Two leading Lib Dem county councillors have slammed the decision by the county council to release on Christmas Evea detailed report, which revealed that child exploitation is likely to be happening on a daily basis, .
As previously reported by the Echo, the new report, by a task group from Devon County Council's People Scrutiny Committee, released on December 24, contains a series of hard-hitting recommendations.
The report states that there is no intelligence to suggest organised child sexual exploitation networks are operating in Devon, but child exploitation is still likely to be happening in the county on a daily basis.
But it said neither the police nor the county council currently hold enough information on the issue to take effective preventative action.
Among the recommendations made to address the situation, the report calls for an urgent new database to be set up to record and map instances of child exploitation so that prevention work can be targeted in 'hot-spots'.
But Alan Connett and Alistair Dewhirst, who are both on the People's Scrutiny Committee, have accused the council as "effectively burying" the report by releasing it in the midst of the holiday season.
Cllr Dewhirst, who is also a member of the team which researched and prepared the report on sexual exploitation, said it took "some weeks" to get the wording of the final report agreed.
He said he raised concerns that it would not be published at a time when "attention would be elsewhere", with the Conservative chair of the committee, Cllr Sara Randall-Johnson and was given verbal assurance it would not be issued Christmas week.
"But that's just what has happened," he said. "The report highlights the lack of information being gathered by the county council and the Devon and Cornwall Police, even though the likelihood is that children are being sexually exploited on a daily basis in the county.
"Safeguarding children is a major, major issue for the county council and it is already struggling having been found 'inadequate' by outside inspectors. "It seems to me this will look like yet another attempt to hush things up, limit the scrutiny process and sweep issues under the carpet in the Christmas period."
Cllr Randall-Johnson, task group chair, said previously: "There is no intelligence to suggest that there are organised child sexual exploitation networks operating in the county. But child sexual exploitation is likely to be happening on a daily basis across Devon. "However, the prevalence of child sexual exploitation in the county is difficult to gauge at the present time given the lack of information Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, the county council and multi-agencies appear to hold on the issue."
The other main recommendations of the report are:
• Police and social care should raise awareness on child sexual exploitation with district, city, borough councils, housing associations and businesses to protect children from harm
• Child sexual exploitation should be declared a priority Public Health issue like smoking or obesity to enable a more strategic approach to be developed to child sexual exploitation
• Training on child sexual exploitation be given to all frontline staff including social workers, family practitioners, housing and licensing officers, all members and council officers and all businesses - particularly those which provide services where people socialise
• That the county council reference child sexual exploitation on its website and include prominent links to useful organisations
• That in addition to Ofsted inspections, there are spot checks on children's homes to ensure they are following government guidance to inform the police and county council when a child moves into their home who is at risk of child sexual exploitation
• That all Devon and Cornwall police officers, police community support officers and specials receive child sexual exploitation training to improve the identification and the force response to this threat
• That there is rigorous monitoring of the Babcock LDP contract in terms of its programme to schools educating young people on the risk and threat of child sexual exploitation
• That a strategy be implemented to identify those children at risk of child sexual exploitation who are outside the social care system
