Our Partners

In 2018-19, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned the Tackling Child Exploitation (TCE) Support programme to strengthen the strategic multi-agency approach to child exploitation and extra-familial harm at local level.  Between 2019 and 2022, the programme delivered support to 84 local areas across all 9 regions and made more than 300 resources available online to local strategic leaders and frontline professionals.

In 2022, DfE extended the TCE programme for a further year (2022-23) to work with the sector and across government, to develop multi-agency Practice Principles. The Practice Principles draw on learning from the 3 years of the programme, alongside wider research evidence and the views of professionals, children, young people and families.

The TCE programme has now come to a close but the Practice Principles and supporting resources will continue to be hosted on this open access site until 2026, ensuring that professionals from all agencies and organisations can continue to benefit from the learning generated by the TCE programme. Hosting arrangements beyond 2026 will be reviewed and it is expected that the Practice Principle guidance will be transferred to GOV.UK at this point.

Consultation journey  

The Practice Principles have been developed through a range of consultation activities that took place between June and November 2022. The total number of participants (including all regions of England) is set out below:  

• 758 professional participants took part in 83 events (26 open access events and 25 focus groups with professionals across all nine regions of England; 25 cross-government and national strategic level interviews and focus groups).
• Children and young people: 203 
• Parents and carers: 39

Purpose

The Practice Principles draw on the learning and expertise that already exists and, as such, should feel familiar and obvious. Adopting an evidence-informed approach, they draw upon: 

• The published research evidence base 
• Learning from years 1 to 3 of the TCE Support Programme 
• Consultations with professionals across the sector  
• Consultations with children, young people, and parents/carers. 

The rich insights gathered from multiple sources during the development of the Principles highlight the challenging context in which responses to child exploitation and extra-familial harm are developing. This includes: 

• the evolving nature of these forms of harm and how they can manifest 
• the unique context of every local area 
• structural inequalities  
• system-based challenges 
• resource constraints 
• the range of local and national partners and agencies involved in ensuring an effective response, with diverse policy and practice priorities. 

The Practice Principles operate within, not outside of, these challenges and tensions. They cannot offer a simple one size fits all solution to an array of complex problems. Instead, they aim to provide all professionals with a starting point to counter what can feel like an overwhelming set of challenges: ‘start small, start somewhere’. For those already working in this way, the Principles aim to provide an opportunity for reflection. 

The Principles do this by focusing on the ‘how’ – achievable and actionable ways of working – rather than dictating ‘what’ to do in every specific situation. By offering a steer on how to work – with children and young people, parents/carers, communities, and colleagues across the multi-agency partnership – the Principles aim to support coherent collaborative and creative responses to child exploitation and extra-familial harm. 

Consortium Partners