Working with children who are sexually exploited

Child Sexual Exploitation in Wales

In 2005 Jan Coles carried out a scoping study in Wales, culminating in the Out of sight, out of mind report (pdf), which identified at least 180 children and young people in Wales who were known to be sexually exploited, or at risk of being sexually exploited. This was believed to be a real underestimation of the numbers of children involved and a study undertaken in 2006, which looked at over 350 cases on one local authority’s Children’s Services caseloads, identified 121 children as being at moderate or significant risk of sexual exploitation. The findings of the pilot study, SERAF Sexual Exploitation Risk Assessment Framework: a pilot study (Clutton and Coles, 2007)(pdf) have helped to establish a picture of local prevalence and of dominant vulnerability and risk indicators. It provides us with the first detailed picture of the nature of sexual exploitation in a Welsh local authority.

Research has been carried out across 3 Welsh local authorities. The research has involved risk analysis of 1486 cases held by Children’s Services and Youth Offending Teams. The research identified 129 cases of children and young people at significant risk of child sexual exploitation. The research also confirmed that the vulnerability factors and risk indicators for CSE suggested from evidence elsewhere in the UK are also true for Wales.