Bristol named in report on child sex abuse

Local authorities are putting vulnerable children at risk of sexual exploitation, an Ofsted study of councils including Bristol City Council has found.

In the first ever in-depth survey into how local authorities are dealing with the sexual exploitation of children, the watchdog found local authorities and their partners were “still not meeting their full responsibilities to prevent child sexual exploitation in their area, to protect its victims and to pursue and prosecute the perpetrators”.

Ofsted added that authorities were not collecting or sharing information about the full scale of child sexual exploitation in their area.

“As a result, they cannot know whether they are making a positive difference in the prevention, protection and prosecution of child sexual exploitation,” the report said.

The report – called The sexual exploitation of children: it couldn’t happen here, could it? – was commissioned by the chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw.

It comes against a backdrop of allegations, convictions and resignations over organised child abuse and exploitation over sustained periods in locations including Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford and Telford.

Debbie Jones, Ofsted’s national director for social care, said it “cannot be acceptable” that local authorities and partners were “still failing to grasp and deal with” abuse effectively.

“It is not enough to simply wait for the next scandal to happen. We are calling on all local authorities and their partners to ensure that they have a comprehensive multi-agency strategy and action plan in place to tackle child sexual exploitation,” she said.

Bristol was one of eight local authorities examined by Ofsted for the report.

John Readman, strategic director for people at Bristol City Council, painted a positive picture of the authority’s response to the “abhorrent crime”.

“Nothing is more important to us than the safety of children, and we’re encouraged by the strength and commitment of workers across agencies which was highlighted by inspectors,” he said.

“While Ofsted’s report doesn’t identify factors relating specifically to Bristol, direct feedback from the inspectors highlighted many strengths in how we tackle CSE and reduce the risk to children.

“There were areas identified where we need to develop, though encouragingly we had already identified many of these for ourselves and were at work on improvements. These mostly relate to the need for a single strategy, which is due for approval by January, and more comprehensive analysis and evaluation of our work.

“We welcome Ofsted’s feedback as we strive to make further improvements and will develop a thorough action plan to make the necessary changes to further reduce the risk of children in Bristol being exposed to this appalling crime.”