As an organisation working with women and their children it is our responsibility to be up to date on all safeguarding issues. Cohort 4 women recently attended training on raising awareness of child sexual exploitation delivered by Warwickshire Children and Voluntary Youth Services.
Sexual exploitation of children and young people under 18 is on the increase and involves exploitative situations, contexts and relationships where young people (or a third person or persons) receive something as a result of them performing and/or another or others performing on them, sexual activities. This can occur through the use of technology without the child’s immediate recognition.
Child sexual exploitation is a hidden crime and this course gave us a greater awareness of the different approaches used to exploit children and young people and identifying numerous signs that this could be happening. We found the training extremely informative, very well delivered and were given the know how to respond to a victim of child sex exploitation, incorporating local policies and signposting to support services.
