This session is designed for safeguarding professionals working with care experienced young people and will explore the specific issues they face in relation to exploitation. Incorporating learning from the practice principles for responding to child exploitation and extra-familial harm developed by The Children’s Society, the University of Bedfordshire and Research in Practice; we will explore systemic challenges within the care system and how these affect young people’s experience of exploitation, alongside considering potential solutions. We will also share examples of promising practice from across England and Wales.

In this session we will:

• Discuss the appropriate placement of children entering, in or leaving care and the challenges for those moved ‘out of area’ as a response to exploitation concerns.
• Explore the importance of considering disruption alongside decisions to move children ‘out of area’.
• Consider the specific exploitation risks for care experienced young people as they transition to adulthood and between child and adult services and promising practice in responding to these.
• Explore effective information sharing across multi-agency networks and how this can help ensure that they are safeguarded effectively against the risks of going missing and experiencing exploitation.

This session will be hosted on Microsoft Teams Live which means:

• You will not be able to engage with the presenters such as in a typical virtual meeting.
• There will be a Q&A function and we will use external systems such as Menti to engage with the audience.

This session is to upskill you in the topic area and allow you points to reflect on this learning in your context. The audience is expected to be varied and so has been written to reach many different levels of expertise across many different sectors.

You may want to read some of our resources prior to attending our sessions to foreground your knowledge of child exploitation.