Local authorities are tired of their hands being tied when it comes to intervening in child sexual exploitation (CSE) cases. The LGA is putting pressure on the new government to bring “disruption orders” into place that will assist them in stopping perpetrators from sexual grooming of young children. This is a very real problem and one that social workers and police alike have no means of persecuting the offenders. The problem lies in the fact that according to the current Sexual Risk Orders authorities can only take action once a crime has been committed, which is a problem when it comes to sexual grooming cases where no evidence of a crime is evident.

The Chairman of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, Cllr David Simmonds, explained that these new orders would work in that they would prevent people suspected of grooming children for sexual exploitation banned from taking part in certain activities, specifically one such as hanging around schools for certain periods of time. It would in no way allow them to persecute anyone without evidence but will assist in “putting a safe distance” between the child and the person who is trying to exploit them. Breaching a CSE disruption order would be considered a criminal offence and will certainly work as a good deterrent to stop sexual exploitation in its tracks.