Young Solutions have successfully gained funding for a second year from the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner to work with businesses, particularly hotels, taxi companies and the late night economy, to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation (CSE). Andy, our Business Development Manager and lead for this work, said “the problem of CSE can potentially be anywhere – perpetrators are all ages and from all backgrounds. Safeguarding and putting a stop to CSE has been seen until recently as a police or local authority issue, but now more people are understanding that is everyone’s responsibility”. He continued to say “raising awareness of what signs to spot, then knowing what to do with that information is essential; the more eyes and ears out there, then the safer our children and young people are”.

Over the last year we have built up strong relationships with a wide range of partners across West Mercia including local authority regulatory services in Telford, Hereford, Shropshire and Worcestershire. Young Solutions has provided training and advice for taxi drivers and hotel staff, delivered training for leisure centre employees and undertaken a series of visits to hot food outlets where young people sometimes congregate in the late evening.

We are currently in the process of developing e-learning training materials aimed to raise awareness of staff in hotels and hospitality about the signs and indicators of CSE, and this additional year of funding will enable us to carry out more awareness raising and training, further assisting businesses to actively contribute in tackling CSE. We are also supporting a CSE awareness campaign, recently launched by West Mercia Police.