Inquiry urges ban of placements in semi-independent and independent settings of 16 and 17 year olds with experience of or at risk of sexual exploitation

The Department for Education should ban the placement in semi-independent and independent settings of children aged 16 and 17 who have experienced, or are at heightened risk of experiencing, sexual exploitation, the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has said.

In an investigation report, Child sexual exploitation by organised networks, the IICSA said this recommendation should be implemented without delay.

In relation to unregulated placements, the report said:

28. Under the Care Standards Act 2000, services that provide accommodation and care for young people under the age of 18 are required to register with Ofsted. If accommodation without care is provided, the placement is considered ‘unregulated’.

29. Some unregulated placements provide positive support to 16 and 17-year-olds in becoming independent. However, these placements can be in temporary or isolated settings such as mobile homes, barges, caravans, hostels or even tents. There is often no or limited support provided and the level of supervision by staff varies. These features of unregulated placements increase the vulnerability and exposure of often lonely children, who may become more susceptible to grooming behaviours and child sexual exploitation.

30. At the time of the public hearings, in all but one of the case study areas, use of unregulated placements for sexually exploited children was minimal, ranging from zero to four children. There was some evidence of children identified as being at risk of sexual exploitation being placed in unregulated placements between 2017 and 2019. There was also evidence of children becoming exposed to risk of sexual exploitation after a move to an unregulated placement.

31. From September 2021, in accordance with new regulations, those under 16 years old cannot be placed in unregulated accommodation. The government has also consulted on new standards for the use of such accommodation for children in care aged 16 and 17, “overseen by an Ofsted-led registration and inspection regime”. The Children’s Commissioner has called for the use of unregulated accommodation to be banned for all those under 18.

32. The use of unsupervised, unregulated accommodation for children in care aged 16 and 17 who are experiencing, or are at risk of experiencing, sexual exploitation remains a serious concern and must be stopped by the Department for Education. New standards for the use of such accommodation must include measures to reduce the risk of sexual exploitation faced by children in these placements.

More widely the IICSA said in its report that extensive failures by local authorities and police forces meant they were struggling to keep pace with the changing nature of sexual exploitation of children by networks.

It said children were being sexually exploited by networks in all parts of England and Wales in the "most degrading and destructive ways", with many exploited children raped or sexually assaulted repeatedly, over a period of months or even years.

The IICSA said there appeared to be a flawed assumption that child sexual exploitation was decreasing, “when in reality it has become more of a hidden problem, increasingly underreported when only linked to other forms of criminal behaviour such as county lines”. 

The report found that professional language around child sexual exploitation had developed over many years, which described children being "at risk" despite clear evidence of actual harm having occurred. “Examples include children having contracted sexually transmitted diseases, children regularly going missing with adults who picked them up in cars late at night and children attending so-called ‘house parties’ organised by adults, where they are plied with alcohol and drugs before being sexually abused.”

The IICSA said none of the areas examined in its investigation kept data on the ethnicity of victims and alleged perpetrators. “The report highlights that this makes it impossible to know whether any particular ethnic group is over‐represented as perpetrators of child sexual exploitation by networks.”

The report recommends that police forces and local authorities in England and Wales must collect specific data – disaggregated by sex, ethnicity and disability – on all cases of known or suspected child sexual exploitation, including by networks.

The report added that too many victims of child exploitation were treated as offenders or somehow responsible for the harms done to them, whilst the perpetrators of child sexual exploitation were often not investigated or prosecuted. “More effort must be made to prosecute perpetrators effectively; the law should recognise the gravity of this particular form of abuse and its impact on children.”

This report made six recommendations included a call for the strengthening of the criminal justice system’s response by amending legislation to provide a mandatory aggravating factor in sentencing those convicted of offences relating to the sexual exploitation of children.

The Department for Education and the Welsh Government should update guidance on child sexual exploitation, it added. “This should include the identification and response to child sexual exploitation perpetrated by networks and improve the categorisation of risk and harm by local authorities and other institutions.” 

Chair to the Inquiry Professor Alexis Jay said: “The sexual exploitation of children by networks is not a rare phenomenon confined to a small number of areas with high-profile criminal cases. It is a crime which involves the sexual abuse of children in the most degrading and destructive ways, by multiple perpetrators.

“We found extensive failures by local authorities and police forces in the ways in which they tackled this sexual abuse. There appeared to be a flawed assumption that child sexual exploitation was on the wane, however it has become even more of a hidden problem and increasingly underestimated when only linked to other forms of criminal behaviour such as county lines.”