Child Sexual Exploitation – the pipe dream

I have been meaning to find some time to blog about Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), the recent Oxford case and other cases, such as Rochdale, rightly causing outrage and disbelief amongst all those but the most battle weary Child Protection professionals.

It’s my belief (and the belief of most professionals working in this area) that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Currently the Thames Valley Police are investigating the most cases of ‘street’ or ‘party’ grooming of any police force. But that doesn’t mean that other areas of country haven’t got just as many grooming rings.

It’s an emotive subject and there are many forms of exploitation and grooming, all of them difficult for statutory agencies to deal with; ‘street’ and ‘party’ grooming being probably the most difficult. These difficulties arise because the issue of CSE doesn’t sit comfortably with one agency. For instance, the police require a complainant to prosecute the perpetrators – and the victims of grooming rarely complain! Also, Social Care can manage any resulting child protection issues, but struggle to manage a situation where there are no other child protection issues for the family of the victim, finding it difficult to directly disrupt or monitor perpetrators effectively.

So how can statutory agencies disrupt, prosecute or at the very least make things difficult for perpetrators and how can agencies support victims of CSE? I don’t believe new legislation is required, although some of the legislation around under age sex and exploitation does need to be looked at. I do think the answer is to create a targeted service or group that has seconded personnel from at least the police, licensing, housing, health, social care and education. The aim of that multi-agency group would be to monitor and track known offenders, raid ‘hot’ spots, monitor and support victims and their families and to gather intelligence to build cases against perpetrators.

This multi-agency matrix approach would go a long way to addressing the current deficiencies in tackling the issue of grooming and CSE. The question is, who is going to make it happen?

Review: pearltrees and Evernote

Kip McGrath Professional Tutoring Leeds

Here are recommendations for two online services or cloud services I am using at the moment. Under review for about 6 weeks, pearltrees is new to me but I’ve been using Evernote for a couple of years. Both are great for everyday use but there are particular ways they are good for teachers and tutors and for students.

pearltrees (Free or Premium is $44 a year)

Well Done!

Pearltrees showed up on StumbleUpon quite a few times over the last year or so. At first I ignored it but now I’m an enthusiastic user. It is a curation or collection tool in some ways similar to Pinterest or Scoop.it. For me it’s likely to replace my bookmarks bar.

As a tutor, there are several things I love about pearltrees. Firstly, like Evernote, it is a web based application and can be accessed from multiple devices as it syncs across…

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Maslow’s pipe dream

Friday’s incredible tough day at work, made me reflect on the need for all of us to revisit Maslow theory of self-actualisation. When most of the children I have the pleasure to work with don’t even manage to have their basic needs met, how can we expect them to become adults who reach self-actualisation?

On Friday, when most people were having their well earned after work pint, a colleague and I were dealing with 2 young people who didn’t even make it onto the physiological level of Maslow’s hierarchy, never mind the Safety level (see the diagram).

My work usually involves working with colleagues and young people at the Safety level of the theory. If Maslow’s theory is correct, which most people believe it to be, why do most organisations fail to provide for their staff, clients, patients, customers and students at this level? Whilst demanding that they operate at least at the Esteem level.

Safeguarding is generally not that highly regarded a profession, an after thought in most organisations, or at best a necessary annoyance. Just remember though that, if those in your organisation that do the Safeguarding, are to be successful they need to operate right at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy; in self-actualisation. Look after them and they will look after you and your children…