AROUND 50 people are working on child sexual exploitation in Bradford.

One police inspector, a sergeant, six detective constables, two police constables and a further PC are all involved in working with children, alongside health service and social care staff and the voluntary sector.

And a new team is being put together to re-examine is some historic Bradford CSE cases.

“We do acknowledge we missed some real opportunities to keep children safe,” said Superintendent Vince Firth, of Bradford Safeguarding Children Board.

“We need to look backwards at these missed opportunities. I think people will feel more like they will be believed.

“We are putting a review team together to go back through our records and go and speak to people again who we think, but don’t know, may have been involved in child sexual exploitation.

“We are going back to see if we can help and support people in bringing people to justice.”

Paul Hill, manager of the Bradford Safeguarding Children Board, has confirmed there will be a serious case review, but that would be linked to potential prosecutions so no detail would be made public until after potential prosecutions were complete.

“One thing we are clear about is that as Supt Firth has said, we have to look back at situations where young people were harmed and perpetrators not brought to justice.

“In the next 12 months there will be cases that come to attention from the Bradford district. There is a need to undertake a serious case review into the topic.

“It shines a torch on the district. It is extremely important that the professionals do the job as best they can.”