THE average age of a child at risk of Child Sexual Exploitation in Bradford is 15, and the majority are white girls.

A new report into grooming in Bradford will be discussed by Bradford Council this week, and shows that the number of young people flagged up as being highly vulnerable to grooming rose by 14.5 per cent this year.

The Bradford District Safeguarding Hub is made up of police, Bradford Council staff and numerous children’s charities and groups. They meet daily to discuss children who have been flagged up as being at risk of grooming and sexual exploitation.

This included hundreds of young people in the district every month.

RELATED STORY: Police likely to make 70 arrests for historic grooming in coming year

The latest report into the work being done to tackle CSE will go before the Council’s Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, where members will be given a breakdown of incidents and children deemed at risk since January.

Members will be told that children as young as 10 have been flagged up as being vulnerable to grooming.

So far this year the majority of young people classed as being “at risk” of grooming have been white. In August alone 203 white British boys and girls were classed as being at risk by the safeguarding hub.

In the same month 43 young people of Pakistani descent were classed as at risk, and 10 Gypsy/Roma children were given the same classification.

Although the majority of people classed as high risk are girls, boys make up around 18 per cent of the figures.

In August 347 children in the district were deemed at risk, including 96 15 years olds, 83 16 year olds and six 11 year olds.

The Bradford East area had most at risk children during the month - 94.

The report also looks at CSE crimes recorded by police.

During the period from April 2017 to the end of March this year, there have been 317 CSE flagged offences recorded on Police systems.

Those cases relate to 222 recent and 95 non-recent offences.

This is a decrease from 348 offences recorded in the previous year.

The area of the district where most recorded offences took place was Bradford West, with 72 recorded incidents, although police have been unable to determine where 77 offences took place.

A breakdown of individuals suspected to be involve in committing CSE shows that around a third are aged 30-39, and just over a quarter are aged 20-29.

A breakdown by ethnicity shows that around 60 per cent are of Pakistani heritage, and around 20 per cent are white British. Around 30 per cent live in Bradford West.

Nineteen of the offences to have taken place in the last eight months have been classed as “cyber related.”

The report also highlights some of the difficulties police face in bringing cases to court. Although 13 people were charged in that period, there were 38 instances where the victim either declined or withdrew support of the investigation before it could get to court, even though a suspect had been identified. In 58 cases the case was dropped due to “evidential difficulties.”

The committee meets in City Hall at 4.30pm on Wednesday.