running away from home, drug or alcohol misuse and criminality".
So rather than using the article clearly detailing what practitioners are meant to be doing it, how we the public can help, how to spot the signs, what to do when we do see the signs; it justs goes on and on about such children being at risk, how more can be done, without saying what can be done.
This is so weird!!!!!
So The Guardian is clearly not an agent to help reduce this, even though clearly we are all meant to wake up to this problem.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/social-care-network/2012/nov/21/protect-children-effectively-childrens-commission
This article does begin to suggest how children can be protected:
So what do we need to do to protect children? What are the essentials of an
effective system?
• Respect what children and young people say – abuse is invariably about the
abuse of power within an established relationship. The bias of the system must
therefore facilitate and encourage children to share their concerns. This
applies especially to vulnerable children who are frequently ignored or
stereotyped. Young offenders are particularly vulnerable and their allegations
frequently ignored, as recent media examples have shown.
• Make safeguarding everybody's business – we must all be alert to the
concerns of children and young people and cannot leave everything to specialist
agencies.
• Focus on the child's needs and the family's situation. Family lives are not
divided arbitrarily between the agencies and the structures we have created.
Agencies must work together to provide safe ways to help children and family
members, in ways which also make sense to them.
• Work together and share information – no child died because information was
shared.
• Enforce a clear structure for joint working between public agencies within
each locality and across local boundaries. Effective management of all crises
requires a predetermined set of procedures and organisational relationships.
Child protection investigations and management of chronic child maltreatment are
no different. It is sadly the case that organisations do not tend to work
instinctively in partnership unless there is a clear and mandatory framework
which supports this approach and requires co-operation.
• Apply learning from research, formal inquiries and past evidence about
practice.
• Create a culture of respect within agencies – respect for parents and
children – and also for staff. Ensure practice guidance is clear, coherent,
consistent, legal, accessible and comprehensible. It must allow space for
judgement and creativity but also provide a sufficiently coherent framework for
co-operation between practitioners in the many different agencies involved. A
culture of staff bullying by management reduces effectiveness and increases risk
for children.
• Recognise this all costs money and needs professionals with time, skills
and support.
