Specialist unit to tackle sexual exploitation set up in Wakefield

The team will work with the authority's children's services, councillors were told on Wednesday afternoon.

It comes as the council's corporate parenting committee, which discusses issues around looked after children and fostering, was told that "too many" Wakefield children were going missing from care, though the number of incidents has fallen significantly during the past 18 months.

Such youngsters are believed to be more at risk from sexual exploitation than their peers.

Earlier this month, the council's corporate director for children's services, Beate Wagner, said more needed to be done to tackle the issue, as she announced changes would be made to the way missing children are interviewed after they return home.

On Wednesday, Ms Wagner said: "We are just setting up a specialist team around sexual exploitation.

"The people who do the return home interviews will be part of that team.

"So they will be able to look at the intelligence and the concerns around sexual exploitation.

"There have been these services before but it's fair to say that they've been a bit disjointed. We're trying to bring all of that together."

Figures show that from a peak in September 2017 of 46 incidents of children in care going missing, 10 such incidents occurred in January 2019.

The committee was told that the latest numbers are "comparatively low" against figures from other authorities and often fluctuate depending on times of year.

Dean Howson, the service manager for looked after children, said: "That's a big reduction, but still too many children in care are going missing."

Asked if he was confident that the council had sufficient capacity to deliver improvements to the way return home interviews are done, Mr Howson said: "We're confident, because the investment has been made in the service so we've been put in a position to do it, but we'll keep an eye on it."