Hotel staff trained to spot child exploitation

A training session was held at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Middlesbrough

Hotel staff are being trained to help keep children safe by spotting the signs of exploitation.

Barnardo’s Tees Valley Services has started delivering a training programme for hotels in the Cleveland Police force area.

It is part of a national initiative - Operation Makesafe - to empower hotel staff to recognise and respond to concerns of child exploitation.

Trainer Sarah Pritchard said making the training specific to the Cleveland Police force area "really brought it into focus for the staff, generating lots of helpful ideas on how to reduce further harm".

Cleveland Police's Violence Reduction Unit (CURV) allocated £5,000 to the children's charity Barnardo's to deliver free training to safeguard children and young people from exploitation by increasing awareness among hospitality businesses and services.

Ms Pritchard, who is from Barnado's Tees Valley, added that the conversations with hotels so far had been "invaluable".

"If we are going to reduce the opportunity for criminals to exploit our children, we need people in the spaces where our children are being harmed," she said.

'Red flags'

The training sessions explain what child exploitation is, how it can happen in hotels and what steps staff members should take if they have concerns for a child.

CURV works to develop long-term solutions to tackle serious crime and violence, the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner in Cleveland said.

Head of CURV John Holden said: "Sadly, child exploitation is happening now across Cleveland.

"The signs may not always be obvious but the ‘red flags’ are always there for when a child is being exploited, often for criminal or sexual purposes."