Independent evaluation of Elmore’s service for adult survivors of child sexual exploitation published
An independent evaluation of a service for adult survivors of child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Oxford since its introduction in 2016 has been published, based on information including interviews with clients, caseworkers, and agencies, and data taken at various points in the clients’ engagement with the service.
In the wake of Operation Bullfinch which uncovered 300 people who had potentially been victims of CSE in Oxfordshire between 1999 and 2014, New Beginnings was introduced by Elmore Community Services in 2016, funded by Oxfordshire County Council.
The 360-degree reflection on the operation and impact of the New Beginnings service by Oxfordshire mental health, complex needs, and domestic abuse charity Elmore Community Services finds that the service offers a unique, person-centred service to each client that has life changing impacts and provides a valuable contribution to other service providers who work with this or similar groups of clients.
“Service users need to feel like they are supported through out and they shouldn't feel like they have to be a broken record. It's better to try and streamline the system”, said one client. “I don't want a service user to be having their life put in danger because of something that they have to repeat multiple times. You can't keep going through that trauma every single time, it's really unfair. Both on the service user and on the support worker as well.”
The overall conclusion of this evaluation is that New Beginnings is a unique, much needed, highly flexible service to a vulnerable group of people who have experienced horrific and multiple forms of victimisation and whose needs cannot be met by other services. The New Beginnings service supports people with compassion, commitment, and tenacity. As one of the evaluation’s interviewees said, “Every town needs a New Beginnings service.”
This group of individuals often have complex needs that are difficult to meet by statutory services alone. Recovery is a cyclical not a linear process, and efforts in moving forward from these experiences can be hampered by the needs of, and the demands made by, the criminal justice system. The New Beginning service was established to provide practical and emotional support to people who otherwise fell between the gaps in existing services.
A report by the Oxford Mail on the evaluation can be read here.
The findings highlight that:
Clients were aged between 17 and 50 years at the point of referral into New Beginnings; most (82%) were female and 52% had children, although not all were in their care. Clients presented with a range of needs, most of which stemmed from experiences of abuse, although other needs were associated with prior or subsequent life problems or traumas.
One of the key needs for many clients revolved around their lack of permanent and secure housing, with a significant proportion of them being street-homeless or sofa-surfing, both of which elevated their risk for revictimisation. Most clients had multiple and changing needs, which were often due to multiple forms of victimisation, some of which were on-going.
The complexity and multidimensionality of the clients’ needs were reflected in the wide range of agencies involved from the criminal justice system, housing and homelessness services, dedicated services for survivors of sexual assault or CSE, psychotherapies, mental health services, medical centres, substance misuse services, activity providers, Social Services/ Child Protection Services, Local councils, Citizen’s Advice Bureau, and migrant services. Some clients were internally transferred from other Elmore services once the client’s experience of CSE or a need related to this experience came to light and a small number of clients self-referred.
The service has an impact on both the clients and society more broadly, including support to the survivor that enabled them to give evidence in a trial that led to the successful conviction of the offenders, prevented the offenders exploiting further victims, and meant that the financial costs incurred by preparing a case for trial have not been wasted. Additionally, it is reported that New Beginnings has led to financial savings for other ‘emergency services’ due to the high level of crisis intervention work that they undertake as the clients reach out to them in the first instance.
New Beginnings staff have exceptional breadth and depth of knowledge, and their training has been expanded to the Elmore team more widely. The extent of support offered to, and care shown for, the clients surpasses that which could be offered by most other service providers. The service has facilitated client engagement to inform practice across the sector and given the clients a voice and acted on this.
A key impact for other services is reported as the contribution that Elmore makes with their ability to create ‘referred trust’ in clients that enables the client to trust and engage with other services with which they otherwise would not engage. This has been seen in the referral of trust by clients from Elmore to the police.
The outcomes for clients range from ‘small wins’ through to having their lives turned around positively and enabling them to ‘staying alive.’ Specific outcomes were being helped to seek justice, gaining a sense of closure, building trust in others that helped to form a friendship with someone else for the first time in their life, establishing a sense of agency which overcame a sense of helplessness, raised self-esteem, and being able to look to the future rather than the past.
The key factors associated with the potency of the New Beginnings service were its:
ability to engage with clients who others can’t connect with
focus on building clients’ sense of self-efficacy (for example, enabling the client to do things for themselves and creating opportunities for clients to experience pride, improve interpersonal skills, foster organisational skills, develop problem-solving skills, and self-manage emotions)
commitment to engaging long-term with the clients
practice of being an evolving organisation, and
values, as embodied in Elmore acting as a caring service provider
The independent evaluation makes additional findings about the barriers and facilitators to working effectively with adult survivors of CSE, the day-to-day running of the service, its evolution to better support clients, and the impact of COVID-19 and the resultant lockdowns and other social distancing measures on clients and their support.
Four recommendations are made to extend the reach, maximise the impact and ensure the sustainability of the service. These are to expand the cultural diversity of the clients served, to increase access to therapeutic services for working with complex PTSD in a timelier manner, adopt a two-worker system generally to prevent service-facilitated client disengagement, and to form a consortium with other non-statutory services to enable collaboration on funding applications to enable fulfilment of the needs that were identified as difficult to meet.
Tom Hayes, Chief Executive of Elmore Community Services, said: “Elmore’s New Beginnings service is exceptional because it meets the needs of vulnerable people that simply could not be met anywhere else. This independent evaluation shows the value of an approach that isn’t ‘one size fits all’ but, instead, works with the diverse needs and aspirations of adult survivors of CSE on an individual basis. This has made a significant difference to the more than forty people in Oxford supported by Elmore to have New Beginnings after being forced to experience child sexual exploitation.”
Simon Bailey QPM, formerly Chief Constable of the Norfolk Constabulary and National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection, said: “This evaluation of New Beginnings, a service supporting adult survivors of child sexual exploitation, shows that, with the right interventions, programmes—like those of the Elmore Community Services, funded by Oxfordshire County Council—can make a real difference. This unique approach, based on meeting the bespoke needs of its clients, sets a standard of care, engagement and support all victims of CSA should be afforded the opportunity to benefit from.
“In this important evaluation, Dr Nadia Wager and Dr Khai Wager have shown what meaningful support can look like and the difference it can make. Work of this nature is personally demanding and arduous and it is to their great credit that they have produced such a comprehensive evaluation. I hope the New Beginnings model now becomes the standard that all statutory child sexual abuse support teams and staff look at and aspire to emulate.”
Dr Nadia Wager, the independent evaluator of the New Beginnings service and Director of the None in Three Centre at the University of Huddersfield, said: “Having conducted a deep-dive into case-files and in-depth interviews with a range of different stakeholders involved with Elmore's New Beginnings service, we have grown immense admiration for the service (and the individual team members). Their commitment to enable this group of people, who typically fall between the gaps in statutory service provision, to move forward from, and thrive following, the horrors they have experienced, is truly phenomenal.”
Ian Hudspeth OBE, Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, (2012-2021) and Chairman of the Community Wellbeing Board for the Local Government Association (2019-2021), said: “The New Beginnings Service to support adult victims of Child Sexual Exploitation was introduced by Elmore Community Services and funded by Oxfordshire County Council. This service shows the benefit of partnership working to deliver complex services in a unique, person-centred approach for each client. The experiences suffered by victims do not go away and it’s important that we can provide such services to help clients in their adult life. This service highlights the excellent partnership working of both Elmore and the County Council.”
Mark Russell, Chief Executive of The Children’s Society, said: “Sexual abuse and exploitation leave deep scars on young lives and no child should have to go through this horrific ordeal. It can affect any child or young person in any community and it's vital they get the help they need, not only for their immediate safety and well-being, but to help them recover from the trauma and stay safe in the long run.
”Great strides have been made in identifying and responding to the issue in recent years, particularly as awareness of child sexual exploitation has increased. Supporting adult survivors of CSE is so important, and I completely agree with Simon Bailey that that the work Elmore Community Services are doing is making a huge difference. I hope that Elmore’s independent evaluation and podcast about its findings, and their work overall, can help ensure every survivor of CSE can benefit from support and care like this.”
Notes:
CSE is a serious form of child sexual abuse (CSA) associated with pernicious and potentially long-term effects, further compounded by the fact that perpetrators typically target adolescents who are vulnerable by dint of their life circumstances and lack protective resources that might otherwise foster resilience.
The evaluation by researchers Dr Nadia Wager and Dr Khai Wager is based on a deep dive into the case files of all 44 users of the New Beginnings service since 2016; interviews with clients, Elmore managers and caseworkers, external agencies plugging clients into Elmore’s service, and external partners and the commissioner; and an analysis of the scores on a psychometric outcome measure taken at points in the clients’ engagement with the service (Moving Forward from Crime Scale).
Dr Nadia Wager is Director of the None in Three Centre at the University of Huddersfield. She has a history of evaluating community interventions for victims of serious crimes and conducting research, for example, for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse on the quantification of online-facilitated child sexual abuse/exploitation and a national survey of the Police exploring their experiences of and perspectives on the disruption and prevention of child sexual abuse and exploitation. The evaluation was co-produced with Dr Khai Wager.