Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership

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Harm Outside the Home (HOTH)

As children grow and develop, they start to spend more time away from home. Some children experience abuse outside of the home, from individuals, groups of people or gangs who are not connected to their family. These people can be adults or other children and young people. The abuse can happen in school, in the community and online. We call this Harm Outside the Home (HOTH). Harm Outside the Home is also known as ‘extra-familial harm’, ‘contextual safeguarding’ or ‘child exploitation’.

Exploitation

Exploitation occurs when an individual or a group of people take advantage of another person so that the abuser benefits from it. This often means getting the person who is being exploited to do things they might not do otherwise. The abuser does this by having power over the other person. Abusers will often identify something that a child wants or needs. It could be something physical like money or expensive clothes, or it could be emotional, like affection or attention. They will give the child what they think they want, but they will expect something in return for this.

It’s important to remember that abusers can be very manipulative. Parents, children/young people and practitioners may not recognise the harm at first as the abuser may appear to be kind when they are grooming the child/young person. However, abusers may also use intimidation and violence, and they may threaten the child/young person that something bad could happen to them or their family. The way children are harmed varies and each situation is unique.

All forms of exploitation always involve a power imbalance between the person or people causing harm and the victim.

HOTH can occur in places and spaces such as:

  • schools
  • with groups of other children and young people
  • in public spaces such as parks
  • online
  • in the wider community, such as hotels, shops, taxis and takeaways.

Keeping children and young people safe beyond their homes requires a contextual approach to identify and respond to risks and harm.

Contextual safeguarding means working together with parents/carers, their family network and people in the neighbourhood and wider community who have influence locally and are the ‘eyes and ears’ on what is happening in their community. This could include schools, sports clubs, youth clubs, housing officers, neighbourhood policing, and community guardians such as bus drivers and local businesses.

Identifying HOTH

Any child or young person can become a victim of exploitation, so it is important that practitioners are aware of the possible warning signs and indicators that could suggest the child/young person is at risk or is being harmed.

Some behaviours may simply be part of normal child and teenage development. However, it’s important to pay attention to changes that seem unusual for a child/young person. Often, a shift in behaviour, especially if it is out of character, can be one of the most significant signs that something might be going on.

Possible signs/indicators of child exploitation

The child/young person is:

  • missing from home and their whereabouts is unknown
  • spending less time with family and their usual friends
  • not attending school/college and their grades are dropping
  • involved in anti-social behaviour or crime, including ‘drug running’/county lines
  • misusing drugs or alcohol
  • in touch with unknown adults or people who practitioners have worries about (‘people of concern’)
  • pregnant or has contracted sexually transmitted infections
  • using the internet/a mobile phone for things that cause concern
  • attending Accident and Emergency with no plausible explanation
  • attending appointments with an unknown person that causes concern
  • displaying unexplained amounts of money, expensive clothes or other items (eg digital currency)
  • contacting with hotels, taxi companies or fast-food outlets with no explanation why
  • in an abusive relationship with an adult or another young person
  • advocating terrorism/extreme views

Disruption

Placing the responsibility on the person or people causing harm to the child/young person means taking action to disrupt their abusive behaviour to reduce risk and prevent further harm.  Disruption can also be used with a child/young person to reduce the risks to them.

Disruption tactics are multi-agency interventions and can be used alongside existing plans for children, criminal investigations and support services.

PREVENT

Durham Police: Prevent is a Home Office programme to help police protect children and young people who are vulnerable to radicalisation. This includes stopping children and young people from becoming involved in or supporting terrorism or other extremist ideologies.

The role of Prevent Officers is to help children and young people to move away from extremism. Prevent officers work alongside partners such as health, schools, Local Authorities and community groups to put the right support in place for the child/young person.

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