The goal of Barnardos is to achieve better outcomes for more children. Barnardos already have close partnership working arrangements with the community safety and criminal justice services operating around the exploitation of children in Cleveland through Local Authority funded exploitation workers.
This funding for a co-located member of Barnardos staff working within the Cleveland Police Complex Exploitation Team (CET) builds on the pilot delivered over the last two years – initially funded through the Child Sexual Abuse Transformation Fund and more recently (2022/23) through Project ADDER.
Aim of the role
The aim of the role is to support and enhance existing Barnardos exploitation services by:
- Working closely with the CET team, providing support submitting safer referrals
- Linking in with Barnardo’s exploitation services across the Tees Valley to promote Cross
- Boundary working and to share information about hotspots/places of interest/persons of interest and exploitation case work
- Creating closer working relationships with Social Care Services and other agencies to promote working together to disrupt exploitation
- Assisting the CET team during home visits to build trusted working relationships with children, young people and carers during investigations linked to grooming/CSE/CCE/abuse
- Ensuring the CET Team are informed in ‘Relationship Based Practice’
- Providing information, support and guidance to parents, carers and professionals on grooming and exploitation.
- Providing 1-to-1 support sessions to children and young people, with whom the CET team work
- Supporting Police Operations as and when requested. This is to ensure children and young people are effectively supported through the process and best evidence is obtained.
- Facilitating access to safe and trusted therapeutic services
- Seeking service user ‘views’ to inform training needs, gaps in service, service development and quality assurance.
The post will ensure that children, young people and their parents/carers are supported as effectively as possible through the process of an exploitation investigation.
In addition, it will make sure that agencies work together as cohesively as possible to maximise the disruption and penalties for those who exploit children and young people in Cleveland.
This decisions replaces a previous decision record due to a change in timescales for delivery (and minor change in costs). This is as a result staffing challenges faced over the previous number of months.