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Working with our Prevention Programme

We work across England and Wales to improve responses and prevent exploitation and abuse. We collaborate, making connections across regions and sectors, and we empower our partners to create change in their communities.

By partnering with organisations in every sector, we can create a future where children are better protected and every victim is properly supported.

Number of pages:

8 pages

Date published:

Prevention impact stats

77,500

people have been reached directly through the programme since 2019

8

Prevention Officers cover all of England and Wales

35

police forces are currently engaging with our sector-leading #LookCloser campaign

young woman outside smiling

Become a partner

By partnering with us, you’ll benefit from expert advice, tailored resources, skilled facilitation and specialist training.

You will have the opportunity to co-design solutions to some of the biggest issues affecting children’s lives.

And you’ll join our nationwide network of agencies, businesses, and individuals to create a society that works for all children.

What is the Prevention Programme?

We’re a systems change programme aiming to transform the spaces that children spend time in, and the organisations that they come into contact with.

No child is responsible for their own exploitation, and it’s not their responsibility to protect themselves from harm. It’s up to all of us - businesses, the public, and professionals - to play an active role in protecting children from abuse.

We’re guided by insight and evidence from our frontline practice across the country. We focus on the most important emerging issues to achieve real, sustainable change.

What is systems change?

For us, systems change is about working collaboratively to redesign and influence the people, processes, rules, power, and structures that make up the systems impacting children and young people to achieve positive change. We want to break the cycles of disadvantage that perpetuate challenges faced by young people.

We identify opportunities to innovate, learn, adapt, and try new things at all levels. We’re supporting banks to better identify and support child customers who are being forced to commit fraud. We’re helping the police to make the most of every interaction they have with a child, while making sure safeguarding is their first consideration. And we’re bringing together care homes from across the country to share and embed good practice and protect young people from harm.

boy looking worried on train

#LookCloser campaign

Our #LookCloser campaign, in partnership with British Transport Police and National County Lines Coordination Centre, supports everyone to learn how to spot and report signs of child exploitation.

Prevention priorities

Everyone’s responsibility

We help businesses, organisations, and the general public to understand that we all have a valuable role to play in preventing exploitation and abuse. That includes offering training and resources, facilitating conversations, and running our award-winning #LookCloser campaign.

Reframing narratives

We support our partners to challenge assumptions and bias and to overcome the barriers and discrimination that can lead to poorer outcomes for some young people. We encourage an inclusive approach to working with children that recognises the complexity of their experiences and that they are not in any way to blame for what has happened to them. We work to improve how victims are identified and the responses they receive from the organisations that exist to support them.

Increasing collaboration

We work at local, regional, and national levels to build strong relationships across sectors and areas. We act as bridge builders, bringing a diverse range of agencies and organisations together to better prevent and respond to child exploitation and abuse.

How Prevention works

We’re a facilitator and convenor, bringing partners together to develop collective solutions that work long-term. Each individual and agency has a unique contribution to make. And the best solutions are those we design together.

We support relevant police operations and multi-agency initiatives, making sure efforts to tackle organised crime have safeguarding at their core. We’re changing the narrative around victimhood and responsibility, so that all children who have been exploited get the right support.

We offer advice and consultation on everything from issue-specific guidance to strategies and protocols. We help spot gaps and weaknesses in existing policies and practices and support organisations to address these.

We share training and resources, providing expertise and practical recommendations tailored to issues and audiences. We’re a specialist within a multi-agency environment, and our resources and learning programme have real impact.