Keeping young people safe and combating child sexual exploitation requires honest conversations about what works and who needs to be involved.
I was therefore pleased to be able to share the vital role youth workers play as part of multi-agency safeguarding teams at the recent Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Conference, sharing the NYA Safeguarding Standards and how they support this.
The stimulus for the conference was the Casey Review (2025) into Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) which underscores the critical role that the youth sector plays in safeguarding children and young people.
It provided a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come since youth worker Jayne Senior, who ran the Risky Business youth project, identified over 1,700 cases of grooming or sexual exploitation to Rotherham’s local children’s services in 2011.
Sally Carr MBE,
NYA Trustee and Chair of NYA Safeguarding Advisory Group
(As Stijn Sieckelinck reminded us at the recent launch of the Contextual Safeguarding Unit at Durham University – young people share “stuff you only talk about when you feel safe,”). Youth workers were then – and are now – often that safe place and trusted adult. But there is still much to do.
The sad fact remains that the voice and experience of the youth sector, and the contribution of youth workers to safeguarding, and early help, can, and has easily been, underestimated, and overlooked. With young people spending 85% of their time outside of the school setting, (NYA, 2021), the relational approach of youth workers, attuned to young people’s needs, vulnerabilities and lived experience are essential. We are the “privileged witnesses of social reality,” (Tiffany 2014), in young people’s lives.
The NYA works tirelessly to embed youth workers in multi-agency models and raising awareness of the value and impact of youth work at a policy making level. We are also supporting the sector to model exemplary safeguarding practices through the NYA’s Safeguarding Standards which promote and support best practice.
Strengthening Multi-Agency Collaboration
The Casey Review called for enhanced partnerships between police, local authorities, health services, and the voluntary sector. Youth workers are uniquely positioned to support this through building trust with young people who may be reluctant to engage with traditional statutory services.
Through the voluntary, informal, and trusted relationships that youth workers develop with young people, they can provide deeper insight into the lived experiences of young people and can act as ‘privileged witnesses’ and advocates, sharing risks and concerns to address and prevent CSE. The NYA Safeguarding Standards exemplify youth voice and empowerment, with it embedded throughout.
Supporting Diverse and Vulnerable Groups
The Casey Review highlights that victims of group-based CSE are often from marginalised backgrounds, including care-experienced young people, disabled young people, and those from minoritised ethnicities.
The NYA Safeguarding Standards promotes inclusive practice that actively reaches underrepresented groups, and professionally challenging biases and assumptions that may hinder the identification of risk and harm, in line with Jahnine Davis’ research on Conditional Safeguarding.
Simply put, we need to ensure that youth workers are there for all young people, providing access to safe and inclusive spaces, because when young people feel safe, they are more likely to disclose their experiences.
Youth workers must be recognised as essential partners in Multi Agency Safeguarding Arrangements and Early Help approaches. Through their informal engagement, attention to youth voice and cultural competency, they are essential to identifying and addressing risk across all contexts of young people’s lives.
We ignore this at the risk of failing our young people and repeating the mistakes of the past.
