Skip to content ↓

Safeguarding focus

The safeguarding focus for November is 'County Lines'.

We continue our safeguarding focus for the month of November - County Lines.

Our tip for this week (w/c 2 November) is for parents to KNOW what is meant by County Lines:

County lines is a form of criminal exploitation, in which criminals groom and manipulate children to sell drugs, often in towns outside their home county. It is a serious problem in the UK, its name comes from the mobile phone 'lines' that are used to control where the young person goes to deliver drugs.

Stats:
46,000 children in England are thought to be involved in gangs. There is likely many more.

90% of English police forces have seen county lines activity in their area and the violence is getting worse.

Story/Article:
Read a life account of one parent's shock at her young son being involved in County Lines
https://inews.co.uk/…/county-lines-drugs-dealing-children-j…


Our tip for this week (w/c 9 November) is for parents to KNOW the signs and indicators of children being exploited by gangs. You can find a poster produced by the police (attached). As well as a video from Leicestershire police: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2735202823369785

Our statistic for this week: The national Crime Agency reported that by 2019 there were more than 2,000 'deal lines' in the UK.

Finally, here is a link to a newspaper article, regarding how county lines affected one family. The article is distressing but we think it is so important for parents/carers to understand that this is an issue affecting students in rural areas and how damaging and spiralling this issue can become: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/Parents-despair-son-17-fell-w…