New child exploitation scheme launched for Wiltshire
Wiltshire has been chosen as the national pilot location
A new £80,000 scheme to stop child exploitation in Wiltshire and Swindon starts this week.
The government announced Wiltshire would pilot a new scheme where a local panel makes decisions using local expertise on who may be vulnerable to child slavery or exploitation so action can be taken to safeguard and support them.
The recommended decision of the local panel would then go to the Home Office for sign off. Currently the recommendations are made nationally and there is a backlog of cases.
The panel will mean quicker decisions using the local knowledge and understanding of modern slavery.
It will help reduce delays with court hearings in the criminal justice system with the flexibility to schedule additional panels at the request of the court and meet the timescales for a hearing.
Children under the age of 18 who are identified in this way will receive specialist support and intervention.
The Home Office is running a number of pilot schemes to quicken the process and ultimately safeguard more young people.
The council did not want to say exactly when or where the panel will meet because of the sensitive nature of the discussions and the meetings are not open to the public.
The £80k pilot funded by the Home Office pilot aims to help eradicate human trafficking and slavery.
This month the first panel to consider local cases will meet with representatives from Wiltshire Council, Swindon Borough Council, Wiltshire Police and health partner Great Western Hospital.
Cabinet member for children’s services Laura Mayes said: “One of the most important duties of a local authority is to keep our young people safe.
“It is very good news we’re part of this pilot which will act quickly and decisively using local knowledge to safeguard those who need us the most.
“All children and young people deserve to have the best start in life and we will look at what is causing obstacles to young people in achieving that.”
Wiltshire Police’s Exploitation and Missing Team Detective Inspector Eirin Martin said: “I welcome this pilot – any plan which can help address child exploitation in our county is a good thing.
“We already work hard with our partners to tackle and reduce this type of crime in our communities and this scheme hopefully will work well to help us all provide more protection for vulnerable children.”
Wiltshire has trained up a number of panel members and the panel is set to meet fortnightly.