National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership Response to the National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

The Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnerships (covering Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, and West Sussex) welcome the publication of the National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. We fully recognise the seriousness and significance of the findings, and we are committed to ensuring they inform and strengthen our ongoing work to protect children and young people from exploitation.

Tackling child sexual exploitation in all its forms is already a high priority across our partnerships. Our dedicated Exploitation Subgroups have been actively working on this agenda for some time, and many of the report’s themes are reflected in current local strategies, multi-agency activity, and training programmes.

To support continued improvement, we have recently commissioned independent scrutiny of our local responses to child exploitation. This ensures that our approach is subject to robust external challenge and that we remain open to learning and change.

We will closely examine the recommendations from this national review and identify any further actions we must take to enhance how we identify, prevent, and respond to group-based exploitation and abuse.

Safeguarding children is a collective responsibility, and we remain committed to working across agencies and communities to ensure that every child in Sussex is protected from harm.

Richard McDonagh Temporary Assistant Chief Constable, Sussex Police

Naomi Ellis Deputy Director Nursing, NHS Sussex

Carolyn Fair Director Children’s Services East Sussex  

Deb Austin DCS Brighton & Hove

Vince Clark DCS West Sussex