How safeguarding works in practice: Harriet's story

Safeguarding agencies on the Island have to 'think the unthinkable'

The agencies who make up the Island's Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub have to 'think the unthinkable' to keep young people safe.

Manx Care's head of safeguarding has been sharing their experiences as Safeguarding Week comes to an end on the Isle of Man today (14 November); the theme for 2024 was 'All-Age Exploitation'.

Exploitation includes sexual, criminal (including county lines), modern slavery and online exploitation and has been described as 'absolutely a live issue' on the Isle of Man.

A key element of safeguarding and preventing exploitation here is the Island’s Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub.

Every day we've heard from the various agencies that work together in the MASH - which is ‘a co-located, multi-agency and multi-disciplinary team that brings together professionals from services that have contact with children and young people who may be at risk of harm’.

You can read more about the MASH here.

According to government its purpose is to ‘improve outcomes for them by ensuring there is a comprehensive and joined-up response to reducing the risk of harm with professionals able to make the best possible use of their combined knowledge to ensure that children and young people are safe’.

Some of the agencies represented in the MASH include Manx Care’s Children’s Social Care and Adult Social Work teams, its Early Help team, broader health professionals from across Manx Care including its safeguarding team and officers from Isle of Man Constabulary.

This week we've heard from:

• Chair of the Isle of Man Safeguarding Board Lesley Walker
• Manx Care's Head of Safeguarding Terri Banks and Manx Care's Named Professional for Contextual Safeguarding Samantha Holmes
• The Isle of Man Constabulary's Detective Inspector for Protecting Vulnerable People Samuel Cannell

They've told us what safeguarding is, and how to spot the signs of exploitation in young people and vulnerable adults.

Their various teams work together as part of MASH.

CASE STUDY

To demonstrate how - and to avoid accidentally replicating any active cases - we asked Mrs Holmes to create a fictional* case study for Manx Radio which we then presented to our interviewees to discuss.

Let us introduce you to Harriet. 

Harriet is 15 and in her final year at school.

She is predicted good grades and wants to go to college when she leaves school.

Harriet is hoping to study health and social care and wishes to pursue a career in nursing.

Harriet’s friends have fallen out with her because her friend's' boyfriend shared that he liked her.

Now there are rumours going around school that she has slept with him and they are calling her really mean things.

This doesn’t stop when Harriet gets home.

Snapchat and WhatsApp messages of images of Harriet, which have been altered to depict her in a state of undress are being sent around school.

Harriet starts to miss lessons to avoid some of her friends.

Her grades soon start to decline and her parents are called in to the school to discuss.

During this time Harriet receives a message off a young boy, who reports he is 16, who she doesn’t know.

“Hey beautiful”, the message reads.

Harriet responds: “Do I know you?”

He replies with: “No, but I’d like to get to know you’.

Harriet and Luke begin to message late into the night.

Over the next few days, pictures and many messages are sent between the two until one day Luke asks to meet up.

They plan for Harriet to skip school and meet at his flat when his parents are out.

Harriet meets Luke as she gets off the bus and he looks older than 16 but she continues as he is being friendly.

When they are at Luke’s they have vodka and Harriet feels drunk. Harriet falls asleep. When she wakes up she realises school finished hours ago.

She looks at her phone and she has 32 missed calls from her parents.

She tries to leave but Luke persuades her to stay telling her he is falling in love with her - he also confesses that he is 32-years-old.

During the next day Harriet feels scared to try to leave.

Young boys come to the flat and drop off parcels for Luke, in return they receive vapes and some get money.

Harriet watched one boy get punched to the floor because a parcel had gone missing.

A day later Harriet makes a run for it and heads to the local shops to ask for help.

MASH RESPONSE

Whilst Harriet is fictional she is based on many cases Mrs Holmes has personally dealt with.

We asked her what the first steps would be in tackling this sort of situation:

What would the police's involvement look like?

Sam Cannell is the Isle of Man Constabulary's Detective Inspector for Protecting Vulnerable People:

Jumping back to health and social care - Mrs Holmes' return home interview could lead to further lines of enquiry:

Manx Care's Head of Safeguarding Terri Banks sums the MASH's work up in three words - they have to "think the unthinkable":

She also says Harriet would be supported going forwards - this would not be a 'one strategy meeting and done' type situation:

SIGNS

In young people like Harriet there are a range of warning signs that they may be being targeted.

They include:

• Receiving game currency and other gifts within games.
• Children who are travelling alone and look frightened and maybe have no tickets or money to pay for travel
• Children who look frightened in the company of other children or adults
• Children travelling alone at night
• A child or young person who allows others to speak for them when addressed directly
• Those under the influence of alcohol or drugs
• Their physical appearance may show signs of injury, malnourishment and maybe unkempt
• They might seem unfamiliar with the local area or not be local
• They could be receiving excessive texts or phone calls
• They have been given a mobile phone
• Are they deliberately avoiding authority figures such as police officers or railway staff?
• A young person that has access to drugs or alcohol but has no means to buy this?
• Going missing
• Involved in criminal activity

SUPPORT

If you think you or someone you know is being exploited or is at risk of being exploited, contact the Isle of Man Constabulary on 01624 631212 or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

You can also call the NSPCC Children's Helpline on 0808 800 5000.

If you are a child or young person and want to speak to someone anonymously you can contact Crimestoppers' Fearless service through its website.

If you're here on the Island and want to speak to the Head of Safeguarding call 642602.

The Safeguarding Children Duty Line is on 642697, and the Children's Initial Response Team (social care) is on 686179.

You can hear more from the MASH teams about how they would tackle Harriet's case - and their advice to parents - in this episode of Newscast: