New research gives fresh insight into how safeguarding systems can better respond to child exploitation and abuse

Ongoing national efforts to strengthen safeguarding responses to child exploitation and abuse have been supported by new research published today by the Institute for Children’s Futures (ICF) at Manchester Metropolitan University.

The findings bring together a study commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) to examine safeguarding responses to child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE), and another commissioned by the Home Office to investigate county lines and serious youth violence.

Together, the reports show that while awareness of child exploitation has significantly improved in recent years, the systems designed to respond to harm are not always keeping pace with how that harm now presents in children’s lives.

The latest DfE-commissioned study, Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: Recording Practices in Children’s Social Care and Serious Incident Reporting – Qualitative Insights for Policy and Practice was led by Manchester Met researchers including Professor Michelle McManus and Emma Ball, and was commissioned in direct response to recommendations in the National Casey Audit into group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation (‘grooming gangs’).

Drawing on interviews with practitioners across six local authorities, the study finds that children affected by exploitation are often known to services and can be receiving support, but their experiences are not always consistently reflected in extractable national datasets.

The research highlights key developments locally in responding to safeguarding children from abuse and exploitation, focusing on capturing complex, cumulative and relational forms of harm.

It shows that existing recording systems can focus on fixed categories that could potentially obscure exploitation, which often unfolds over time and across multiple contexts. As a result, exploitation can be absorbed into broader categories of harm such as neglect or emotional abuse, limiting its visibility.

Lead researcher, Emma Ball, Senior Research Associate at Manchester Met, said: “The research highlights developments being made locally to address challenges in consistently identifying and recording child sexual abuse and exploitation. For example, specialist support for practitioners to have access to expertise and space to reflect on these harms, to ensure that the most effective safeguarding support is provided.

“There is also evidence of localised innovative practice and data collection in response to exploitation, including protocols and data analysis, which strengthens the identification and safeguarding response to exploitation.”

The findings build on earlier Home Office and DfE jointly commissioned research also published today, and led by Michelle McManus, Professor in Safeguarding and Violence Prevention and Director of the ICF, which examined safeguarding partnership responses to county lines and serious youth violence.

Conducted in 2021 with 164 interviews with practitioners, the research identified important challenges in how safeguarding systems conceptualise and respond to child exploitation.

Rather than fitting neatly into single categories such as county lines, criminal exploitation, sexual exploitation or serious youth violence, the study found that these harms are often interconnected and experienced simultaneously by children, cutting across traditional service boundaries.

The research highlights the need for safeguarding responses that move beyond siloed approaches, recognising exploitation as a contextual and relational form of harm that takes place across peer groups, communities and online environments, not just within individual cases or family settings.

Since the research was undertaken, important national developments have taken place, including new legislation on child criminal exploitation, increased policy focus on safeguarding responses and the contribution by Prof McManus to national discussions on strengthening the use of modern slavery legislation in these contexts, including published evidence to the House of Lords.

Prof McManus said: “While the national picture is improving, our new DfE commissioned CSAE study demonstrates that many of the core challenges identified within this 2021 study remain evident across safeguarding systems today.

“Our research points to a system where critical insight is often dispersed, learning is not consistently shared, and opportunities for earlier intervention are missed, despite growing awareness of the risks children face.

“Practitioners are doing significant and often complex safeguarding work, but current systems are not designed to capture that reality. If we want to improve how we protect children, we need systems that reflect how harm actually presents – over time, across relationships and in different contexts.”

This latest body of work reflects Manchester Metropolitan University’s growing national and international leadership in safeguarding and violence prevention research.

Following Professor McManus’s oral evidence to the House of Lords Domestic Abuse 2021 Committee earlier this month, she has been appointed as its Special Adviser and will provide expertise on how to protect the millions of people who are victims of domestic abuse in the UK each year.

Both reports published today can be accessed in the following links:

Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: Recording Practices in Children’s Social Care and Serious Incident Reporting – Qualitative In.sights for Policy and Practice.

Deep dive exploration of safeguarding partnership responses to county lines and serious youth violence.