Child sexual exploitation the 'social norm' in some areas, says Ann Coffey MP

Two and a half years after Rochdale came under the spotlight, a report by Ann Coffey MP says that the sexual exploitation that happened to young girls in Rochdale is still happening to other girls throughout Greater Manchester.

Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is a “real and on-going problem” that has become a new social norm concludes Ms Coffey.

She believes that this will not be tackled unless there is a sea change in public attitudes away from a culture of blaming children and young people for bringing about their own sexual exploitation.

Ann Coffey MP said: “Young people are still too often being blamed for being a victim. We need to get across the key message that whatever young people wear and however sexualised they appear, they are still children and need our protection.

“The age of consent in this country is 16 and adults who prey on children under that age are always wrong. Unless we get a change in public attitudes it will be difficult to protect children.”

Ms Coffey recommends a radical new approach to tackling CSE to be led by young people, which recognises that the police, justice system and children’s services alone cannot succeed in protecting children, especially at a time of deep spending cuts.

“Police, social workers, prosecutors and juries made up of ordinary people, all carry attitudes around with them. This could go some way to explain why in the past six years in Greater Manchester there have only been about 1,000 convictions out of 13,000 reported cases of serious sexual offences against under 16-year–olds,” Ms Coffey says in her report.

The report recognises that positive changes have been made by GMP and other agencies since the shocking Rochdale trial in 2012 in which nine men were jailed for grooming girls with alcohol, drugs and gifts before forcing them to have sex with multiple men.

Project Phoenix, set up with the aim of developing a cross boundary multiagency response to CSE, has made good progress but more needs to be done to develop sharing of resources across police and local authority boundaries if children at risk of CSE are not to be subjected to a postcode lottery.

Damian Dallimore, Project Manager of Operation Phoenix said: "The high profile child grooming cases have shown that no community can be complacent with regard to child safety.

“Ann's welcome and in-depth report highlights the need for a collaborative approach and Project Phoenix is delivering real improvements across Greater Manchester with specialist teams in each of the 10 districts made up of social workers, family support workers, police officers, and health professionals who share information about victims and offenders and action this information quickly to protect young people and bring offenders to justice.

“We know that offenders do not respect boundaries and the single approach to measuring risk developed by the Phoenix team means that no matter where a young person lives they will receive the same consistent assessment which will inform the level of support they need.

“In 2015 Phoenix will redouble its efforts to engage with all communities of GM about CSE, to encourage victims to report this abhorrent crime and to enable us to better understand the nature and extent of the problem. There will be a specific focus on the most vulnerable members of society, including young people and adults with learning difficulties."

The independent Coffey Report was commissioned by Tony Lloyd, the Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner, to see what has changed since the Rochdale grooming case in 2012 and what more needs to be done.

Tony Lloyd said: “This is a challenging report, but it’s also one that’s full of hope. It is clear that agencies who are tasked with keeping our young people safe have made huge mistakes in the past. The report makes clear about how far we have come since the terrible events of the Rochdale grooming case, but its recommendations must be implemented if we are serious about righting past wrongs.

“What is striking about this report – which sets it apart from those that have gone before – is that the voices of young people come through loud and clear. For too long their voices were ignored or, worse, dismissed by the system. This report starts to redress that balance.

“This report isn’t one to sit on the shelf. I believe it can be a catalyst for real change that we cannot ignore. We all have a responsibility to act and the time to do that is now.

“I would also like to thank Ann for putting together such a thorough and well-researched report. I believe that its findings are important, not just for Greater Manchester, but for across our land.”

Ms Coffey prioritised speaking to children and young people and victims during the inquiry and has put their unaltered voices at the front of her report. Some schoolgirls told her that they were regularly approached by older men in the street and were urged to get into cars on their way home from school.

The young people talked about the pressures they feel under, with the increased sexualisation of children and lack of respect for girls. They also spoke about their fears of speaking to ‘suits’ and ‘uniforms’ in the agencies that are supposed to protect them but which they feel look down on them.

Greater Manchester Police received 2,286 pieces of intelligence relating to child sexual exploitation in the nine months between March 2013 and January 2014 under a new recording system. Ms Coffey said this was evidence of higher level of awareness amongst the public and agencies since the Rochdale case, which should be built upon.

“The whole community needs to be involved and informed about trends and types of CSE in their local area,” she said.

Ms Coffey also called for CSE to be declared a public health priority like alcohol, drugs and obesity.

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