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REACT is a newly formed project run by Bee-Leaf Project Learning Group CIC which has  been designed specifically to work with young people who are predominantly experiencing  extra familial harm, Child Criminal Exploitation and/or Child Sexual Exploitation. We also however will provide support to families who may fall outside of this criteria but who are facing  complex and entrenched difficulties and areas of risk. REACT will be launched in March 2023.  

REACT is based on five concepts; relationship-based practice, educative work, advocating for  and on behalf of children, young people and families, taking a contextual lens and giving the  people we support the time they need.  

REACT has been designed to work with some of our community’s most at risk young people  and their families. We aim to provide a service that provides protection and safety to young  people whilst also empowering them to have a voice. Our strong relational skills mean that we  are confident in our abilities to support young people who are or have been too scared or  unable to engage with other services or statutory agencies. 

REACT responds to young people  and families when they need it. We are responsive and needs led, and our primary concern is  the psychological and physical safety and welfare of the people we work with.  

REACT is concerned with really listening to and hearing the experiences of children, young  people and their families and ensuring they are the centre of any decisions that are made  about their lives and the support they need. Children, young people and families are and  should be seen as the experts in their own lives. We are passionate about identifying,  harnessing and building on the strengths and resilience factors that children, young people  and their families possess.  

We do not solely focus on risk factors or behaviours that may previously have been labelled  as concerning. REACT takes a trauma and attachment focussed approach to all of our  assessments and interventions. Some of our staff have specialisms in trauma and attachment  informed practice, and we take a stance of viewing people’s behaviours that may normally be  seen as maladaptive or harmful as self-protective and a response to dangers in their lives.  This approach to supporting our young people and families supports our holistic and strengths-based method and allows us to really see behind any presenting behaviours and understand  their history, lives and functioning, thus allowing the provision of a more accurate, tailored and  effective package of support.  

 Bee-Leaf has successfully provided alternative education and 1-1 mentoring since it began in  2020 and we are passionate about continuing to provide these services. We have however  become increasingly aware that the challenges faced by our most vulnerable children, young  people and their families are far more wide ranging that our current service is equipped to  support. Child Criminal Exploitation and Child Sexual Exploitation are areas of significant harm  faced by our children and young people that have a devastating impact on all areas of their  lives, both now and in their futures. It is an ever-growing area of harm, but sadly one which  very often remains hidden and difficult to tackle and we are committed and determined to bring about change in this area. There is somewhat limited academic and legislative research in the  area of child exploitation, but that which does exist raises some very sad areas of focus that  we believe REACT can begin to tackle in our local area.  

In 2018, the government published the findings of a Joint Targeted Area Inspection focussed  on Child Exploitation and Modern Day Slavery. The paper states (pg4): “As we reported in  2016, understanding exploitation of children ‘is not simply about identifying the characteristics  of children who are vulnerable to abuse...it requires a wider perspective and understanding of  the contexts, situations and relationships in which exploitation [of children] is likely to manifest’.  There is a real need for urgency in this work. In these inspections, we found that there were  children who were criminally and sexually exploited in all the areas visited. We found that  some agencies were identifying risks to children and responding well to those children who  were being criminally exploited. However, some agencies were too late in recognising the  scale or the extent of the problem in their local area. For some children, this meant that risk  was not addressed quickly enough. Children who are being exploited cannot wait for agencies  that are lagging behind or failing to recognise this issue”.  

The same paper further raised the need for all agencies supporting young people to  “understand that children who have been criminally exploited are the victims of crime” and “all  agencies working with children need to understand that children’s behaviours, such as  offending behaviour, should be seen in the wider context of other vulnerabilities such as  criminal and sexual exploitation” (pg11). Although the paper highlighted that police forces  across the country were able to recognise young people as victims of exploitation, it was also  noted that “it was still possible that a child who has committed an offence may still be  prosecuted despite clear evidence of exploitation” (pg 18). Two years on from the Government  paper, The University of Sussex undertook a study in collaboration with East Sussex County  Council which highlighted a lack of research into the prevalence of Child Exploitation in rural  and coastal regions of the UK yet also highlighted its prevalence in these types of geographical  areas locally (Lefevre et al, 2020). The study highlighted the risk of young people experiencing  exploitation being placed in care or secure accommodation and entering the criminal justice  system. This is an area raised previously in 2019 when the Children’s Society reported that  instances of young people being charged with possession with intent to supply offences was rising year on year (Turner et al, 2019) and that “The complex legal framework, which allows  children to be seen and treated as offenders first and as victims second – if children are lucky  to have access to professionals who can advocate for a NRM referral to be made – seems not  to be on the child’s side”. Heartbreakingly, the report also states; “the criminals are winning,  and professionals are struggling to keep up with the scale and context of criminal exploitation.  The response from statutory agencies is too variable and often comes too late. Children are  being too easily criminalised, and are not viewed as victims of exploitation. There is also a  concerning lack of data and reporting about children at risk of criminal exploitation. There is  no easy solution to eradicate child criminal exploitation, but we can and must do more. We  need earlier help for children at risk, responses that see children as victims and not  criminalised, and joined-up national and local responses. Through coordinated, concerted  efforts across statutory and voluntary sectors, and by working with local communities and  families, we can reach vulnerable young people earlier and begin to disrupt the criminal  exploitation of children” (pg3).  

When thinking about the response to these issues, and the wider ability of services to tackle  and safeguard from exploitation, Turner et al (2019) cite a lack of resources as an issue in this  battle; “Professionals having the resources to offer young people something meaningful – such  as the opportunity to have long term support and relationships with the same worker, or the  chance to take part in activities that that they love – would require a greater level of resourcing  than is currently available to services” (pg72). Lefevre et al (2020) state through their study  that although the participants of the study shared that they felt the professional involvement  they received helped in terms of the short-term safety of the young person, “there was less  certainty about longer term safety or the reduction of risk for that young person” (Lefevre et al,  2020, pg16). We believe that REACT are able to tackle this through the provision of genuine,  enduring and positive relationships with trusted workers.

REACT has thus been formed predominantly to respond to the extremely worrying bank of  evidence and research that suggests the prevalence of child exploitation and modern-day slavery continues to rise and to respond to the lack of adequate service in the East Sussex  area to support young people at risk in these areas. Bee-Leaf Project feel passionately that  the hidden nature of exploitation and modern-day slavery needs to be addressed urgently,  and that more focussed and responsive support needs to be available. The Children’s Society  (2019) states; “Finding the right way to respond to young people who are targeted or exploited  criminally is challenging. Participants talked at length about how there may not be one solution  that suits all. Instead there is a need to develop an approach that puts a child at the centre,  enables them to gain trust in professionals and develop resilience to move away from child  criminal exploitation” and “Responses to child criminal exploitation must be holistic,  addressing presenting factors such as a child going missing from home; abuse and violence,  such as a child being forced to carry drugs within their body; and trauma-informed, to take into  account the impact of this horrific crime on a child’s mental health and emotional well-being.  Children should be supported for as long as it takes for them to build trusted relationships with  professionals and recover. No longer can child exploitation be met by disbelief and  criminalisation” (pg86). A recommendation of a further Government paper – “It was hard to  escape” - in 2020 was to provide “intensive and dedicated work with individual children and  their families to build good relationships”. The same paper names the most important  components of any such work to be “persistence, tenacity, creativity, flexibility and ability to  respond quickly” (pg47). REACT aims to embody this approach and tackle this devastating  and ever-growing safeguarding risk. 

•  To unearth and develop the excellence of youth through meaningful, enduring and  genuine relationships. 
• To protect children, young people and families from the harm and devastation caused  by extra familial harm and prevent this harm wherever possible - To provide targeted, individualised and responsive support, intervention and diversion  to children, young people and families being affected by extra familial harm or who are  facing enduring, entrenched and complex areas of need and risk.
• To provide a strengths-based, wrap around support system to the whole family that  aims to address the difficulties faced by families that can increase risks associated with  vulnerability to extra-familial harm and that can increase risk in other areas of family  life 
• To challenge and address societal issues faced by the young people and families we  support such as oppression, racism, discrimination, social isolation, poverty and socio-economic inequality. There is research to suggest that a disproportionate number of  mainly boys from black, minority and ethnic backgrounds are becoming involved in  exploitation and the criminal justice system. This needs challenging and addressing. 
• To offer an “alternative” to the children, young people and families we work with. To  harness and build on their strengths, to improve education and employment  opportunities and prospects and to create obtainable opportunities for their futures that  are in line with their wishes and desires.  
• To raise awareness and understanding across society of the hidden areas of harm that  children and young people are exposed to; namely exploitation and Modern Day  Slavery. 
• To improve the safety, resilience and emotional health of our community. 

• REACT will complete an assessment of strength, need and risk with the young person  and their family in order to guide the support we provide. This assessment will consider  the immediate needs of the young person and their family alongside a holistic view of  the wider family situation and needs. The completion of this assessment will not delay  the commencement of any direct support that is needed. 
• We will provide trauma and attachment informed individualised, tailored and targeted  one to one support to children and young people who are experiencing Extra Familial  Harm, Child Criminal Exploitation and/or Child Sexual Exploitation. This support will  take a contextual lens to consider the wider environmental and social factors in play in  the young people’s lives. The support will be designed to work with the young person  and their family to understand the complex factors that will be in play in terms of the  exploitation they are the victim of, and any other harm they may be experiencing. We  aim to provide all young people and their families with a positive relationship with their  mentor which can be harnessed to explore these areas of risk and harm and identify  together what support can be put in place to reduce this. REACT will provide specific  support such as therapeutic based interventions, intervention targeted at specific areas  of risk such as mental health, domestic abuse and substance use, life story work,  consequential thinking work, safety planning and educative work on exploitation,  grooming, weapons, drugs, county lines and criminality.  
• REACT will provide a high level of diversionary activities (sports, music, activities) to  the young people we support in order to provide another safer and more positive option  for how the young people could spend their time and to support the young people to  build on their own identity and interests. We can also provide respite for young people  we support which can include overnight stays where necessary. 
• We will provide responsive and needs led support. This means that it will not be  dictated by office hours – it will be dictated by what the child, young person and/or  family need. We will respond swiftly, effectively and in real time to “critical and  reachable moments”; moments in a child’s life that opens up the possibility, however  brief, of a “way out”. Far too often, these moments are missed.  
• We will provide a support line to young people we support who may be “missing”. Often for young people experiencing exploitation, any “missing” episodes will be due to  coercion or grooming. We will also support parents and carers during these times  which will undoubtably be stressful and scary for them. We understand the conflicting  factors that will be in play here for the young people and we aim to provide a safe person for them to keep in contact with, and to allow to bring them home when they  feel safe enough to allow this.  
• We will provide support to the young people we support if needed at court or in custody - We are able to provide alternative educational provision programmes to the young  people we support via Bee-Leaf Project if this is deemed suitable. We run programmes  such as AQA’s and are able to support young people to access work experience  placements.  
• We will provide a bridge with other services if this is needed and use our relationships  with the young people we support to help create or maintain a supportive multi-agency  team around the young person and their family. For example, we are able to work with  and alongside Youth Offending Teams, Children’s services and Mental Health  services.  
• We will provide financial support if needed for families in crisis and poverty for essential  items such as food, clothing and utilities 

Initially, REACT will support up to 5 young people / families from the East Sussex area where  the young person is aged between 12 and 18. This support will also extend to their wider  families to ensure we are taking a contextual lens and whole family approach, and  interventions can be provided to all family members if needed. This will be on a pilot basis,  and during the pilot period the support will be offered at no charge to the families. Only selfreferrals from families or young people themselves will be accepted initially unless in  exceptional circumstances (ie; a young person at immediate risk and where it is felt REACT’s  involvement could safeguard the young person) and in consultation between Bee-Leaf and  the referring agency. We are aware that the number of young people we can support during  the pilot is low, however we are of the view that our priority needs to be ensuring that the  service has the capacity to be the responsive and needs led service that we are designed to  be, and that we have the space and time to adapt it as needed during the pilot period.  REACT will be piloted initially for a 6-month period following which we will evaluate the model  and provision. We hope to be able to demonstrate in this time the benefit of the project and  our future aim is to extend our service for partner agencies to commission. We envisage  continuing to accept referrals on a self-referral basis alongside commissioned referrals from  the Local Authority and Police in the future. 

REACT have not set a time limit on the support we provide. Our aim is to work with and  alongside families to support them to move to a place where our support is needed less, and  where they feel more able and confident to navigate life safely and happily without this support.  We also however place a lot of weight on the importance of support being provided in the  young person and families own timescales and as such we are equipped to provide this  support for as long as is needed.   Should young people and their families move to a place where the support they need from  REACT is less or they no longer need our support, we will continue to offer a “keep in touch”  service for periods of time where risks may increase again or simply for when they need a  listening ear. Enduring relationships are key.  

During the initial pilot period there will be no charge to families for the service, and any  associated costs (such as activities or diversionary plans) will be funded via charity grant  applications, fundraising and donations. We held our first fundraising event in September 2022  which was successful, and we plan to hold further events such as this over the coming year. When we are established and have evaluated our pilot, we aim for REACT to become a  commissionable service available to Local Authorities and agencies such as the police. Costs  for this will be dependent on the level and type of support that each family require but we will  endeavour to keep our costs as low as is possible