Authorities and agencies around Britain are being urged to follow Bradford and pump more cash and resources into stamping out sexual exploitation of vulnerable young people.

The call for more specific services to be set up to battle the abuse came at a special launch in the city yesterday of groundbreaking research carried out by the children's charity Barnardo's.

The two-year study, which included key information from the charity's work in Bradford, showed how young people at risk of being sexually exploited and being groomed for prostitution could be helped if they got intensive support from specific services.

Last year Barnardo's in Bradford helped 60 young women through its own anti-sexual exploitation service with the help of £250,000 funding.

But the charity's assistant director for Yorkshire, Toni Johnston, said still more money was needed - even though the city was leading the way for other authority areas to follow.

Bradford's Turnaround project working with young women in danger of exploitation, is currently funded by public donations, Bradford Council's Youth Service, Bradford Children's Fund and Connexions - with Bradford City Primary Care Trust providing a part-time health practitioner on secondment and Bradford Education seconding a full-time teacher.

Mrs Johnston warned: "Bradford has led the way since it set up its Streets and Lanes service working with prostitutes in 1994. It is already offering the kind of service that we want to see being offered across the UK. But there's more work to do and to keep it running more cash needs injecting into it."

During yesterday's launch in front of health, police, education, council and social service delegates from across West Yorkshire, Barnardo's Yorkshire Director Peter Allinson said Barnardo's work would continue to help young people and children escape from sexual exploitation of adults but it could not do it alone.

He said: "My hope is that on the back of this research we can continue to move forward and help these young people who are often the most disadvantaged, hidden in society and most needy."

Bradford South MP and Home Office minister Gerry Sutcliffe, who has responsibility for the Government's anti-prostitution strategy, was a key speaker at the launch.

He told delegates the charity's report on how risks can be cut was vital, and pledged: "I'm determined to make sure this report is welcomed and the Government listens to what is in it."

Barnardo's Reducing the Risk survey looked at the work of ten of its services across the UK working with a sample of 557 children.

The study showed how those services especially helped under-18s with 75 per cent of them who were being abused at the start of it, showing a reduced level of risk. Thirty-four per cent of them had been able to escape their abusive situation completely.

e-mail: kathie.griffiths @bradford.newsquest.co.uk l Comment - Page 10