In late February 2019, Keys Group Policing Specialist Steve Challinor, North Wales Inspector Vic Powell and Quality Education with Care Director Natalie Fletcher, hosted an event to raise awareness of exploitation.
The event, held at Deeside College, was attended by more than 200 front-line professionals from across North East Wales who are directly involved with vulnerable individuals at an increased risk of being targeted by criminal gangs.
Keys Residential Children’s Home Managers attended the event, along with representatives from statutory, non-statutory and third sector organisations. The event was supported by Keys Managing Director for Wales, Dan Svensson, the Police, and the Crime Commissioner for North Wales.
The event, entitled ‘The Day With No Name’, sought to help attending professionals understand how exploitation by criminal gangs can affect the young people or vulnerable adults they come into contact with, and that child criminal exploitation (CSE), county lines and radicalisation all have a common thread – exploitation. The title of the day aimed to encourage people to think widely when dealing with exploitation.
There were presentations on the day from SPACE (Stop & Prevent Adolescent Exploitation). The speakers were able to deliver very hard hitting messages born from personal experiences of involvement in county lines.
The event was a huge success and is likely to be rolled out across other areas of Wales too.
