Barnardo's wants child sex grooming plan

Monday, 17 January 2011 12:00 AM

By Alex Stevenson

Children's charity Barnardo's has called for a "national plan" tackling child sexual exploitation.

New chief executive Anne Marie Carrie wants education secretary Michael Gove to appoint a minister to take charge of the issue.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre is already investigating the issue, but Ms Carrie fears without a minister in charge the issue is being sidelined.

"The children at the heart of this crime have been forgotten as discussion has focused on the ethnicity of perpetrators in high profile cases," she said.

"Barnardo's knows that sexual exploitation is going on in every town and city in the UK and child victims continue to go unidentified as tell-tale signs are overlooked due to a lack of awareness that stretches from frontline children's services to the corridors of Whitehall."

The children's charity worked with over 1,000 sexually exploited girls and boys in 2010. It says trafficking is becoming more common and grooming more sophisticated.

Younger children are increasing at risk, Barnardo's claims, saying the average age of its service users has fallen from 15 to 13. Some are now aged just ten years old.

Ms Carrie wants to improve early identification of child sexual exploitation and ensure that ways of dealing with victims are clearer within public services.

The call comes in a year which has already seen two men jailed in Derby for grooming and abusing a number of teenage girls.

"Child sexual exploitation is an appalling crime - it is a form of child sexual abuse and must not be tolerated," a Department for Education spokesperson said.

"This is a complex problem and we are determined to tackle it effectively by working collaboratively right across government and with national and local agencies."

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