Shropshire campaign launched to spot signs of child sex abuse

It follows the conviction of seven Telford men for abusing young girls over a two-year period under the police's Operation Chalice investigation.

A review is now taking place in Telford in the wake of Operation Chalice, the police investigation that saw the jailing of seven Telford men, mostly of Pakistani heritage, for grooming and sexually abusing young girls over a two-year period, and cases of child exploitation in Oxford and Rotherham.

Today Shropshire's Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB) is raising awareness of child sexual exploitation under a new campaign called 'Say Something if you See Something'.

As part of the campaign - launched today to mark National Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness Day - a series of posters, leaflets and other material is being distributed to highlight the signs to look out for, and what to do if anyone suspects a child may be a victim of exploitation.

Sally Halls, independent chair of the SSCB, said: "Sexual exploitation has been called the single biggest threat facing children and young people in the UK today. It is abuse and a crime.

"Children are groomed and exploited in different ways. It may be difficult for parents, carers and others to differentiate between ordinary teenage behaviour and the risk of involvement in sexual exploitation.

"However, there are some signs that may signify that children or young people are being groomed for sexual exploitation or are actually being sexually exploited.

West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner said cases of child sex exploitation have been a "wake-up call" for the authorities.

Police recruits are now taught about the problem as part of their training, Bill Longmore told Telford & Wrekin Council's review into the issue.

"When I was in the police, child sex exploitation (CSE) wasn't talked about, but now we tell recruits it does exist and also what to look out for," Mr Longmore told the review at the council's Addenbrooke House.

He said when he came into office he asked the Chief Constable of West Mercia if he had enough resources to tackle to the problem.

"Money has been made available so that the force is able to deal with the number of cases that have come to light," he said."There is money available for the next two years to fight CSE, but I think anyone who doesn't make money available after that would be foolish."

Mr Longmore said Community Support Officers who are sent into schools are now better trained and are seen as a major weapon against child sex exploitation.

He said: "They get to the grass roots of the problem by talking to the children. We have 35 of them and they are working well."

Councillor Paul Watling, cabinet member for Children, Young People and Families, said he took an interest in the training people have in regard to CSE.

"I went to an academy last week and asked individual teachers if they had any training in CSE," he said.

"It was positive for me to hear that they had and it was something they were aware of.

"CSE is an issue for society and an issue for every agency that deals with children. It isn't one agency's role to deal with CSE, it is every agencies role and we are moving to that approach in Telford and Wrekin."

Karen Perry, Assistant Director Children's Safeguarding and Specialist Services, said their work was assessed by Ofsted.

"We have had two unannounced inspections in 2010 and 2011, and a full inspection in 2012, and each of those commented positively on our partnership work," she said.