Violence and exploitation

Child exploitation is a crime with devastating and long lasting consequences for its victims and their families. Childhoods and family life can be ruined and this is made worse when victims, or those at risk of abuse, do not receive appropriate, immediate and ongoing support.

If you are concerned about a young person potentially experiencing exploitation please contact MASH – 020 8359 4066. If the matter is an emergency call 999.

In Barnet, we believe that both the criminal and sexual exploitation of children and young people is abuse. Young people experiencing this form of abuse can sometimes seem to have challenging and complex behaviour. This can often result in professionals and parents viewing the behaviour as the problem rather than the underlying coercion and control that the young person may be experiencing.

Our approach is always focused on creating a relationship with the young person to understand their life experiences and other relationships they may have.  We work to ensure that all professionals remain inquisitive about their behaviour and treat young people whom experience exploitation as victims. 

Working with Police, Schools and the community over the last year we have developed our understanding of our borough and continue to ensure our partners work in a coordinated way to prevent exploitation from occurring. We work to be able to identify perpetrators of criminal and sexual exploitation at the earliest opportunity to prevent ongoing abuse.

You can understand some of the common indicators of criminal or sexual exploitation here.

If you are a charity or grass roots organisation, we will happily provide free training and briefings, please email SEAM@Barnet.gov.uk  for more details.