We deliver one-to-one specialist support that is tailored to meet the need of the young person or adult. The intervention pathway is tailored to each individual to ensure we can evidence skills and learning of all our service users.
The service also offers a rescue service for anybody under the age of 25 that has been found in a exploitive situation outside of their area of residence. We see the rescue as a reachable moment at a time when the young person is in need of support the most. The rescue service then feeds directly into the support service, offering that consistency of caseworker young person rapport on return to their region of residence.
In the last year of delivery, individuals who have been supported by the service told us as a result of this support that:
Impact
County Lines Support and Rescue is now in its second year of delivery in Greater Manchester.
Having previously had challenges with establishing our footprint across the region due to there being no previous provider in the Greater Manchester area, we have successfully increased our footprint through presentations, school workshops, and professional fairs. We have also become a part of numerous professionals’ groups across Greater Manchester including:
- Greater Manchester exploitation operational group,
- Greater Manchester complex safeguarding steering group,
- Oldham MACE,
- Salford youth justice panel, and
- Challenger serious and organised crime partnership meetings.
Over the last 12 months we have also been working with an organisation called Crucial Crew, who organise week-long preventative workshops for primary schools across Greater Manchester. The team created and developed a short cartoon in relation to grooming. We had two characters, Bob and Tim, play out a scenario focusing on being groomed. The team would then discuss what was happening, what could be done differently, how they can stay safe and who they can ask for help. These workshops were delivered to over 1600 ten- and eleven-year-olds across Greater Manchester.
During the year, the service was also recognised in Parliament, receiving a reference in a House of Commons written answer from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, alongside a mention in a debate on organised crime in Greater Manchester, which focused on the support that is currently available.
Referrals
The number of referrals received by the service has increased exponentially from 8 referrals in Year 1 to 103 referrals in Year 2.
We have also seen the number of referrals for females increase over this period, with 2 referrals in Year 2, and 14 referrals in Year 2.
Challenges
Although we have managed to have a great impact across many areas of Greater Manchester over the last 12 months, we have still found that there has not been an uptake of our service in some areas.
We continue to promote ourselves within these areas with the vision that by using our already successfully-established platform in other boroughs, our uptake will increase.
Another area that we have found a challenge over the last 12 months has been engagement of some young people. Due to the complexity of county lines, and the distrust of others, as a service we are having to be more creative in our approach to building rapport with the young people that are referred to us.
“The Greater Manchester County Lines Support and Rescue team have been proactive and creative in their contribution to the development and delivery of a partnership approach to deliver safety messages to young people at risk of exploitation in Greater Manchester.
“This project has significantly benefitted from the experience and energy that Catch 22 brought to sessions delivered. Thank you. We are excited to work with the team in the future for phase two over the summer months”.
– Safeguarding development officer
Working together
Working in partnership
In March 2024, we were asked by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue service and Greater Manchester Police’s ‘Programme Challenger’ to collaboratively work in partnership with other agencies from across Greater Manchester on a pilot child criminal exploitation (CCE) awareness programme as part of intensification week.
We were invited to the Greater Manchester fire and rescue training and safety centre, where we were able to use their facilities. These consisted of a mock-up street including a house, a trap house, a train carriage, and a shop. We were able to use the trap house and the train carriage for our county lines awareness workshop.
Our workshop involved three of the caseworkers acting out a short storyline of how a young person was sent from Greater Manchester to a trap house in Scotland for the first time. The trap house was realistic and showed the young people what it can be like and the consequences of being involved in county lines.
“I just want to say what the Catch22 team did on the day was absolutely brilliant. All the young people came away saying how good it was.”
– Complex safeguarding team manager
Pilot session feedback
Following the session, our teams completed a survey with some of the young people in attendance, to understand what difference the session had made to their understanding of criminal exploitation.
- 100% of those surveyed felt that the session should be delivered to more people their age.
- When asked how well they now understood how young people can be groomed into criminal exploitation, such as being asked to hold or sell drugs, the overall response came back as a 10/10.
- When asked how well they now understood what county lines drug dealing, the overall response came back as a 9/10.
“I just wanted to thank you all so much for your support, passion, and enthusiasm in developing and delivering yesterday’s pilot. It has been great to collaborate with you all on it and I’m looking forward to developing the project further.”
– Programme Challenger
Future plans
Secondary school roll out
We have developed a workshop for secondary schools, Bolton Police, Navigators and Bolton schools. The workshop will focus on raising awareness and equipping young people to be able to recognise signs and consequences of child criminal exploitation (CCE).
This workshop will be piloted in Bolton secondary schools with the idea of rolling it out across Greater Manchester in the future. We hope that this will open the door to a new referral pathway into our service.
County Lines awareness session for parents
In June 2024, we are piloting a webinar for parents and carers in relation to county lines, with Greater Manchester Police.
As part of this, we will deliver a session on our service for attendees (and potentially also their young people). Following this, we will be offering attendees the opportunity to book in with one of the County Line Support and Rescue team’s case workers for a one-to-one session.
Women and girls Challenger programme
We have been approached by Greater Manchester Police’s Challenger programme, to collaboratively develop a programme tailored towards women and girls. We hope that this would support our referral pathway for women and girls into the service.
City in the community
Finally, having recently made links with the Manchester City FC’s charitable organisation, ‘City in the Community’, we have been given access to the Etihad stadium. This will provide us with a new space within which we will be able to facilitate sessions with young people that have been referred into our service.
“It is positive that Catch22 can support young people post-18, as this is when a lot of services end. Young people continue to be at risk and need support from professionals at this pivotal time.”
– Salford Leaving Care Team
