CYPN reports that Rotherham’s director of children’s services, Ian Thomas, has condemned an “astonishing” lack of engagement by schools to tackle child sexual exploitation (CSE) in the borough while urging a greater focus and respect for youth work. He is quoted as saying, “Quite often it is a youth worker who young people will trust and engage with – less so social workers, who are working within a statutory framework.” He also called for a national review to “reclaim youth work” along the same lines that Professor Eileen Munro was commissioned to review the child protection system and social work in 2010.

We will be pursuing whether there is wider support for this call.

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In the meantime our thanks to Fiona Factor for this link to CSE Research – Short films for practice

These 12 films are aimed at anyone who wants to access learning from the latest research on child sexual exploitation (CSE), in a short accessible form.

Here is an example : “What young people affected by sexual exploitation have told us about the support they want from you”

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In addition Bernard Davies has brought together excerpts from both the Jay and Casey reports into the Rotherham situation, which you might find useful.

Quotes from the Jay and Casey reports