Youth worker says communities ‘left to save their children’ after report finds police failing to deal with child exploitation

A youth worker has said communities have been “left to save their children” after a damning report revealed police privately blamed young people for crimes suffered.

The report –  by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) – reviewed investigations by the Met into child exploitation.

Of the 244 cases it examined, 121 were rated inadequate, 80 as needing improvement and 43 were graded as good.

Nequela Whittaker, 35, who lives near Clapham Common, is a youth worker who supports young people at risk.

She said: “Police aren’t dealing with these young people as victims of exploitation. They see them as people who have chosen to make bad life decisions.”

The report found officers and staff had used victim-blaming language – with 55 examples from files examined – including a 12-year-old girl who had been raped described as “sexually active with older men”.

Ms Whittaker said: “Police don’t understand how young people end up in these situations. A lot of things go unreported because victims are more comfortable speaking to youth workers and key workers. It takes a lot of convincing to get a young person to report it to the police.”

The report found that in some cases children had been dissuaded from making criminal complaints.

It also found officer’s responses to children regularly reported as missing was “just waiting for them to turn up”.

Ms Whittaker said this attitude leaves communities to find their children by sharing pictures and reports on social media.

She said: “When minors go missing police often put the work back onto the individual.

“If a parent or carer reports it they are asked if they have contacted their friends and that they have to wait 24 hours before it’s classed as a missing person.

“In the meantime, young people could be getting deeper into very dangerous situations. Without intervention, they get to a point they can’t come back from.”

Ms Whittaker said the outcome of these failures can be fatal.

She said: “When young people are being exploited and not helped they can end up going to prison, becoming substance abusers or sometimes they die.”

The Met claimed it had produced urgent plans in response to the report “so no child is left unsafe”.

The report found that officers were overworked and lacked skills and training, with senior officers missing mistakes.

Ms Whittaker said: “There is a lack of training on diversity and equality.

“I do a lot of work in Brixton – it’s considered one of the most dangerous areas in the UK. Ten murders in three years and 300 stabbings in 10 years.

“It’s seen as a ‘bad area’ because police are looking at crime rates and not the possibility of intervention.”

The Inspectorate has said the Met has to fix these failings before it can get out of special measures. The inspectorate placed the force in special measures in June 2022.

Commander Kevin Southworth said: “I’m deeply sorry to the children and families we have let down and want to reassure our communities that we are already taking significant steps to address these recommendations. 

“We are putting more police resources into this area and retraining officers to have a better understanding of the complexities of child exploitation.”

Pictured top: Nequela Whittaker supports young people at risk in Lambeth (Picture: South London Press/Takenya Holness)