I wish to make a freedom of information request regarding Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), and would be grateful if you could provide the information below within the statutory timeframe of 20 working days.

Local councils have a statutory duty to operate mechanisms that “collect prevalence and monitor cases of CSE”. They 'should have specific local procedures to cover CSE (eg a strategy)' . I refer to the Local Government Association document ‘Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation: A Resource Pack for Councils’, page 6.

1. Can you please confirm:
a) that your council currently operates these mechanisms and has a strategy to cover CSE: Yes, we have a Harm outside the Home strategy that incorporates CSE, the strategy is dated 2022-2025
b) the nature of these mechanisms used to monitor CSE and the strategy in place: We have a monthly EMRAC which provides strategic oversight of children vulnerable to and experiencing CSE. A serious violence and Exploitation board also provides strategic governance of the activity, needs, themes etc- the board has been temporarily paused to allow a reset.
c) the current number of cases of CSE being monitored by your council: From the Head of Service Helping Early Community and Prevention we have been advsised that from the EMRAC cohort for April, there were less than 5 young people identified at being at medium risk of CSE.
d) the number of CSE cases monitored that are thought to be gang/group based (cases involving 2 or more perpetrators): none
e) a breakdown of ethnicity and - if possible - age of the assumed victims of CSE being monitored by your council: white British.
f) a breakdown of ethnicity of perpetrators for cases being monitored by your council: no specific perpetrator identified
g) the number of cases being monitored each year between 2010 and 2024 (please use the most appropriate reporting date for this data and, if this is not available, please provide this information as of the 1st March of that year). If data is not available for a particular year then please specify the reason for this: We have been advised by the Head of Service Helping Early Community and Prevention that we would need to manually go through all the minutes and recordings on children’s files which would exceed 18 hours (Section 12). There are 168 records that need to be manually reviewed. This would take 30 mins per record on average to read and therefore 84 hours to complete the request. You have asked for 14 years’ worth of data, this would exceed the time as above, however we have reviewed the request and are able to advise that we can complete 2 years. If you are interested in this please specify which years you would like, and re submit your request.