In October 2017 Tower Hamlets Council set up a multi-agency exploitation team to tackle sexual and criminal exploitation.  This multi-agency team includes 4 police officers, 6 social workers, and 4 gangs workers who are commissioned from the third sector.  This team undertakes work with the most vulnerable teenagers in the borough, joining up work around Child Sexual and Criminal Exploitation, missing children and County Lines. Over the past 12 months there have been 17 arrests of adults who were felt to pose a direct risk to young people because of exploitation concerns. In addition over 115 young people were supported where we have worked with them to end or reduce concerns of exploitation, involvement in County Lines or risk of going missing.

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Newcastle City Council has been hailed as a leading example in how to tackle sexual exploitation. The council’s role in this has been to bring together agencies in the city to support victims. The Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) for safeguarding adults is key to this. MASH are designed to facilitate information-sharing and decision-making on a multi-agency basis through co-locating staff from the local authority, health agencies and the police. The MASH in Newcastle will see the co-location of staff from Adult Social Care and Northumbria Police as well as a mixture of virtual and co-location relationships with additional key safeguarding partner agencies, providing an integrated front door for safeguarding adults.