Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership (DSCP) is a Responsible Authority under the Licensing Act 2003 for the grant, renewal, review and revocation of alcohol licences for on and off licence premises and registered clubs. You can find more information about applying for a licence at Licences and Permits on the Durham County Council website.
Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership (DSCP) believes you and your business can play an active and positive role in safeguarding children and young people against alcohol misuse, drug and substance misuse and preventing children and young people from becoming victims of sexual exploitation.
Alcohol
Safeguarding measures that need to be included in your license application
Children and young people will normally have access to licensed premises. As a Responsible Authority under the Licensing Act, Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership will want to see a range of measures included as part of your licence application to ensure that licensees are taking the right steps to protect children. These measures include:
Verification of age: Safeguards to be in place so alcohol is not served to, or purchased on behalf of under age children. Any premises licence should include a mandatory condition that an age verification policy is operated. Durham SCP recommends the Challenge 25 standard which requires any one looking under 25 to produce photographic evidence of proof of age from either a passport, driving licence or PASS accredited scheme before alcohol is supplied.
Minimise the risk of proxy sales: To work with the police to minimise the risk of proxy provision or proxy sales. (This is alcohol purchased or obtained for young people by relatives or older friends).
Maintain a refusals register: Where a sale of alcohol is refused because a person appears drunk or appears to be under 18, a refusal register to be updated and made available to the police on request.
Training of staff: All staff responsible for selling age restricted goods to be trained to implement the age verification policy. Staff training to include the risk from proxy sales. Training records for staff to be maintained and refresher training to be provided annually.
What licensees can do to improve safeguarding
- Ensure that all staff coming into contact with children and young people are vetted.
- Identify at least one member of staff (a manager or designated premises supervisor) to take a lead on safeguarding issues and to advise other staff.
- Display signage about the laws relating to children and alcohol.
- Develop management plans for organised events.
- Use clearly displayed signage so that people are clear which areas, activities and at what time sessions are family friendly.
- Join your local Pub Watch / Shop Watch.
- Gain accreditation to the awards scheme ‘Best Bar None’ that promotes responsible management of alcohol-licensed premises.
- Do take action if you notice a child or young person in a vulnerable situation.
Possible risks to children and young people that licensees need to consider
Young children can become frightened if adults are unable to control their actions, and a child witnessing aggressive or violent behaviour could be emotionally or even physically harmed. Remember too that children like to copy adults and will taste or finish off left over drinks (even small quantities of alcohol are harmful to children).
The behaviour of adults could also pose a risk if they are drunk or unable to supervise their children, who could wander off or attract the unwanted attention of strangers. If you have any concerns for a child please call the police on 101 or in an emergency call 999.
Adults who are working in proximity to children could also pose a risk if they exploit their position to develop a relationship with a child for inappropriate reasons.
Young teenagers access to and their consumption of alcohol can make them vulnerable to:
- impaired judgement and decision making
- a loss of inhibitions and an increase of risk taking activity
- drink driving or drug driving
- an increase in sexual risk taking activity
- approaches from sexual predators and sexual exploitation
- physical harm by getting involved in arguments and fights or walking home alone after drinking
Mixed age events
We would not advise mixed age events where alcohol is available for sale to persons over 18 and those under 18 may also be in attendance at the event.
These events significantly increase potential risk. If you are holding a mixed age event you should consider:
- pre-loading (drinking before going out to a venue where access to alcohol might be expensive, limited or prohibited) and proxy sales
- drug use or New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) – often incorrectly called legal highs
- adequate supervision and the safety of young people in and around the venue
- all other vulnerabilities highlighted in this website
Taxis
Taxi drivers can form a crucial part of the fight against Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and be the eyes and ears of the community, providing potentially important information to the Police. County Durham is one of the safest counties in England. Durham SCP is looking to engage with all communities to help prevent children from becoming victims of child sexual exploitation. We believe that local businesses can play a positive role in preventing CSE. You have the power to help prevent child sexual exploitation and trafficking.
Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)
Child sexual exploitation involves young people under the age of 18 who are encouraged or forced into a sexual relationship or situation by an adult. It often involves young people being offered something in return for performing sexual acts.
These could be:
- alcohol
- cigarettes
- money
- drugs
- mobile phones
- affection
- other ‘gifts’
Trafficking
Children and young people who are victims of sexual exploitation are also vulnerable to trafficking across cities and counties within the UK for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Trafficking in the UK applies irrespective of distance travelled, and can be applied to movements within the same city.
How taxi drivers can help
Taxis are a very safe and reliable way to get around and we want to keep it that way.
The police know that some victims are transported in taxis to addresses where they are then sexually assaulted or raped. They also know that some men have posed as taxi drivers and picked up women who have then been assaulted or raped.
The police need the help of all legitimate taxi drivers to help them stop this criminal behaviour.
If you see something, say something- call 101.
Signs to look out for
- Passengers who appear to be in a vulnerable state due to alcohol or drugs.
- Passengers who are accompanied by a man or woman when in this state and don’t know where they are going.
- Unlicensed vehicles hanging around areas where there are likely to be young people in a vulnerable state looking for taxis to go home.
- Taking or collecting young people (girls and boys) from hotels, B&Bs or house parties.
- Adults requesting taxi rides to and from locations – taking young people with them.
- Taking young people to A&E who are not in the presence of parents.
- Young people who look distressed or intimidated.
What to do
- Make notes about the information you know.
- Call the police non-emergency number 101 to report your concerns about possible sexual exploitation.
- Report to Police through Crimestoppers 0800 555 111.
- Text information anonymously to ‘say something’ 166 000.
Information to share
- Names.
- Locations and addresses of concerns.
- Descriptions of people.
- Car registration plates, makes and models of vehicles.
- Description of concerning activity.
- Information which may be ‘rumour’.
What we are doing about child sexual exploitation
We have:
- developed a CSE Disruption toolkit
- trained hundreds of police officers and other agency staff in a new and proactive training tactic – IPC
- carried out LSCB audits for both CSE and missing children incidents
- undertaken an audit of responses for named suspects
- created the ‘ERASE’ (Educate and Raise Awareness of Sexual Exploitation) brand, team and website
- widened our training and awareness to those services not traditionally associated with safeguarding
- developed stronger relationships with communities through Area Action Partnerships (AAP), raising awareness of CSE and how to report concerns or intelligence of CSE
- actively engaged young people within identified vulnerable groups
- Worked closely with the licensing department of Durham County Council
County Durham has a dedicated multi-agency team called ERASE that aims to improve responses to CSE and intervene early with young people who go missing from care or their own homes. The team scrutinise every absent and missing case to ensure a proportionate response. All CSE intelligence will be shared with operational meetings to plan responses and disruption to offenders.