Simon Cottingham - West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner

Simon
Cottingham
Role of the Voluntary
Sector
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The Voluntary Sector - a quick history
“Before the welfare state, independent charitable action was the main means society
had of addressing problems of poverty, inequality of opportunity, and welfare. The
concept and vehicles of organised charity precede the welfare state by centuries, if
not millennia. Concerns and methods of addressing issues of schooling, social
housing, employment and health care were all developed and structured within the
growth of charitable institutions. It was only the 20th century that saw the state
created 'public services' becoming the governing infrastructure for welfare services to
the public”. (NCVO) Over the past thirty years many charities have helped the state
deliver these public services through commissioning of services.
However, as times change and austerity bites charities are playing “a crucial role as
advocates of individuals and communities, and a voice as an expert, critical friend of
the state. Charities work as campaigners, incubators of ideas, and advocates for
communities”. (NCVO)
“The VCS continues to develop their work with the most marginalised in society, and
agitated for changes in law and provision to address changing societal needs. This
independent expertise, action, and voice, is what defines us today”.(NCVO)
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Voluntary Organisations focused on (or
working with) young people who are victims of
Child Sexual Exploitation
• The Children’s Society – Birmingham and Coventry
• Barnardo’s – Birmingham
• Spurgeon’s – Birmingham
• Street Teams – Walsall and Dudley
• Sandwell Women’s Aid – Sandwell and Black Country
• Base 25 – Wolverhampton
Additionally there are sector agencies working with
victims where their focus is not CSE, e.g. Brook, Adavu
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The resources we contribute
already
The combined resources from statutory sources going
into these groups is less than £200,000 per annum,
across the West Midlands Police force area.
The organisations themselves levered in additional
resources last year of more than £800,000 from their
own income, trusts and other sources.

Independence
• Independence is a crucial element to working with
young people who are victims of CSE – we all know
that young people often don’t want to disclose to
official figures.
• Independence is important in helping to advocate and
campaign for CSE victims to LSCB’s, statutory
agencies and politicians at local and national level.
• Independence is key to questioning policy makers
about the impact on children and young people of
those decisions.

Developing partnerships with
the Voluntary Sector
• The sector is a key partner in strategy and
operations – it operates much closer to communities
and people affected by CSE.
• The sector is independent – crucial in engaging
young people at risk of or victims of CSE.
• The sector has access to additional resources not
available to statutory agencies.

A West Midlands strategy
There is a need to develop a shared West Midlands
Runaway, CSE and Trafficking strategy that includes
the sector as a key partner.
We believe the strategy needs to focus on:
• Catching and disrupting perpetrators
• Supporting victims
• Educating communities
• Listening to the voice of the child
• Ensuring that the West Midlands exposes, and
keeps on exposing, this hideous crime

Other sector resources and
research we bring
The sector has a vast number of resources and research that it has
developed for use over the years. Two examples are:
The Children’s Society – National research on runaways and
Runaways Charter (adopted by over 30 LA’s). We have just
launched our runaways planning guidance for professionals. It helps
professionals think about what they need to do to better safeguard
runaways. We also have guides for teachers and parents as well as
a report on return interviews which explores the links with CSE.
Barnardo’s - National research on CSE including Barnardo’s Cutting
them free Campaign, and Barnardo’s Guidance 2012 ‘Tackling CSE:
Helping local authorities to develop effective responses’ and
development of CSE risk assessment tools – including the widely
used SERAF tool.

Regional MSET sub-group of the
Safeguarding Network
The Regional MSET (old GOWM Region) is set up to
look at:
• Reviewing regional protocols and procedures
• Reviewing toolkit use in relation to runaways, CSE and
trafficking
• Reviewing implementation of the induction pack
• Reviewing SCR’s related to Missing, CSE and
Trafficking
Achievements include:
• Regional Trafficking protocol
• Induction pack
• Proactive approach to runaways included in Regional
Placement Contracts

Challenges from a Voluntary Sector
perspective
Developing partnerships with the Police – some good
examples but still some real challenges, we need a
better operational approach, currently relies too heavily
on individual relationships.
The voluntary sector can work effectively together in
creating a coalition approach to addressing CSE across
the West Midlands – but it needs a strategic approach
to commissioning and a recognition that a purely
procurement of services approach can remove the
added resources that the sector levers in.
The sector is a route to communities but little strategy or
resources are focused on working with communities to
understand or address CSE.

More challenges from a Voluntary Sector
perspective
Information sharing is a two way process – it is crucial
to accredit certain sector organisations to be able to
receive information more freely than currently. The
information flow back to the sector, especially from the
Police, but also some social workers, is creating
barriers to gaining better intelligence for prosecutions
and better safeguarding plans for the young people.
There is a worry that there is no strategy in place to
support the victims of CSE in the event of either a
successful or, more importantly, unsuccessful
prosecution.
We want to explore the use of volunteers in this area.
This is not a zero cost approach, but could create a
greater capacity to respond to the support demands.

Any questions?
The Children’s Society