NORTH LANARKSHIRE COUNCIL REPOR.ENDA I TEM No. To: HOUSING AND SOCIAL WORK SERVICES COMMITTEE From: HEAD OF SOCIAL WORK SERVICES Date: 29 OCTOBER 2015 Ref: JJ/AG 1. Purpose of Report I Introduction 2. Subject: NORTH LANARKSHIRE CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN The purpose of this report is to inform the Housing and Social Work Committee of the North Lanarkshire Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Strategy and Action Plan which is multi−agency and developed in partnership between the Child Protection Committee and the Children's Services Partnership. Background 2.1 Scotland's National Action Plan to Tackle Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) was published by the Scottish Government in November 2014. The national action plan was developed in response to the UK strategy to address CSE. 2.2 The Child Protection Committee (CPC) has the multi −agency strategic lead for tackling CSE at a local level. The development of the strategy and action plan is the first stage in taking forward key objectives to make sure we are working together to identify children and young people who may be at risk of or who have been sexually exploited and to provide timely and proportionate support to them. 3. Proposals I Considerations 3.1 The report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham (11997 − 2013) by Professor Alexis Jay was published in October 2014 (the Jay Report). The report not only highlighted concerns with regard to operational practice and management, it also identified the collective failures of political and officer leadership in Rotherham in recognising the problem, accepting the problem existed and then tackling child sexual exploitation in their local authority area. This contributed to children being abused over a prolonged period. The abuse included children being repeatedly raped, trafficked from one town/city to another, abducted, beaten and intimidated. 3.2 Tackling child sexual exploitation needs ownership at all levels across the Council and its partners. Strong leadership is key to supporting managers and practitioners in their work to tackle this issue when it arises and continue to build on the existing partnership work in the care and protection of our children and young people. 3.3 In line with the national action plan the following are our key strategic priorities: Prevention, Identification, Protection, Intervention, Recovery and Disruption and Prosecution (Perpetrators). The North Lanarkshire CSE Action Plan details the actions which will be taken forward to address these priorities. The strategy and action plan were developed by a multi −agency task group and both have been agreed by the CPC and the children's services partnership (CSP). The progress of the action plan will be monitored by the CPC and six monthly reports will be submitted to the CSP.