Calderdale Council welcomes the announcement from Government that there will be a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation and grooming gangs in England and Wales.
The inquiry follows recommendations from a review carried out by Baroness Casey, examining data and evidence on the nature and scale of group-based child sexual abuse.
Calderdale Council takes the issue incredibly seriously and has dedicated teams that recognise and manage the risks that children and young people could face outside their family environment. This includes safeguarding work to prevent issues such as criminal exploitation and work to prevent children going missing from home.
The focus of the Council’s work is on putting children first, protecting them and listening to them, as well as to those who are now adults and were affected by the issues in the past, to learn from their experiences.
The Leader of Calderdale Council, Cllr Jane Scullion, said:
“We are committed to doing our best for children and young people in Calderdale. Keeping children safe from harm is one of the most important things that we do as a local authority. Child sexual exploitation is a particularly abhorrent crime, and we take all allegations very seriously, working with partner organisations.
“We strongly support the action that is being taken to tackle the issue, based on findings from the full national review carried out by Baroness Casey. We welcome the announcement that a full national inquiry will be carried out and we are ready to support this and play our part in any way that we can.
“As a Council, we do everything we can to protect our young people from harm. Our efforts to keep children safe outside the home have been praised as part of a recent focused Ofsted inspection. In a full inspection in 2024, Ofsted inspectors noted the effective arrangements that are in place to assess children who are identified as being at potential risk of exploitation.
“However, we can never be complacent, and we are strongly committed to learning new ways to protect local children. We have already taken robust action from safeguarding reviews based on serious cases in the past, and will continue to build on our long-standing commitment to putting young people first.”
Visit https://safeguarding.calderdale.gov.uk(external link) for more information about safeguarding and how to highlight any concerns.
If you are affected, or you are worried about the safety of a child contact the Council on 01422 393336 during office hours or 01422 288000 at all other times and in an emergency contact the Police.
Support is available for children and young people who have experienced, or may be at risk of experiencing safeguarding issues such as sexual exploitation. Visit https://safeguarding.calderdale.gov.uk/children-and-young-people(external link)