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SAFEGUARDING IS EVERYONE'S RESPONSIBILITY

This week I was talking to a train guard who regularly works on routes going across much of England and Wales. She and her colleagues have mandatory training on Safeguarding and related issues such as counter terrorism, and cannot work unless this training is kept up to date - yet she had never heard of County Lines.


County Lines drug running is cited by youth justice professionals across the country as the most pressing issue to be addressed with the children with whom they work. Children as young as 10 are being coerced into carrying drugs, often within their bodies, mainly from urban areas to the shires or seaside. They are forced to sell drugs, setting up new markets or taking over existing ones from local dealers, and to occupy the homes of vulnerable local people as a base. They are coerced through physical or sexual violence, with filmed acts often used to blackmail them, and through threats and attacks on family members. Many, if not most of the murders of teenagers in the past couple of years, have had links to County Lines.


Public transport is one of the obvious places in which exploited children can be identified and helped. Lone children, looking tired, carrying injuries - as adults this sight should be a cause for alarm and action. Why are the staff who work on the trains out of urban areas not trained in what to do when they recognise these children?


Lord Laming's inquiry into the murder of Victoria Climbie, presented to Parliament in 2003, was sobering reading then and its messages still resonate today. One of the products of this report was a 'spidergram' showing the huge numbers of staff from multiple agencies, local authorities and governmental bodies who had seen Victoria. They had assessed her circumstances, questioned the adults responsible for her, examined her injuries. Only one raised serious concerns that the child was being abused and was in grave danger - the taxi driver who took Victoria and her 'aunt' to the hospital on one of the occasions she was badly injured.


It is the responsibility of everyone in society to protect vulnerable children from violence, exploitation and abuse. Rail and other transport workers are in a unique position to identify and refer children involved in County Lines for support. We must equip them with the training, knowledge and confidence to do so.

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