£13 million to protect children from county lines and other abuse
Local authorities have been allocated a money from a scheme which tries to intervene when children are at risk of abusive predators or being drawn into crime.
The Trusted Relationship Fund will share some of its funding to projects which support vulnerable children with positive adult role models such as police officers.
Vulnerable children have often been used in county lines, a model of dealing drugs between urban and rural locations, with 64 per cent of forces reporting the use of children to help run the drug operations.
The Early Intervention Foundation found that a trusted relationship with an adult is a huge factor for programmes to help support children, and that the absence of role models is often cited as contributing to child exploitation.
For example, Northampton will see funding for its qualified youth provision, Free to Talk (F2T), to deliver interventions and mentoring to at risk children for up to a year.
This aims to support young people to take a more positive path, contributing to a reduction in exploitation and abuse, missing episodes and interactions with the youth justice system.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority was also awarded more than £1.1 million to run a new project in the area over the next four years.
The scheme promotes early intervention to ensure children build resilience to the threats posed by abusive predators or being drawn into county lines.
Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability, Victoria Atkins, said: “It is awful to think so many children have to tackle life without a strong adult figure they can confide in and that this may leave them vulnerable to predatory criminals and violence as well as exploitation and abuse.
“The government is absolutely determined to help, which is why the Trusted Relationships Fund will support at-risk children through projects across the country.
“Early intervention is so important to give vulnerable young people the best chance in life and we will make sure that those most at risk will have a positive adult in their lives.”
Rotherham Council, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Hounslow Council, North Yorkshire County Council & York Council, Ealing Council and North East Lincolnshire Council, Bradford Council, Hackney Council, North Somerset District Council, Barnet Council and Northampton Borough Council will all benefit from the funding.
Barnardo’s Chief Executive, Javed Khan, said: “This new government funding for vital early intervention preventative work will allow us to continue to build on what we have already achieved and, working closely alongside our partners, support more children and young people to escape sexual exploitation.
“It will also give us the opportunity to support and protect vulnerable children who are being exposed to other forms of exploitation, such as criminal exploitation by gangs and peer relationship abuse. Barnardo’s is committed to breaking the damaging cycle of exploitation and violence that young people can get caught in.”
