CHILD sexual grooming will be tackled "head-on" across West Yorkshire, its Police and Crime Commissioner pledged after a summit with child protection experts.

Children’s services directors at all five West Yorkshire Councils, including Bradford, safeguarding heads and West Yorkshire Police all attended yesterday's meeting chaired by Mark Burns-Williamson at Carr Gate in Wakefield.

It was called to discuss recommendations from the damning Rotherham report on Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and examine work being done across the county to prevent children becoming victims, to provide appropriate help and support for victims, and to make sure the perpetrators of such crimes were punished.

The group also discussed the creation of an action plan for West Yorkshire set to include increased awareness raising, improved information sharing and intelligence gathering, and a commitment from all agencies to ensure a more joined-up approach to tackling CSE.

“I called this meeting because it is crucial that all our thinking and work around CSE remains joined-up, with the victims at the heart of everything we do," said Mr Burns-Williamson.

“The turnout demonstrates how seriously this issue is treated here in West Yorkshire and what we are doing to tackle it proactively, as well as seeing what we can learn from the recommendations contained in the Rotherham report and from each other.

“Tackling CSE has always been one of my top priorities as well as other safeguarding issues, which is why I have previously brought partners together to focus and co-ordinate work on CSE and have made an extra £3.5 million available to the police for increased capacity to deal with CSE, human trafficking and cyber crime”.

Examples of work discussed during the meeting included the West Yorkshire-wide campaign directed at parents to raise awareness of CSE, “know the signs”, and online grooming, “do you know who you are talking to".

Mr Burns-Williamson was also quizzed on CSE issues during a meeting of the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel earlier yesterday in which he said the Rotherham report had been a "wake-up call" to look again at resources for CSE victims and investigations.

"It's right that we review everything currently in place, and if we need more resources, I will try to do that," he said.

"I am very alive to the pressures in the current environment, and the focus on CSE.

"Safeguarding is a joint responsibility, and the Rotherham report is a wake-up call for all of us. We have to re-double our efforts.

"I have asked for a position statement in each West Yorkshire district to make sure we're doing everything we can in light of what we know."

Mr Burns-Williamson mentioned that police and the local authority were already looking into historic cases within the Bradford district.

"We want to help victims of this awful crime, and our attitude is that if there any victims out there, we want to hear from them.

"There are 65 ongoing investigations, and we need to be ready for more.

"We have to be prepared if victims come forward about failures in the police, and if so, those things will be investigated.

"There are difficult conversations to have in some of our communities, but we need to tackle this head-on.

"None of us can bury our head in the sand."

Yesterday, the Telegraph & Argus revealed that 45 of the 65 ongoing CSE cases were in the Bradford district, with a new team being put together to re-examine some historic cases.