One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Turning-it-around: ListeningTurning-it-around: Listening
to what young women sayto what young women say
helps them to move on fromhelps them to move on from
sexual exploitationsexual exploitation
14 April 2015 - BASPCAN
Philip Gilligan
Visiting Research Fellow
Social Work & Social Care, University of Bradford
gilliganphilip@gmail.com

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Built on view that
“active involvement of
service users is an essential
component of best practice”
(Gilligan, 2012: 416). (See also Hanley, 2005;
Frankham, 2009)
Service users are
‘experts by experience’
(Branfield et al., 2006; McLaughlin, 2009)

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Points to note
• British Association for the Study and
prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
(BASPCAN) research grant of £5000
• Dependence on the involvement of
workers from Turnaround and Hand-in-
Hand & co-operation of young women
and agencies
• Need for ‘incentives’?

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Aims of research:
Gather data on the views and
experiences of young people about
which interventions, approaches and
services have helped and will help them;
Be emancipatory and empowering of
participants;
Disseminate findings which inform
practitioners and policy makers in
offering more effective services.

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Outcomes of research:
Learned a lot about what young women
thought had and had not helped them;
Learned that many of the young women
were very ready to share their views &
very interested in what should be done
differently & in ‘here & now’ (cf. research)
Report for Barnardo’s, an interim report
for BASPCAN News and forthcoming
research article for Child Abuse Review

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Turning-Turning-
it-aroundit-around

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Potential participants invited by Barnardo’s
Turnaround Service and the Children
Society’s Hand-in-Hand Project.
Told in writing that they would be able to
choose how they gave their views, would
be respected and listened to and
that the goal was to produce accurate
information about their views and
experiences to help practitioners and
policy-makers provide more appropriate
and better services, in the future.

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
• Current ages 13 - 23yrs (mean: 16.3yrs)
• Received specialist interventions
12 - 17 yrs (mean: 13.8 yrs)
• Broadly representative of the
ethnicities of their age-group in Bradford
• Ages and ethnicities reflect those of
Turnaround’s service users.
60% ‘White British’,
28% ‘Asian’
12% ‘Shared Heritage’.

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
SOURCES OF DATA – 1
2 workshops with a total of 19 young women
13 semi-structured interviews (audio recorded &
transcribed) & 2 individual questionnaires
29 pieces of artwork and free writing
First workshop (May 2013):
• Focus group of Turnaround service users
(audio recorded and transcribed)
• Group discussions with Turnaround staff
• Discussions with chair of LSCB, police inspector
and children’s services manager
• Plenary group discussion involving all
(audio recorded and transcribed)
• Artwork by young women

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
SOURCES OF DATA – 2
Second workshop (July 2013) – involved young
women and workers from both projects.
Focused on sharing the interim analysis and
conclusions and seeking feedback,
comment, critique and further data.
Included: small group discussions /
feedback; plenary discussions and artwork.
+ General data from Turnaround Service
+ Literature Review

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
4 main themes (CAR article)
1: The impact of sexual exploitation
2: Ambivalence regarding professional interventions
3: Worker style and approach
4: Specialist versus statutory services
The young women also highlighted:
• Need for greater awareness that grooming for and
actual sexual exploitation take place at school and
during the school day;
• Importance of mobile phone contact (including
texting) with workers
• Need for specialist services to be available during
evenings, overnight and at weekends.

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
The impact of sexual exploitation
• “it’s bad it’s really really bad” (Leah 17)
• Short-term and longer-term consequences•
• Threats to their lives
• Highlighted the possible need to move•
• Even after the police had become involved,
still needed to “run and hide” from those
she had made a complaint against.
• Fears for the physical safety of workers•
• “Abusers: listen up your[‘re] not worth a
f*****ing thing!”

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
“You took away my childhood ...
ruined my education and the
friendships I had ... You cut me off
from my roots. I am scared to go
out and because of you I struggle
to trust anyone... I feel like I am
the one in prison, locked away too
scared to live my life. I am doing
time because of you.”

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
In contrast, reflecting on the impact of her involvement with
Turnaround, another young woman said:
“Well it’s yourself init. They make you
feel positive ... you just become
stronger or something and confident
in yourself again ...you feel positive.
You believe in yourself more. You
think to yourself ‘right I’m worth more
than this ... I’m going to ... keep myself
safe ... I’m going to show these people
that I can do it.”

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
“I hide all my problems behind my
smile; behind my smile is a world of
pain. You think you know me, but you
have no idea. It gets that hard that I
share more than a tear. Times when I
needed you, you were never there.
Now I feel I have moved. I have to now
face my weaknesses. One day my
weaknesses will turn strong and
become my strengths.”

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Ambivalence regarding professional interventions
Some ambivalence about concerns
expressed about them by others.
One young woman suggested that all
girls in the looked after system
“automatically get classed as being
sexually exploited if they are in a
relationship”.
Absence of shared vocabulary may
increase risk of feeling alienated during
initial contacts with professionals

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Some prefer terms such as “relationships”
and “chilling” even when referring to
activities which they recognise as having
exposed them to serious dangers.
“I was well embarrassed about it, because
they said it in front of my mum and my mum
was like ‘You what?’ and I was like ‘Why say
that in front of my mum?’” Aisha (13)
“I didn’t really ... trust her enough to see
her ... I couldn’t really tell her owt, so I used
to just lie.” Lucy (18) re. first 2 years of contact.

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Worker style and approach
Paramount importance of knowing
they had access to a worker they
could rely on to listen in a non-
judgemental way
Wanted workers with whom they could
“build-up a ... strong bond” and are
“able to trust”; who would “stick by
you long term”, “treat you with
respect”, “listen to you” and “do what
they said they would do”

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Want workers with “personality”
(“bubbly”, “jolly”, “funny”), who are
“friendly”, “approachable”, “kind”,
“sensitive”, “respectful” and “caring”.
Need workers who will “be staying
around”, turn-up on time and are
knowledgeable about the issues.
In public, they wanted workers to
“take-off their badges” and look like “a
normal person”

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Specialist versus statutory services
Participants expressed overwhelming
satisfaction with the services they had
received from the two specialist
agencies.
e.g.:”When I newly started working with
them I used to go missing a lot ... I didn’t
used to think about the consequences ...,
but now before I do anything, I think twice;
‘Is it best for me or is it not’.“

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
BUT volunteered views which
were extremely critical of the
behaviour of the police and local
authority social workers.
Frequently expressed anger and
volunteered views which suggest
that they feel that statutory
agencies do not listen to or care
about them.

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
The police
“treat the innocent as if they are the
perpetrators” Maryam (16)
“I think they just stick their nose in everything
and make more problems and then just blame
it on you”.
“Police need to sit down and listen to young
people... They need to think ‘hang on this is a
young girl’s life’ ... They need to think but
they don’t” (Lucy, 18).
“About the police ... They just like ... shout at
you when they talk to you.”

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Social Workers
“social workers and police; ... they got their
head too far up their backside, straight up”
“it’s like, if you say to them you’re in danger
it'll be like ... ‘you'll be alright’ and a pat on
your shoulder”
“you can’t ring your social worker ... they
start making judgements”.,
Overall, findings indicate need for the police
and children’s services to improve the
training of all their staff in relation to CSE

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Some
Conclusions

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Young women affected by CSE:
• Have important things to say about what will help
them.
• Need workers who are friendly, flexible,
persevering, reliable and non- judgemental.
• Need information, advice, safe places, enrichment
experiences and services which are available
evenings and weekends.
• Are unlikely to engage effectively with statutory
services (police and children’s social care) unless
those services demonstrate that they will listen to
them, protect and respect them.

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
“I remember initially how I used
to feel. I used to feel like angry
at everybody. I used to feel like
I wasn't being helped and
stuff.......When I did see these
people ... it would feel like a
weight had been lifted and it
really did help my confidence
as a young person” Mary (23)

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One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Questions
Discussion

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
What do you think of
when someone says
“child sexual
exploitation”? What do you think
makes children /
young people
vulnerable to child
sexual exploitation?
Who do you
think is likely to
exploit
children / young
people
sexually?

One day my weaknesses will turn strong and become my strengths
Child Sexual
Exploitation
Online (see
CEOP, 2013)
‘Grooming’
(see
HCAC. 2013,
Rotherham,
Oxford Rochdale,
Bristol, etc) ETC
(see
Melrose,
2012)
Going
missing
(see
Barnardo’s
2011; 2012)
Trafficking
(see Harris and
Robinson, 2007)
Gangs (see
Berelowitz, 2012;
Beckett et al.,
2013