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Note: The Terms of Reference are those agreed by the SCR Panel on 11.9.14 to update them for revised national expectations following new guidelines published in March 2013, and to guide the production of the final report. They were originally prepared in November 2012.

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE SERIOUS CASE REVIEW OF CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION IN OXFORDSHIRE (CHILDREN A-F)

1. Decision to hold the Serious Case Review

Following the review of circumstances relating to the cases of Children A,B,C,D,E,F from Operation Bulfinch, a decision was made by Oxfordshire Safeguarding Board to convene a Serious Case Review (SCR) on 26 September 2012. The cases met the criteria for a SCR as defined in chapter 8 paragraphs 8.9–8.12 of ‘Working Together 2010’.

This draft of the Terms of Reference is a working document and will be subject to amendment by the SCR Panel.

2. Background and scope of the review

Background: Concerns were identified about young people in Oxfordshire who were being sexually exploited. The collective picture from local agencies and the intelligence that emerged about those individual young people led to ‘Operation Bullfinch’. This complex investigation was led by the Police and involved other OSCB partners. Over 20 young people were identified as victims of serious sexual exploitation. Nine men stood trial at The Old Bailey in January 2013, seven of whom received substantial custodial sentences. The charges related to six individual girls: four cases of historic abuse and two which were current. The abuse was described by Judge Rook as a “series of sexual crimes of the utmost depravity”.

Scope: This review is on child sexual exploitation in Oxfordshire and using the cases of the six victims, reviews the work of agencies, the extent to which they were aware of the abuse, and how they responded to it.

The six had suffered abuse over a long period of time and they were a representative group of a wider cohort of known young people. The complexities of their circumstances led to a thematic review in order to build on what was already understood by 2012 and to maximise learning.

The report will describe the background to and experiences of the girls’ journey through exploitation. This process will draw out the themes that show the strengths and weaknesses of the safeguarding system and aims to understand not only ‘what’ happened but ‘why’. The first annual report of the National Panel of Independent Experts on SCRs (which oversees the quality of reviews and that appropriate action is being taken from the learning) comments on SCRs being produced now. It has expressed concern about undue length. It warns against a level of detail that would make publication difficult (and hence learning is limited). It calls for a ‘sharp focus’ and ‘concise accounts’. This SCR will take this into

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account by using the case detail to illustrate findings rather than attempt to describe all the very significant history.

3. Key themes for study

Although this review was commence under the national guidance, ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children: A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, 2010’, these terms of reference are now also guided by the successor guidance, ‘Working Together, 2013’. This guidance captures the purpose: when things go wrong there needs to be a rigorous, objective analysis of what happened and why, so that important lessons can be learnt and services improved to reduce the risk of future harm…

These processes should be transparent, with findings of reviews shared publicly. The findings are not only important for the professionals involved locally in cases. Everyone across the country has an interest in understanding both what works well and also why things can go wrong.

‘Working Together, 2013’ goes on to say:

 reviews look at what happened in a case, and why, and what action will be taken to learn from the review findings;

 action results in lasting improvements to services which safeguard and promote the welfare of children and help protect them from harm; and

 there is transparency about the issues arising from individual cases and the actions which organisations are taking in response to them, including sharing the final reports of Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) with the public.

SCRs... should be conducted in a way which:

 recognises the complex circumstances in which professionals work together to safeguard children;

 seeks to understand precisely who did what and the underlying reasons that led individuals and organisations to act as they did;

 seeks to understand practice from the viewpoint of the individuals and organisations involved at the time rather than using hindsight;

 is transparent about the way data is collected and analysed; and

 makes use of relevant research and case evidence to inform the findings.

This Review will explore any avenue necessary to fulfil these statutory requirements, and will look at the following two key questions:

 To what extent was the child sexual exploitation experienced in Oxfordshire preventable?

 What can be learned from the reviews appraisal of the quality of agency work, and the experiences of the victims and their families?

To answer these questions the review will need to explore:

 What was known about child sexual exploitation and how it could be tackled

 If it was not identified quickly enough, why not?

 What, including the quality of agency work, contributed to the vulnerability if the victims to abuse?

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 How did agencies respond to the growing awareness of child sexual exploitation?

 What have agencies already learned and done as a result of Operation Bullfinch?

 What still needs to be done?

The Review should identify where agency performance could have been better, but also explain the context in which that performance occurred, so that the contributory factors provide learning for OSCB and its member agencies.

To fulfil these Terms of Reference, the views of the six girls and their families must be sought and reported, and they should have an early opportunity to hear and discuss the findings.

SCR Panel 11.9.14

Report author: The Report author from July 2014 is Alan Bedford, who has a background in child protection social work, senior leadership of NHS Trusts and Health Authorities (13 years as a CEO), as an LSCB Chair and is the author of many SCRs.

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