Week of action to protect and detect

THE fight to stamp out Child Sexual Exploitation in Greater Manchester continues with a week of targeted action.

Health workers, council staff and police are to patrol and talk to as many youngsters as possible to extend the work of website www.itsnotokay.co.uk, set up by Project Phoenix, a collaboration of statutory and voluntary organisations in Greater Manchester.

The week of action coincides with National CSE awareness day tomorrow, on which there will be events aimed at educating young people, and detecting and disrupting CSE activity and offenders.

New initiatives will be launched throughout the week.

Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd said: “The sexual exploitation of children is a deep-rooted problem that requires unrelenting team efforts on the part of police, local authorities, health, education, voluntary organisations and communities, not just this week but all year round. By training the eyes and ears of our communities we can make it increasingly difficult for perpetrators to carry out their crimes.”