On Thursday I made the trip up to Bury Town Hall for a meeting about Crime and Policing across Greater Manchester. At the time my fellow councillor Keith Holloway was also away – talking to other councils from around England about how we can best deliver adult social care.

I represent Stockport on the Police and Crime Steering Group. There are representatives from all the ten GM councils plus the Police, the Police & Crime Commissioner and the Fire Service. The idea is simple: criminals don’t respect council boundaries so neither can we; plus there are ways we can do things better and more efficiently by working together.

At Thursday’s meeting the main issue was Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) – a very important topic with a lot of work going on around it. Stockport MP Ann Coffey has recently produced a report for Greater Manchester on the topic, and all Stockport councillors had a briefing on Wednesday evening, led by Cllr Wendy Meikle.

We’re now tackling the problem, highlighted in videos like this one from West Yorkshire Police.

Although we, as a society, are much better than we used to be at spotting and tackling CSE there are still major problems to tackle. Too often children are seen as complicit in their abuse and young girls sometimes don’t realise themselves that they are being abused until it’s too late. A 13 year-old might just be flattered at an older man taking an interest and buying her presents. Abusers tend to focus on vulnerable girls – those without stable homes or with learning difficulties.

Comments like this from a girl inteviewed for Ann Coffey’s report show the problem:

I lost my virginity to him. When my foster parent found out, she said: ‘Why are you being a slag?’ I was 12 and he was 19.

‘F’ – Victim who gave evidence in court

In Stockport and across Greater Manchester we are taking the issue very seriously and tackling it wherever it’s found.

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