EFFORTS to tackle child sexual exploitation across the West have received a boost after more than £1 million national funding was awarded for a new innovative cross-border response to the issue.  

The move will see a new service launched across Avon and Somerset and Wiltshire which will help identify and support victims of child sexual exploitation.  

CSE is a form of child abuse in which victims are manipulated or forced into taking part in a sexual act often in return for attention, affection, money, drugs, alcohol or accommodation.

This innovative project will be the first multi-agency, cross-border service to reduce the risk of young people becoming victims of CSE, ensure consistent and integrated services are available to support very vulnerable young victims and to support organisations  to share information to disrupt crime.  

The service was the subject of a bid to the Home Office Innovation Fund by the local Police and Crime Commissioners and supported by both police forces and partners across the Avon and Somerset and Wiltshire areas which include:

  • Local Authorities  
  • Clinical Commissioning Groups 
  • Safeguarding Children’s Boards
  • Barnardo’s  

More than £2 million will be made available for the project over the next two years which includes a total of £900,000 from both PCCs, local authorities across the area and Barnardo’s, together with £1.2m from the Home Office.  

The new service will see the police, local authorities, health agencies and voluntary organisations work together to tackle CSE in a number of ways including the introduction of specialist workers to work alongside professionals, share information and best practice, raise awareness of CSE and increase training for professionals. A specialist multi-agency risk assessment conference for CSE cases will be introduced.  

Speaking about the new service, Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens said: “This is a positive step forward which will allow us to become better at identifying the hidden children being exploited and give them the support they need to understand they’ve been exploited and to cope and recover from their experience.

"It’s an issue which can only be tackled together and with different agencies working even more closely in partnership with each other we can make a real difference.”