Children under greater risk of harm from criminal gangs, sexual exploitation and bullying - social worker

Liz McKie, Senior Manager for Children and Families, spoke too of the need to “think differently” about how the growing crisis should be tackled, “turning child protection as we know it on its head.”

Historically, the authorities have focussed on the harm youngsters experience within their home, with social services taking the lead.

But an overhaul now underway will see greater attention given to the “hotspots” in the wider community where vulnerable children can fall victim to abuse, including schools and parks.

Under the revised system, and depending on the circumstances, community groups and youth workers could be expected to play a greater role in responding to abuse, particularly when it happens outside a family setting.

Ms McKie told a recent meeting of Cumbria County Council’s Scrutiny Advisory Board for Children and Young people that serious youth violence, a rise in knife crime on the streets and bullying in schools or over social media “all happen outside the family”.

Other extra-familial issues raised included the radicalisation” of vulnerable children, abuse within teenage relationships and of youngsters being recruited into criminal gangs via ‘County Lines’.

As part of its response, the county council is now adopting a trailblazing new approach known as ‘contextual safeguarding’, developed by Carlene Firmin, a British social researcher and writer specialising in violence between young people.

The shake-up is intended to help authorities think differently about how best to protect children and young people from the “significant harm” that can befall them in the wider community.

These can include social situations over which their parents often have very little control including cyberbullying or violence within schools or in public spaces such as parks.

Setting out the scale of the problem, Ms McKie told the panel that the “main challenge” faced was that child protection systems had been set up to address risk and abuse within the family unit.

She said: “Our current systems have almost de-prioritised extra-familial abuse and focussed on abuse within the family.

“And that’s where we develop inappropriate language such as ‘risk-taking behaviour’, and criminalising children for crimes that they may have committed as a result of being exploited.

“We are almost trying to squeeze our response to abuse in the community into systems that were actually designed to deal with abuse in the family.

“But it may not be that a social worker is the right person to be directly involved or to take the lead on that – and that people who are going to have the most influence may not be in social care but in the community.”