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Harm outside the home

All agencies across Swindon are fully committed to safeguarding children from experiencing harm, both inside and outside of their home, whilst disrupting and prosecuting individuals who exploit or attempt to exploit them.

We will be referring to all under 18’s as children as this helps us focus on who is responsible for safeguarding children, as children cannot be responsible for their own abuse.

What is harm outside the home?

Our definition of “Harm Outside the Home” encompasses the following:

  • Child Sexual Exploitation
  • Child Criminal Exploitation, including exploitation by organised crime groups and individuals (such as county lines and financial exploitation)
  • Modern Slavery and trafficking
  • Children who are reported missing with indicators of other harm outside the home
  • Teenage relationship abuse
  • Potentially Harmful Sexual Behaviour
  • The influences of extremism leading to radicalisation
  • On the cusp of becoming a victim or perpetrator of serious youth violence 

The contexts in which Harm Outside the Home take place include:

  • online and in the digital world
  • amongst peer groups
  • within schools and places of learning
  • within and between communities and borough boundaries
  • on and around public transport
  • wider community settings

Harm outside the home in the wider definition involves exploitative situations, context and relationships where young people (or a third person or persons) receive ‘something’ for example, food, accommodation, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, affection, gifts, money. This is as a result of them completing a task on behalf of another individual or group of individuals and is often of a criminal or sexual nature. 

Harm outside the home often occurs without the child’s immediate recognition, with the child believing that they are in control of the situation. In all cases, those exploiting the child or young person have power over them by virtue of their age, gender, intellect, physical strength and/or economic or other resources.

Violence, coercion, and intimidation are common, involvement in exploitative relationships being characterised in the main by the child or young person’s limited availability of choice resulting from their social, economic or emotional vulnerability. The nature of life in the 21st Century is that online and offline domains are no longer two distinct and separate areas. The relationship between the two is now fluid and interchangeable and as such we need to be able to recognise and respond to harm online and offline.

Child Exploitation is when someone uses a child for financial gain, sexual gratification, labour or personal advantage. Using cruel and violent treatment to force a child to take part in criminal or sexual activities often leads to physical and emotional harm to the child, to the detriment of their physical and mental health, education, and moral or social development.

The exploitation of children can take a number of different forms and perpetrators may subject children and young people to multiple forms of abuse at the same time, such as criminal exploitation (including county lines) and sexual exploitation. Home Office (2022). 

Child Sexual Exploitation is a form of child sexual abuse. It occurs where an individual (CSE perpetrator) takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into sexual activity (a) in exchange for something the victim needs or wants, and/or (b) for the financial advantage of increased status of the perpetrator or facilitator.

The victim may have been sexually exploited even if the sexual activity appears consensual. Child sexual exploitation does not always involve physical contact; it can also occur through the use of technology. Department for Education (DfE) (2017).

Child Criminal Exploitation (including County lines) involves exploitative situations, contexts and relationships where children (under 18) receive or are promised ‘something’ tangible for example, food, accommodation, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, gifts or money. Or it may be ‘something’ intangible for example, affection, respect, status, or protection in return for committing a criminal act for the benefit of another individual or group of individuals or be threatened, coerced, or intimidated into committing that criminal act (Home Office, 2018).

County lines is a term used to describe gangs and organised criminal networks involved in exporting illegal drugs into one or more importing areas within the UK, using dedicated mobile phone lines or other form of “deal line”. They are likely to exploit children and vulnerable adults to move and store the drugs and money and they will often use coercion, intimidation, violence (including sexual violence) and weapons (Home Office, 2018).

Modern Slavery and Trafficking relates to The Modern Slavery Act 2015 which establishes that a person commits an offence if the person arranges or facilitates the travel of another with a view to being exploited, this involves cases where: 

  • the person intends to exploit the person being trafficked (in any part of the world) during or after the travel
  • the person knows or ought to know that another person is likely to exploit the person being trafficked (in any part of the world) during or after the travel

Harmful Sexual Behaviour includes a range of behaviours as outlined by the Hackett Sexual Continuum: 

  • Sexual behaviours by children which do not involve mutual consent 
  • Sexual behaviours which are felt to be developmentally inappropriate
  • Sexual behaviours which may be harmful towards self or others 
  • Sexual behaviours which appear to be abusive towards another person

You can find out more on the NSPCC website - Understanding sexualised behaviour in children.

Contextual safeguarding, developed by Dr. Carlene Firmin at the University of Bedfordshire’s Contextual Safeguarding Network, recognises that as young people grow and develop they are influenced by a whole range of environments and people outside of their family.

For example, in school or college, in the local community or in their peer groups or online. Children and young people may encounter risk in any of these environments. Sometimes the different contexts are inter-related and can mean that children and young people may encounter multiple risks. 

Contextual safeguarding looks at how we can best understand these risks, engage with children and young people and help to keep them safe. It’s an approach that’s often been used to apply to adolescents, though the lessons can equally be applied to younger children, especially in today’s changing world.

To find out more about contextual safeguarding visit the Contextual Safeguarding Research Durham University website.

What can make children more vulnerable to harm outside of the home and what are the signs?

All children are vulnerable to experiencing harm outside of their home, however there can be other factors that can increase this vulnerability. The common issues and reasons can be due to a number of factors, including vulnerabilities identified and being targeted by an abuser.

Children who run away or go missing from home, care or education are recognised as being more at risk of being targeted as a victim of exploitation.

Evidence is clear that a missing child is believed to be at risk from child exploitation, irrespective of the length of time they are away from home or a caring environment (Plass, 2007; CEOP, 2011b).

It is often the case that children do not perceive themselves to be victims of exploitation, as they consider they have acted voluntarily. This is complicated further as the exploited children often receive cash or gifts by their abuser as a way to groom them.

The following are typical vulnerabilities in children prior to abuse:

  • Living in a chaotic or dysfunctional household including parental substance use, domestic violence, parental mental health issues, parental criminality
  • History of abuse including familial child sexual abuse, risk of forced marriage, risk of ‘honour’-based violence, physical and emotional abuse and neglect
  • Recent bereavement or loss
  • Gang association either through relatives, peers or intimate relationships, in cases of gang associated CE only
  • Attending school with children who are exploited
  • Low school attendance/exclusion
  • Having SEND or learning disabilities
  • Unsure about their sexual orientation or unable to disclose sexual orientation to their families
  • Friends with children who are exploited
  • Homelessness
  • Lacking friends from the same age group
  • Living in a gang neighbourhood
  • Being a child in care or care experienced
  • Living in a hostel, bed and breakfast accommodation, a foyer or homeless
  • Low self-esteem or self-confidence
  • Being a young carer

The following signs and behaviours can be indicators that a child is being exploited:

  • Regularly missing
  • Parents or carer not reporting child missing
  • Drug or alcohol misuse
  • Has extra money or new items or gifts that cannot legitimately be accounted for/received from unknown sources
  • Change in physical appearance or behaviour
  • Pregnancy, termination or repeat testing for sexually transmitted infections
  • Child has been coerced to take or share indecent images
  • Arrested or involved in criminality
  • Found travelling out of Borough
  • Multiple mobile phones
  • Child feels indebted to an individual or group
  • Family or child having to move or leave their home
  • Items missing from home
  • Child carrying or concealing weapons
  • Absent from school and non-school attendance
  • Services have not been able to engage with child
  • Self-harm indicators and/or mental health concerns and/or suicidal thoughts or attempts
  • Injuries and evidence of physical or sexual assault
  • Relationship breakdown with family and or peers
  • Association with older and/or risky peers
  • Change in education attendance, change in education provider, missing from education and non-attendance in education

Language, labelling and use of inappropriate terms

The way we use language influences our thinking. Recent serious case reviews in other areas have highlighted this as a significant issue which contributed to systemic failure to protect.

There are some labels which in the past have been used to describe children and their behaviour which led to inaccurate assumptions which in turn minimise the risks and reality of the child’s situation. Professionals should avoid using such terms in their recording and conversations and should be mindful of when they enter their thinking and challenge them.

For trust to develop and ensure that children feel supported to disclose their experiences, they need to be listened to and their experiences accepted and recorded. The use of inappropriate language to describe children at risk of exploitation may judge the child and imply they could have acted differently or they are to blame. It is important to remember that this is a form of abuse, it is not a lifestyle choice.

If we talk about a child using inappropriate language, what they and other professionals may hear is that they are in some way responsible for what is happening to them and therefore less deserving of our support.

Challenge any inappropriate language, labelling and terminology about children.

Below are some short video clips to help you to understand the impact on young people of victim blaming language.

Waltham Forest Council. Duration 1.46 minutes:

The CSE Taskforce commissioned the Children’s Society and National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) to produce a guide and support materials which included this animation. Duration 1.26 minutes: 

The following resources are also available for you to find out more: 

Concerns about harm outside the home?

It is important that the Police and Children’s Social Care are made aware of any concerns or intelligence you have about child exploitation and children experiencing harm outside the home to enable them to build a bigger picture of any risks to children.

You may be aware of information that when considered in isolation may seem irrelevant but may be a key part of the jigsaw. It is important that this intelligence is recorded on the child's file and shared with the Police and Contact Swindon.

If you have safeguarding concerns relating to a child contact the Police or Contact Swindon via E-mail: contactswindon@swindon.gov.uk. You can also call:: 01793 464646 (during normal office hours which are 8.30am to 4.40pm, Monday to Thursday, and 8.30am to 4.00pm Friday)

If you are a professional with concerns, the pathway in response to harm outside the home is for a Request for help and support to be made for the child via Contact Swindon (The Integrated Front Door) by email to: contactswindon@swindon.gov.uk.

Further information and guidance

If you have intelligence or any other concerns relating to Child Sexual Exploitation, Criminal Exploitation (gangs), trafficking, for example, a suspicious car or activity, these can be shared with Police using the online reporting form.

Identifying and disrupting perpetrators is a central part of multi-agency work to protect children from exploitation. The Swindon and Wiltshire CSE disruption toolkit sets out the deterrent and enforcement tools available and includes advice on how to share information and intelligence with the Police.

Policies, procedures and guidance 

Swindon Safeguarding Partnership promotes the South West child protection procedures website as a source of information on a range of safeguarding issues.

  • The Harm Outside The Home Multi-agency Practice Guidance provides further information and guidance for professionals
  • The Opal Team (Child Exploitation and Missing Team) has developed the child exploitation practitioners resource. This has been developed to assist practitioners working with children who are at risk of, or who are being exploited. Many of the resources and tools are applicable for all types of exploitation and to assist the professional response.

There is also a child exploitation risk assessment framework tool and associated guidance for professionals when working with children about whom they have concerns and to support decision making when making a referral.

The Swindon Multi-Agency Child Exploitation (MACE) meeting keeps the safety and wellbeing of Swindon’s children and families as its primary focus. The MACE meeting does not replace regular (Team around the Family, Child in Need and Core Group meetings) multi-agency meetings to share information, respond and mitigate harm and progress planning for children.

Regular meetings should continue to be convened at least 4 weekly (more often if required) and must include Opal to ensure that a update of the CERAF and My Safety Plan is completed. 

The purpose of the MACE meeting is to provide independent oversight and scrutiny of the management for individual children and groups of children identified as being vulnerable to harm outside the home. We are aware that harm outside the home can occur in the local community and therefore information known to statutory as well as voluntary sector agencies should be used to highlight the vulnerabilities and threats as well as to establish and reduce harm. 

The MACE meeting will provide the framework to allow regular information sharing and action planning to tackle harm outside the home across Swindon. The meeting will take place three weekly and will be chaired by the Integrated Adolescent Service, Service Manager.

Additional MACE meetings can be arranged to target specific concerns in locality areas or groups of children and young people, or in order to respond to children and young people at times of additional demand.

For more information on the MACE meeting, see the Harm Outside the Home Multi-Agency Practice Guidance 2024.

Useful resources