BASW Blog: One social worker’s extraordinary effort to protect a child from being groomed

On 17th March 2021, following a three week trial, three of five defendants were found guilty at Nottingham Crown Court of child sexual exploitation offences. This important verdict was reported in local news, on the BBC and in a statement shared on social media by Nottinghamshire Police.

What was missing in the news reports and press releases was the role child protection social workers played in this investigation, and the hard work of one in particular – Sarah Fensom.

It is important to speak about this because a cursory look through the comments section of the online coverage of this case shows the public is still very quick to blame social workers/services/care system for apparently failing to protect vulnerable children.

Clearly there is a perception that needs to be more nuanced, for I would argue that if it wasn’t for Sarah’s work then this investigation would not have been opened at the time that it was. 

As her manager at the time, I know just how far beyond the call of duty Sarah went to try to protect the young people being exploited. It is important the public know this so they can have a more informed view of social work’s role in protecting vulnerable children, and also how we help to bring perpetrators to justice.  

Any social worker considering the risk of child sexual exploitation for a young person they are working with knows how hard it can be to find evidence. Joining the dots and being able to name possible perpetrators is extremely hard.

The case of one of these children was held in my team for more than a year. I obviously won’t name the young girl but her tragic case triggered tears and a stress heavy effort to try to protect her. But it was even more for Sarah, who spent hours of unpaid overtime to fit the pieces of this horrible jigsaw together and find enough evidence to put in front of the police to raise the alarm.

The challenges included a hostile parent who believed she was defending her daughter from unreasonable and intrusive social work intervention; a child who honestly believed the married man picking her up from her homeless hostel at midnight was genuinely in love with her; and finally official reports that gave only vague details such as ‘a man in white car’, ‘an un-named male’ and ‘parent declined to share the name’.  

Sarah refused to let these challenges prevent her from piecing the puzzle together. She spent hours, often in her own time at night, combing through case notes going back months and years and pouring over the files of vaguely connected children and adults, searching for facts, names, correlating information, dates, times, and even opinions.

She slowly pulled the information together on a flip chart, building a spider-like map of names, times, addresses and allegations, however vague, and using her ‘map’ to painstakingly connect children to risky adults.   

Eventually, she had enough to seek a meeting with police and IRO’s and thus triggered the police investigation that followed. The official police press release says that the children were in the care of the local authority, though this was not the case initially, as at that time our young person was at home.

It was only when the investigation was well underway that we had enough evidence to put in front of a judge and place this vulnerable young girl in care.  Even in care she and her dedicated foster carer were pursued by persistent and dangerous paedophiles.

Plans were reviewed monthly, weekly, sometimes even daily. The paperwork for this one child alone was a full-time job and Sarah had another 18 children on her caseload.

In the face of fierce opposition from all sides, social workers worked tirelessly to protect this child, and the others with her, and help bring the perpetrators of this horrible crime to justice.

The heroic work of unknown social workers goes on in secret, behind closed doors with no triumphant press releases or statements given from the steps of the court room. This is why we are writing this blog.

We did our job. We protected children. And in the case of this one child at least, a single dedicated social worker noticed something was wrong with what she was hearing and went above and beyond her job role to unpick the evidence.

She filtered hundreds of case notes and trigger a chain of events that led to three dangerous men being found guilty last month, and a young person being given a chance to reclaim her life.

You might have been forgiven for not understanding any of this if you’d read, as I did, the comments made by members of the public on social media about social workers after the convictions came to light.

So, this is us setting the record straight, and I encourage other social workers to work with BASW to do the same. We are the ones that can change the perception of social work.

How to tackle Child Sexual Exploitation, by Sarah Fensom…

Intervening as early as possible is key in CSE cases, sadly this is not always the case. When working such cases social workers need to not only be one of safeguarding but also one of building relationships with the child and family. This is not always easy, particularly if you are already going down the path of child protection or legal proceedings.

Regular visits, befriending and trying to build trust is of great importance. Often in these cases, the young people involved have either been groomed and do not recognise they are being exploited or are terrified of harm falling on them, family or friends.

Perpetrators can often blackmail these young people leading them to feel trapped and unable to seek help. Professionals therefore need to adopt a befriending approach. Sadly, it can be difficult and, in this case,, I sought support from the NSPCC to support the young lady and ensure she had someone she felt she could talk to and support her.

The services of other professionals and support was also put in place to try and support the family at home. It is easy to forget that the vast majority of these cases affect children who are living at home with their families and not in care the system. They will have family members who are desperate to keep them safe and willing to accept support and help.

The removal of a young person from their family, is always the last resort. Questions to ask is have we done everything we can? Would placing this young person into care increase or decrease risk?  What placement is required? Removing a young person from their family is incredibly traumatic and distressing but in some cases the risks are so high it must be considered.

Sometimes in these cases warning signs are missed or explanations given are accepted without little evidence or research. Where concerns are raised regarding a young person it is important that if social workers are involved, they are notified of concerns. Little details often form bigger pictures.

If social care is not involved and you are worried about a child, these concerns should be reported as early as possible to children services. It is important that the professional network including social workers, police, support workers, schools, health and other services are in regular contact.

It is important that lead workers collate and share information to aid efforts of safeguarding meetings and strategy meetings with the police to try and establish an effective plan as soon as possible. Sharing information should not be delayed and the young person and their safety should always be at the centre of any plan.

As seen in some cases, the child protection model can disengage children and their families. Involvement can be seen as intrusive, negative and disempowering to parents. It is therefore important to adopt a relational model to run alongside safeguarding procedures.

As an end note, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the end of a police investigation and in some cases the prosecution of perpetrators is not the end for the young person and their family. The trauma and emotional impact should never be underestimated. For many young people and their families, the end of a police investigation is the beginning of trying to regain control and rebuild their lives. In many ways, the end of a joint investigation between the police and children’s services can be bittersweet.