What are the service outcomes for criminally exploited children? A case study of criminally exploited children’s service journeys in two local authorities in Wales

Background

There are no exact figures regarding the number of criminally exploited young people in Wales. This is due to inconsistencies in how criminal exploitation is defined and variations in service responses across sectors. This means that some children go undetected while others are criminalised rather than safeguarded (HMICFRS, 2020; Children’s Society, 2019).

Recent research findings have highlighted challenges in identifying, engaging and supporting criminally exploited children safely away from exploitative relationships (Maxwell and Wallace, 2021). Firmin (2018) has revealed limitations in the extent to which existing systems were designed to address extrafamilial harm. This is compounded by the nature of child criminal exploitation as children may not present as stereotypical “victims” and may resist engaging with professionals due to fear of violent repercussions to themselves and their families (Bonning and Cleaver, 2020, Shaw and Greenhow, 2020).

According to the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner for England (2020) ‘the current system is not working…we need to look at this urgently to ensure we are supporting these children to a safer future’.

Aims

This project will examine the referral routes, service approaches, interventions and education, health, social care and offending outcomes for criminally exploited children in two local authorities.

The research questions are:

• What are the referral pathways for criminally exploited children?
• What are the service pathways for criminally exploited children? What factors influence professional decision-making regarding service provision?
• What are the education, health, social care and offending outcomes associated with different service pathways?
• To what extent can existing secondary data sources be linked with administrative datasets to capture data about criminally exploited children?

Public involvement

The project aims to create detailed case studies of criminally exploited young people’s lived experiences of service pathways, provision and outcomes five years prior to referral acceptance and up to 2 years after. Young people will be identified through case file analysis from children’s services and youth offending teams in two local authorities. This data will be linked to education, health and social care datasets to provide a visual representation of children’s journeys through services and interventions at the individual and group levels.

In order to understand their journeys and experiences, young people with lived experience of criminal exploitation will be involved in the project as peer researchers. They will contribute to the development of research tools aimed at capturing young people’s views and experiences of service provision and case examples that can be used to identify the factors that influence professional decision-making.

Dissemination

Detailed case studies and chronologies of criminally exploited children will provide insight into their referral routes and service provision, with the aim of improving service delivery and support. Project findings will be shared using a range of dissemination tools including, newsletters, reports, articles and workshops in order to reach policymakers, child welfare professionals and managers, young people and parents, and academic audiences. Project findings will be available on the Complex Safeguarding Wales website following its launch in Spring 2022.