The Covid-19 pandemic has proven a significant test to the resilience of children’s social care services in the UK. An already overburdened industry has had to take on the challenge of assisting children and young people in care who are facing long periods of heightened stress and isolation, meaning that the right support is more critical than ever before.
Throughout the crisis, the government has recognised that working together with care sector bodies and ensuring an individualised approach are vital to ensuring that children in care can maximise their potential.
The Children in Care Conference 2021, which will take place on February 11, is the latest edition of an annual event that aims to provide a host of updates from key organisations working with children in care and chart a way forward for children’s social care. This year's edition will see a change in focus in these trying times, with key issues on the agenda including industry best practice, safeguarding and mental health support in the context of the pandemic. As has been the case in previous years, the conference will also provide opportunities for participants to network with fellow industry operators, sharing insight, challenges and strategies to help overcome existing issues.
Serenity Welfare is a known provider of welfare and secure transport services for looked-after children and young people. Its CEO, Emily Aklan [pictured], will be attending this year’s conference as a guest speaker after Serenity was recognised as a market leader through its Hope Instead of Handcuffs campaign.
Speaking to The Leaders Council, Aklan commented: “We are delighted that Serenity Welfare has been recognised as market leaders through our current campaign, and that considering this I have been requested to be a guest speaker at this year’s Children in Care Conference. This is truly a privilege.”
Aklan intends to use the platform as an opportunity to address the emerging issue of county lines gangs targeting children and young people to become new recruits, a topic which was given wide publicity in 2020 through the television soap opera, Hollyoaks.
Reflecting on the issue, Aklan said: “County lines gangs are an epidemic in Great Britain. Targeted, strategic, relentless – not only are trafficking drugs, pumping them from the inner cities to rural areas, and hubs of violence, but they are recruiting and trapping children as young as eight years old.
“Vulnerable children – children in care, children facing domestic abuse, neglected children – are prime target for these vicious gangs. Gangs will prey on the fact that these children – some as young as eight years old – are more likely to be spending large periods of time away from a school or group home environment, will have an increased need for a sense of belonging and a heightened desire for financial and materials goods to fit in with their peers.
“They use the same tried-and-tested strategies time and time again: reaching children digitally and tempting them into the gang with promises of lavish gifts, respect and purpose, and then deceiving them so that they cannot leave. When in, they slowly ensure that these children feel that they cannot turn to any traditional support networks and are trapped.”
It was through a recognition of the need to tackle this issue in a more humane manner that empowered Aklan to develop the Hope Instead of Handcuffs campaign that has proven so successful by removing the blame factor from groomed children and young people and recognising them as victims of crime, not perpetrators.
Aklan continued: “One of the most important factors we must address is how we view these exploited children – they are not, and can never be, criminals. They are victims. This is vital in how we can support children and prevent them from becoming involved in gangs in the first place – they need to know that they are not to blame, and that there is another life for them outside of a gang.”
The key to allowing affected youngsters to access a new life, in Aklan’s view, is through mentoring as an intervention and a preventative measure.
“Investment in, and the recognition of the transformative powers of, mentoring as a prevention measure is the next step. It is ten times harder to help an exploited child from a county lines gang once they have already been initiated, than if we can recognise the signs and step in to help steer a vulnerable child away from that path in the first place.
“Should vulnerable children in care have regular and easy access to specialised, intervention-driven mentoring – from boxing to dramatherapy to music programmes – not only would they discover a new passion in their lives to direct their energy and attention to, thus reducing their desire to join a gang, but they would also have access to trained gang exploitation experts who would be looking out for the tell-tale signs and act as a safe and neutral confidante.”
Aklan also believes that in a wider context, treated children as criminals has not only been prevalent when working with children who have been involved in criminal gangs, but also those who have been in the care system.
She elaborated: “Taking a wider view, this concept of treating children as children, not criminals, is key not only when working with children who have been exploited by gangs, but to any child in the care system. A disturbing number of children in care are placed in handcuffs during secure transportation, such as to court mandated appearances, to schools or between care homes, and they are treated like criminals.
“When we handcuff children, we are setting a dangerous precedent. If we are to show children that being exploited by a gang does not make them a criminal, we cannot treat them as criminals when in our care and protection. That is what the Hope Instead of Handcuffs campaign is all about.”
