Buckinghamshire County Council has agreed a raft of new measures to tackle child sexual exploitation (CSE).
Cabinet members have backed the majority of recommendations made by a council scrutiny body, which carried out a lengthy review of practices across all organisations working with children and young people in Buckinghamshire.
Recommendations from the report by the Children's Social Care and Learning Select Committee include the development of a toolkit for use in schools, to help schools foster resilience in children from an early age.
During the course of the CSE inquiry, scrutiny committee members heard from a range of professionals engaged in the fight against child sexual exploitation – and from those directly affected by CSE, including the parent of a victim and survivors of child sexual exploitation.
Scrutiny Committee chairman Val Letheren told council cabinet members the inquiry was “one of the most difficult pieces of work” she had undertaken in her long career as a councillor.
Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Lin Hazell, said:
“Cabinet was very happy to take on the recommendations in the Select Committee’s inquiry report.
“This was an important and wide ranging review, which will help combat the evil menace of child sexual exploitation.
“The safety of our children is paramount – and we need to do as much as we possibly can to keep them away from the sexual predators who destroy young lives.
“Victims of child sexual exploitation just don’t see themselves as victims until much later in life, so we need to work on their behalf to keep child sexual exploitation at top of everyone’s agenda.”
Council Leader Martin Tett stressed to cabinet that tackling child sexual exploitation was a top priority for the council:
“I hear people say it doesn’t happen here – it happens everywhere, quite frankly,” Councillor Tett said.
“It has to remain one of our top priorities – it’s a blot and a shame on our country that this exploitation goes on,” he added.
The only one of the ten recommendations not to be given full backing by cabinet was the suggestion that the council should commission a service to provide support to parents of victims.
Members were told that work goes on with families at present, but it was not practical to set up a dedicated service, particularly within current budget constraints.
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