Child protection everyone’s duty

PROTECTING youngsters is everyone’s business — that’s the message from police during a hard-hitting week of action on Child Sexual Exploitation.

A mobile unit was set up in Oldham town centre to raise awareness on the risks of CSE and what is being done to tackle it across Greater Manchester.

A dedicated website — www.itsnotokay.co.uk — collates information on CSE including how to spot the signs and what to do if you suspect it is happening to someone you know.

The Oldham team set up to fight CSE was originally called Operation Messenger. This has now been rebranded to incorporate other teams across Greater Manchester.

Each local authority has its own Phoenix team and Phoenix Oldham has been expanded to include an extra social worker and two family workers.

Det-Insp Mark McDowall, based at Oldham, said: “Each area having its own Phoenix team will give consistency across the region in how we deal with CSE which has not been the case in the past. The It’s Not Okay website has lots of information on ways to spot CSE, advice about where to turn and which services can help as well as links to all the Phoenix teams.

“The expansion in Oldham’s team includes more partnership working with children’s services and more emphasis on prevention and intervention. We look at both ends of CSE, from low level cases to the high end.

“Tackling CSE is everyone’s responsibility and communities need to be aware and look out for their neighbours. A couple of years ago, we wouldn’t be able to be as open and people would be frightened to talk about this issue but that needed to change.

“There is no face to CSE, it affects people in every community. It doesn’t matter if it is three children affected or 50, we are here to do our bit to tackle it. The bottom line is, it is child abuse and it can happen to anybody.”

For more information, visit www.itsnotokay.co.uk, @notokayGM on Twitter or www.facebook.com/notokaygm