Asked by: Katie White (Labour - Leeds North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that people in safeguarding roles are continuously educated on the evolving gang culture lexicon.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The relevant statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023), is clear that children at risk of harm outside the home should receive a multi-agency safeguarding response. The guidance also makes clear that all practitioners working with children and families need to understand their role in identifying emerging problems and need appropriate training so that they are able to identify and recognise all forms of abuse, neglect, and exploitation and remain aware of new and emerging threats.
A robust safeguarding framework is in place that schools and colleges must have regard to in the form of the statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ (KCSIE). The guidance is clear that every school must have a designated safeguarding lead (DSL) who should take lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection. DSLs are required to undergo the training needed to provide them with the knowledge and skills required to carry out their role effectively within their school and community context, including how to identify, and respond to both vulnerabilities and specific harms that put children at risk, including serious violence and the risk of criminal exploitation.
In addition, the Government is committed to tackling the gangs that lure children and young people into criminality and exploitation which is why through our Crime and Policing Bill, we are introducing a new offence of child criminal exploitation. Through the County Lines Programme, we are targeting exploitative drug dealing gangs and providing specialist support for children and young people to escape county lines and child criminal exploitation. To increase awareness of county lines exploitation amongst those best placed to spot it, frontline professionals can access guidance on how to identify potential victims of county lines and appropriate referral routes: Criminal exploitation of children and vulnerable adults: county lines - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).