18,700 suspected victims of child grooming identified in one year The Government says it ‘will leave no stone unturned’ in tackling child grooming – but critics say lessons have not been learned

Nearly 19,000 suspected victims of child sexual grooming have been identified in just one year, alarming new figures have revealed.

Department for Education data on children referred to social care, obtained by The Independent, revealed that around 18,700 suspected victims were identified in 2018-19.

The number of victims is up from 3,300 in 2013, when data on the issue was first collected.

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The area with the most recorded grooming victims was Lancashire, with 624, followed by Birmingham with 490, Surrey with 447, and Bradford with 414.

Nationwide crisis

A spokesperson for the NSPCC told i: “We are facing a nationwide crisis in the help available for thousands of children who have often suffered the most appalling abuse.

“The insidious tactics used by groomers means these young people often don’t recognise what’s happening to them is abuse.

“We need to see more effort to improve our understanding of the motives and tactics of groomers to prevent abuse from happening in the first place.

“And we need a radical rethink in the way we help these young people targeted by groomers, otherwise they could struggle for the rest of their lives with long term, deep seated trauma.”

No lessons learned

Sarah Champion, Labour MP for Rotherham, told The Independent: “Too many times, Government has said it will learn lessons, yet 19,000 children are still at risk of sexual exploitation.

“The Government has singularly failed to tackle this issue head on. Its approach has been piecemeal and underfunded.

“We cannot allow grooming to fall out of the spotlight, because sexual exploitation always flourishes in the shadows.”

Rotherham was the centre of a grooming scandal in 2012, leading to the convictions of dozens of men.

Honest conversations

Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection told The Independent: “More must be done to stop abuse happening in the first place.

“Those with direct contact with children need to ensure they are keeping them safe from risks through honest conversations, education and appropriate safeguarding.

“Alongside that, internet and social media companies need to acknowledge their responsibility, do more to stop children accessing harmful content and prevent abuse on their platforms.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Home Office is committed to tackling child sexual abuse and will leave no stone unturned in tackling this abhorrent behaviour.

“This is why we launched the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse to get to the truth, expose what has gone wrong and learn lessons for the future.

“The inquiry operates independently of government and, within its terms of reference, decides for itself what it investigates.

“The inquiry is investigating institutional responses to child sexual exploitation by organised criminal networks with public hearings set for the spring of 2020.”