How Escapeline are working to prevent child exploitation
In this week’s newsletter I want to highlight the vital work of one of our commissioned partners, Escapeline. The charity helps young people to stay safe by educating them about how child exploitation and grooming happens and teaches them protective strategies. The charity, which operates across the south west including in Dorset, work with a range of agencies and groups of people including local authorities and the police, as well as schools, parents, and pupils.
I want to shine a light on the work taking place to educate not just our young people, but also us, the wider public. While enforcement is an important aspect in breaking the chain of illegal drugs and reducing their impact on communities in Dorset, education and prevention will make a difference for generations to come. I will hand over to Escapeline’s CEO, Lisa, to tell you more about the work the charity is doing in Dorset and across the south west.
“Escapeline came about as a result of my work as a social worker. Back in 2018 we started to see an influx of teenagers reporting to us with all the same signs – changing behaviour, drug abuse, truancy from school. It was a real pattern, and although at that point they were mainly boys, we also had girls as well, some who had been sexually exploited. However, despite familiar signs, we hadn’t encountered this pattern before. When I looked at it, it was different from previous things like the grooming gangs in Rochdale and Rotherham for instance. I reached out to colleagues and connections and was invited to attend a conference about modern slavery, human trafficking, and county lines. And I sat there and filled up my notebooks because everything they were saying completed this complicated jigsaw puzzle. It suddenly all fell into place. Everything we were seeing was explained by county lines and exploitation and I knew very quickly that we had a big problem in the south west. It was a light bulb moment. I realised that the lack of knowledge and information around what we were dealing with meant a lot of children weren’t getting safeguarded. And effectively, that’s where Escapeline started.
“At Escapeline we provide training for professionals such as youth workers, social workers, residential staff, health professionals and police. We also give support to parents and carers and directly to school pupils from years 4, 5 and 6 in primary schools to secondary school years 7-13. As part of our education programmes at Escapeline, we have incorporated real life experience into our teaching, thanks in large part to our youth mentor, Rhys. He uses his first-hand experience of being exploited by County Lines gangs for 10 years, sharing his powerful and at times distressing story, connecting with young people and helping them to understand the dangers. The earlier in a child’s life we can educate them about this topic, the better. The age of children we’re dealing with across the south west is getting younger. We’re getting referrals of 10-year-olds and in the past few weeks, I have also dealt with a six-year-old involved in this horrendous crime.
“This is why we want to be in primary schools giving our education programmes to ensure early intervention and prevention. There’s a lot of county lines recruitment happening in schools, by older children towards younger ones. For example, in one school after an assembly we had given, a Year 7 pupil told us they had been approached by a Year 10. This younger pupil had violent activity happening where he lived, and the older student had offered to protect and look out for him. Because of our assembly and subsequently the work we did with him, he realised what was happening, and we got there early. And I am pleased to say he cut the contact off and shut everything down. And at the end of our work, in his feedback he said that if he hadn’t had that assembly, he didn’t know what would have happened and thanked us for saving him. A year later, we’ve checked in and he’s doing fine.
“I am adamant that the key is prevention and early intervention. For those already trapped it is near impossible to get them out and despite efforts to do so, they won't always engage. They have been effectively brainwashed, it’s a form of radicalisation. Many of them tell us they want to leave, but they fear the consequences and the risks that go with that, and they keep getting pulled in.
“The one sign we tell parents and guardians to be aware of is a change in their child’s friendship group and hanging around with older children. Alongside that, a child’s behaviour will change, they could lose interest in anything they used to like doing as well. And that’s when you must move quickly and reach out for help.
“For me, education around exploitation and county lines needs to be as important as road safety in our schools. Road safety keeps children safe on the roads. This teaches them how to be safe in society. We’re not there to scare or frighten anyone, we’re here to give essential knowledge, which could keep them safe from these hidden dangers. We know that those involved in county lines feel silenced. And the only way to break that silence and tackle this growing danger is to ensure we’re having conversations and sharing as much education as we can. It’s integral to protect our future generations from venturing down a path they can’t always return from.”
Thank you, Lisa. I agree, we need to ensure education is at the forefront of what we’re doing in Dorset around prevention. Changing how we educate our young people about illegal drugs and the dangers which surround them is imperative. I want to empower the younger generation in this county to stay away from bad influences and grab the opportunity to be a success. That’s why I set up the Fix the Future fund which helps young people gain the knowledge and capability to make positive life choices. This fund supports projects and initiatives which contribute to or benefit young people across Dorset. Working together with organisations like Escapeline is how we will tackle this vitally important issue and make Dorset the safest county.
David Sidwick
Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner