Development of a toolkit to aid health and social care staff in acute hospitals to identify childhood exploitation

Abstract

Frontline staff in acute settings need to be able to recognise and respond to exploitation concerns to improve outcomes for children and young people (CYP), given the recent rise in prevalence and the risks it poses to them. Exploitation can lead CYP to present with a variety of physical, sexual and mental health problems. However, it was identified that frontline staff at a hospital trust did not always recognise or refer child exploitation cases that presented. As a result, the author and the named nurse for children's safeguarding decided a simple, trauma-informed flow chart or pathway was required to give staff a way to proactively recognise and respond to contextual safeguarding concerns in hospital. A toolkit was developed to aid health and social care workers in acute settings to identify childhood exploitation. It is designed to encourage professional curiosity and provides staff with questions to ask to support this, alongside a digital flow chart to assess risk and screen for exploitation quickly. This quality improvement project was introduced across an integrated care board area to improve the assessment of CYP at risk of exploitation in the wider context of health and social care concerns.