A Northamptonshire team tackling girls being groomed by criminal gangs have joined a national operation on London’s major railway networks to share their leading work.
The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner’s Early Intervention Team brought their expertise to a British Transport Police (BTP) operation, helping to identify victims of county lines exploitation at Kings Cross and London St Pancras stations during half term.
It’s the work of the Commissioner’s dedicated team, and Northamptonshire Police’s Youth Violence Intervention Unit, with a dedicated Girls Pathway, which resonated nationally.
Their focus is to support teenage girls linked to criminal activity who could be concealing weapons or drugs.
Danielle’s Stone’s specialists used their insight as part of this operation to help safeguard young people, and give advice, to reduce their risk of serious violence going forward.
Sophie Branston, who leads the Girls Pathway (pictured below, right), launched the project one year ago in Northamptonshire to shine a spotlight on how exploited girls often go unnoticed by services, compared to boys, as they are less likely to arouse suspicion.
After speaking to girls in custody through a pilot project, and unpicking their life stories, they found many of their experiences were multi-layered with some being groomed through their relationships, peers and social media.
She said: “What we’ve noticed with girls is they don’t present in the same way as boys, sometimes we can see different overarching themes like substance misuse or mental health concerns, as opposed to extroverted behaviour.
“When we started talking to the young girls it unearthed their vulnerabilities and opened up a much a bigger picture of exploitation. Quite often they were linked to offenders we were aware of who could pose further risk to them.”
The operation in London saw specialist teams from across BTP, including its County Lines Taskforce, join forces with multi-agency partners.
Senior Early Intervention Officer for the Police Fire and Crime Commissioner’s office, Augusta Ryan, (pictured above, left) said: “We’ve done a lot of work with BTP over the last 18 months at Northamptonshire railway stations, which led to us being invited to a national event.
“We believe it’s because there are very few interventions across Forces in this country that have dedicated pathways to safeguard young girls.
“A lot of the focus is around sexual exploitation but where we come in is our focus on criminal exploitation and we are proud to help lead the way forward tackling violence against women and girls.”
British Transport Police Detective Superintendent David Udomhiaye said how valuable it is to be working with partners outside policing, like Danielle’s Early Intervention Team.
He added: “During half term week, we know there is high footfall, and we continue to make the railway a hostile environment for criminals.
“It’s massively important to have an embedded stakeholder team within our taskforces on operations, they give us perspective, and we look at an incident from a safeguarding lens first.
“Our goal is not to criminalise children but to safeguard and protect them as soon as possible and then to go after who are exploiting them. Having our partners with us is crucial to achieve that aim.”
Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Danielle Stone said: “This national spotlight reflects the impact the Girls Pathway has already created in a short space of time in Northamptonshire.
“The team’s proactive approach identifies risk early and takes action to protect young girls from further harm, which meet my wider missions to halve violence against women and girls and give young people the best start in life.
“This work is not just about making an impact in the moment; we’re focused on creating a lasting legacy where safeguarding for young people is understood as a joint responsibility.”
