A TOTAL of 60 young people were deemed “at-risk” of sexual abuse in Bradford West at the end of October last year, new figures have confirmed.

Members of the Bradford West Area Committee are set to discuss a report outlining arrangements by the Council and its partners to tackle child sexual exploitation (CSE) locally when it meets at City Hall from 6pm tomorrow.

Of the 60 children identified, 15 per cent were deemed high-risk, 38 per cent medium-risk, and 47 per cent low-risk.

The most common age was 14, but the cases included children from 12 to 18, of which 87 per cent were female and 13 per cent male.

The ward with the highest number of cases was Thornton and Allerton with 16, followed by Manningham with 12, and Heaton with 11.

There were ten cases identified in Clayton and Fairweather Green, seven in City, and four in Toller.

Across the entire Bradford district in 2015/16, there were 713 cases referred to the district’s CSE hub, up 65 per cent from 431 referrals in 2014/15.

The cases involved 569 individual children, 106 of whom had been referred on more than one occasion.

Almost 50 per cent of children open to the hub were identified as children in need, subject to child protection plans, or classed as looked-after children.

The report states: “Community intelligence is key to tackling CSE. If the community can feed information into the CSE Hub we can build a picture of what is happening in a community and look at options to problem solve.

“Almost half of children at risk in Bradford West are at low-risk, which means that they may have some vulnerabilities but they are not currently being exploited. Early intervention can prevent these children’s vulnerabilities increasing and prevent them from becoming medium or high-risk.”

Responding to the figures for Thornton and Allerton, Labour councillors Richard Dunbar, Sue Duffy, and Bev Mullaney said in a joint statement: “This is one of a series of reports on CSE which are going to all area committees as part of an open and transparent approach here in Bradford, where we’re not afraid to talk about difficult issues.

“The figures given relate to a specific date in time and often fluctuate. We all take the issue of CSE seriously and work hard with partners to raise awareness of CSE as widely as we can. This is an issue that the whole community, parents, teachers, schools and families need to be aware of so they can spot signs of potential abuse and refer to the safeguarding hub for investigation.

“We have particularly focused on raising awareness of those who work in the night time economy so they can spot potential issues.”

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