The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill provides a key opportunity to tackle child criminal exploitation (CCE) and serious youth violence. Children who have been criminally exploited are victims of child abuse, who are coerced into committing crimes. However, rather than being treated as victims, they are often unfairly criminalised.
Barnardo’s, alongside organisations including The Children’s Society, is calling for the Bill to be amended to introduce a statutory definition of ‘child criminal exploitation’ to help identify child victims and make sure they are supported appropriately. This will help to place CCE on a similar statutory footing as child sexual exploitation. No one agency can tackle serious violence alone.
Barnardo’s welcomes Part 2, Chapter 1, introducing a new legal duty requiring local public services to work together in ‘Serious Violence Partnerships’ to prevent and reduce serious violence. However, we believe this section could be strengthened by specifically including measures to prevent CCE and safeguard victims, establishing a National Serious Violence Oversight Board and requiring local Serious Violence Partnerships to publish a strategy for providing specialist training on child criminal exploitation and serious youth violence to local multi-agency partners.