Early intervention and listening to the concerns of young people have proved key ingredients in the success of Lancashire CC’s Operation Freedom initiative, which won The MJ Award for Best Achievement in Children’s Services of the Year. Nicola Carroll reports

Photographs of child sexual exploitation suspects line one wall of the Operation Freedom headquarters at Waterfoot Police Station in East Lancashire.

On another wall are thank you letters from parents, children and teachers the team has worked with. A letter from one teenage girl says she now understands the danger she put herself in.

The team’s success in tackling this sensitive issue led Lancashire CC to win The MJ Award for Best Achievement in Children’s Services of the Year in June.

A local mother who spoke out about the importance of early intervention after her 13-year-old daughter was affected provided initial impetus for the initiative. The Lancashire Safeguarding Children Board established the multi-agency team in 2008 to deal with child sexual exploitation in a proactive, innovative and efficient manner.

Lancashire CC, Lancashire Constabulary, the local NHS trust and charities have all committed resources to bring together professionals, including police officers, social workers, a specialist health practitioner, a missing from home co-ordinator, representatives of the Children’s Society, and Early Break alcohol and drug service staff to work, literally, side by side.

This allows rapid information sharing and fosters an environment in which ‘prevention, prosecution and protection’ can take place. The Freedom team dealt with 134 victim referrals in just five months from October 2010 to February 2011, pursued 44 suspects, made 20 arrests, charged five people and served 21 abduction notices. Further prosecutions are pending.

Jean Gunn, district manager for children’s services in Pendle and the county council’s lead officer on child sexual exploitation, says: ‘The award is a chance for the team members to reflect on what they’ve achieved, and what they need to do in the future.’

She says that while a large part of the work is about targeting offenders, supporting the children is also vital. ‘Lancashire is forward-thinking, recognised there was a problem and could see that children who had been involved in sexual exploitation were very damaged. Their boundaries had gone and their self-esteem was very low.’

Detective inspector Derry Crorken, head of the Pennine Division public protection unit, agrees that although the police lead the project and give it ‘teeth’, its success is due to preventative, inter-agency working. ‘Once we are arresting someone, the abuse has already taken place. The key is early intervention,’ he says.

Children don’t necessarily realise the risk they are putting themselves in. Having different professionals involved means the person in the team who establishes the best rapport with the child can build up their trust.

Working together in one office means information can be shared between police and social services instantly, rather than it taking weeks. In cases such as Victoria Climbé and Baby P, what you see is a lack of communication,’ he says.

Mr Crorken describes how putting the resources into both safeguarding vulnerable children and bringing those responsible to justice enables the zero tolerance message to be hammered home. He explains: ‘We have taken significant perpetrators out recently – and that has created ripples.’

Detective sergeant Sheralyn Melton describes The MJ award as ‘a morale booster’, and thinks it helps raise awareness of abuse of vulnerable young people nationally. The team works closely with schools and health services to highlight the problem.

It circulates leaflets, posters and other carefully-targeted materials to help young people, parents, teachers and health workers identify early signs of abuse, and show them that help is available.

Police officers now know what to look out for on the beat and gather community intelligence. Children are reporting concerns about their friends and a web portal is being set up to enable them to share information anonymously.

The victims are predominantly girls, and most of the perpetrators are also involved in drug dealing and other crimes. A grooming process usually takes place and the victims are often from disadvantaged families or vulnerable in other ways. Hotspot localities include derelict houses and out-of-the-way rural areas.

Part of the safeguarding role of Julian Entwistle, a social worker who has been working in the team since it was set up, is to assess the potential impact of child sexual exploitation on other young people in the victim’s home, and also deal with offenders’ families.

In a harrowing video, a girl of 14, with her back to the camera, describes how she would go out in cars with a group of men who abused her at a period in her life when she was especially vulnerable. She says she became aggressive with her family, stopped eating and lost self-confidence.

A child protection plan was put in place and the police served child abduction warning notices on the perpetrators. She initially resisted attempts to help her, but tells other children, ‘don’t be afraid to talk to the police, because they helped me sort my life out’.

‘Children will listen to other children’ says Ms Melton, who built up a relationship with the girl. So, getting messages across in their own words is crucial. The team will feature in a BBC documentary in which children tell of their experiences, due to be screened this winter.

The preventative approach taken by the team not only helps victims out of the current situation – it also stops them falling into prostitution or teenage motherhood, adds Ms Melton. ‘If you speak to street workers today, they will say they were victims of child sexual exploitation in the past,’ she says.

Mr Crorken adds: ‘A success for us is that children don’t keep coming back. It is intensive involvement – but that pays off.’

While the approach has been pioneered in East Lancashire, a small team in Preston is now undertaking similar work, and teams are being developed to cover other parts of the county.