1. Does the council have a standalone Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) strategy? If so, please provide a copy of the most recent version.
This can be seen at the 2018-2021 strategy: Exploitation of Children Strategy 2018-2021 – Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership
2. Does the council have any other strategies to tackle other forms of child exploitation? For clarity the primary focus of the strategy should be child exploitation, not included as part of wider safeguarding strategies.
Please see our response to question 1.
3. Has the local authority undertaken any evaluation or impact assessment of any child exploitation strategy or services in the past 3 years? If so, please provide a copy of any relevant reports,
A Devon wide needs assessment has recently been commissioned and a draft is awaiting final sign off before publication.
4. Are elected members given briefings or oversight of the council’s work on child exploitation? (e.g. briefings, training sessions, regular reports at committee or scrutiny meetings?)
Elected members are part of specific workgroups such as the ‘Welcome and Support Me’ subgroup which progresses issues for children in care. Exploitation is a priority for this group and regular updates are provided to this group.
5. Please provide a copy of any current multi-agency protocol or partnership agreement relating to child exploitation (including CSE, criminal exploitation, trafficking, or online harm).
Partnership Procedures have specific sections regarding various forms of exploitation – Contents. Adolescent Safety Framework: Adolescent Safety Framework (Safer Me) – Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership
6. Please provide membership by organisation and frequency of meetings for the multi-agency partnership for child exploitation.
Multi-Agency Child Exploitation (MACE) – Monthly (x 2 to cover geographic areas of Devon), Child Exploitation Operational Group and Child Exploitation Strategic Group – every 6 – 8 weeks
7. Does the local authority undertake regular audits of child exploitation cases (including CSE)?
No, however monthly audits started in May 2025 focusing on work within the Links Team, Devon’s specialist risk outside the home service for children at risk of exploitation and going missing. Audits of child exploitation cases in wider children’s services undertaken thematically eg audit of Safer Me + case held July 2024.
Links have completed a number of dip samples since the service launched in September 2024.
If so, please provide:
The number of audits carried out in the last 12 months
12 dip samples of casework undertaken in Links since September 2024.
The key findings from these audits
Links dip sample finding – Assessment – Safer Me Assessment not routinely being completed to inform plan. EH assessments in place where relevant.
voice of the child – generally present – tends to be reflected most strongly within visit records.
purposeful visits – regular visits evident on majority of dip samples. Some barriers around availability of young person, or their own circumstances and needs. Quality of visit records varies. Some with good detail and others, with very sparse information
planning – planning evident in some form on majority of dip samples. Not routinely using Links plan form or reviewing to think about impact, including when there are barriers to progression of plan. Acknowledge some cases were not at 3 month review point. Where formal plan not visible, supervisions tend to provide oversight.
Recording – styles and locations of recording still lack consistency across the team. Varied level of detail and clarity.
partnership working – positive examples including use of MACE and close working with other agencies eg ysmart, education. Gap in communication with social workers and connectivity between Links support and wider plan for young people
management oversight – regular management oversight through supervision evident on all but one of the dip samples
Any improvement actions identified and their current status?
QARRS thematic audit: A learning outcomes meeting took place and identified actions were pulled into the wider Adolescent Safety Framework development plan, which is the workplan for the Child Exploitation Operational group. The plan is currently under review.
Links dip sampling:
- Share good case example with team – to include exemplar of safer me assessment, plan and review (complete)
- Line managers to identify any specific practitioners who need additional support around any of the 7 pillars and build into individual development plans (complete)
- Workshops in team meeting to focus on assessments, plans, reviews and recording of visits. Golden thread of young person’s voice (ongoing as part of team learning)
- Links case dip sampling paused as part of transition to audit processes in line with wider organisation (we have now moved to full monthly audits as of May 2025)
- Development of eclipse worklist/form for Links plans and reviews (complete)
What specific services or interventions does the local authority provide or commission to prevent child exploitation?
Links (targeted Level 3 service)
9. How many children were referred to early help or preventative services due to risk of exploitation in the last 12 months? Please provide the number of:
Children identified as at risk of CSE in the last 12 months
Children identified as victims of CSE in the last 12 months
Children identified as at risk of other forms of exploitation (e.g. criminal exploitation, modern slavery, trafficking)
Children identified as victims of other forms of exploitation (e.g. criminal exploitation, modern slavery, trafficking)
Compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate cost limit under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time. This would require a manual file check as we not hold this information in a reportable format. This would require 5732 records to be checked at 5 mins per record, totalling 477.7 hours. Disclosure of this information is therefore exempt pursuant to section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
10. What was the total budget allocated to child exploitation work (including prevention and victim support) in the previous three financial years (22/23, 23/24, 24/25)?
The budget allocated for the specialist offer of support and intervention.
22/23 £580,000
23/24 £596,000
24/25 £546,000 (less than the year before, because admin staff were moved into a business support budgetary area.
We should clarify that the full breakdown of resources to tackle CSE cannot be provided due to this being integral to outcomes achieve by a range of service.