Child exploitation
Child exploitation refers to the use of children for someone else’s advantage, gratification or profit often resulting in unjust, cruel and harmful treatment of the child. These activities are to the detriment of the child’s physical or mental health, education, moral or social-emotional development. It covers situations of manipulation, misuse, abuse, victimisation, oppression or ill-treatment. Source: Save the Children
What to do if you think a child is at risk of exploitation
Immediate danger
If you think a child is in immediate danger, call the police on 999.
Immediate concern
The Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) is the front door to Children’s Social Care for all child protection and immediate safeguarding concerns. If there is an immediate safeguarding concern where a child is deemed at risk or has potentially suffered significant harm, the MASH team should be contacted immediately on 0345 050 7666 during office hours (8.30am – 5pm, Monday to Thursday, 8.30am – 4pm, Friday)
Outside office hours call the Emergency Duty Team on 0800 833 408
Before making a referral
Before you complete a MASH referral form you must have read the Threshold of needs in reference to the case. You should also have completed the Child Exploitation Screening Tool, see below.
You will need to have:
- decided the level of risk related to the case
- determined it to be level 3 or 4
- inform the parents or carers using the MASH leaflet (pdf format, 154Kb) (unless informing parents/carers may increase the risk)
- consider if the child or young person’s needs can be met by services from within your own agency, or by other professionals involved with the family already
The Youth Justice & Exploitation Service are a multi-agency service made up of youth justice, social workers, Police, Health, Probation and Education. Our practitioners work holistically with children, families, and partners to assess, plan and deliver tailored interventions to reduce the risk of offending and exploitation.
The principle aims of the youth justice and exploitation service are to:
- Prevent youth crime
- Reduce the number of first-time entrants to the system
- Reduce re-offending
- Reduce the number of young people within the youth secure estate
- Safeguard young people from harm
- Protect the public from harm
- Repair the harm caused by youth crime
In line with the Youth Justice Board’s “child first” ethos we are very mindful of language to reduce stigmatization and labelling. We do not use language such as “offender” and rehabilitative and restorative principles are at the heart of our practice, which is why we use the term ‘justice’ in our name instead.
Exploitation Social Work
Our social workers work with children and families to assess, plan and deliver interventions that reduce the risks around exploitation and harm to children outside of their family home. We use holistic, ‘Contextual Safeguarding’ approaches and work closely with children, parents/carers and key partners to do this. This is a statutory function of the service and we work with children and families across a range of planning frameworks from Child in Need, Child Protection through to legal proceedings if a child needs to come into the care of the Local Authority. The primary aims of this work are to safeguard children and families, disrupt and enforce against exploiters of children and divert children away from exploitation by building on their strengths, interests and skills. The service is developing the following projects:
- Parenting Group to support parents of exploited children
- Weapons Awareness Group
- 1:1 and Group Mentoring
For further information on the service, please visit Oxfordshire County Council’s Youth Justice and Exploitation Service webpage