20th August 2014 – a not particularly sunny day – but made sunnier by a visit up to the vibrant officers of Sheffield futures. Having had a stroll from the train station up the winding paths that Sheffield had to offer we arrived at a building that was inviting and open. The reception area was a wash with purples greens and reds and young people who had dropped by on the off chance someone they knew would be able to speak to them. The whole area was very relaxed and inviting and the receptionists greeted us with a smile and can do attitude.
We were then invited through to the area a team of specialists working to tackle Children at Risk of Sexual exploitation work. And it is a team with a variety of professions. With the Police, Social Workers, Family Intervention workers and specialist support workers from the Taking Stock team, all working in close proximity. You get a real sense in the office of multi-agency working to tackle the issues across Sheffield.
Due to the teams location they are also able to offer young people a variety of support without them needing to travel too far in a place they feel comfortable. They can access counseling, youth participation, jobs support, youth and criminal justice support….the list really does go on.
And the referrals keep on growing. Sheffield were able to do a focused piece of awareness raising in 2013 through safeguarding which doubled their referral rates and allowed them to focus their work to high and low thresholds. They have re-worked their risk assessments a number of times to ensure that it fits with a variety of cases.
We were shown a piece of work done in conjunction with a young man where he was both the model for the photo-shoot and the author of the posters. Both the poster and the booklet were designed to highlight the issue with CSE and young men.
Poster Campaign
They also offer advice to professionals and understand that if there is already an existing relationship with the worker then ensuring that worker is supported is key to the young person remaining engaged. On top of this they are looking at expanding to peer mentoring and support groups, PHD research involvement, extending and updating their existing resources (look out for Pieces of Me 2 and Friend or Foe resources), E-saftey projects….again the list goes on.
A busy office with dedicated workers with a passion for what they do – and it shows. Thanks for taking the time to show us around.
Lovely to meet you all
Cheryl our Network Coordinator and Nikki our Youth Participation Officer
NWG Network 