You could be forgiven for thinking that sexual exploitation of children is an issue for big cities but tragically it is also an issue in our county.

 

A MSET (missing, slavery, exploitation and trafficking) report presented to Northumberland County Council’s family and children’s services committee last week showed that 119 children across the county had been identified as vulnerable to exploitation.

 

Nearly half of the children were from the Blyth and Cramlington areas, with the remainder coming from Bedlington, Morpeth, Ashington and other parts of the county.

 

Deputy leader of the Labour group Scott Dickinson said: “These findings are alarming. We very much welcome the £15,000 funding from the Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner which enable this work to take place.

 

“We are pleased to see that Kim McGuinness, the Police and Crime Commissioner is working with the police, council officials and other agencies to tackle this issue but it’s clear that more needs to be done. Covid-19 lockdown is likely to have increased the numbers of children suffering sexual exploitation and online sexual exploitation will have increased because children are confined to the house.

 

“Our children and young people need to be protected from every type of abuse.

 

“Sadly, Northumberland is not immune from this damage to our children. It must be tackled and measures put in place to protect children and young people from this dreadful harm.”