Written Statement: A Welsh response to the criminal exploitation of children

The criminal exploitation of children causes profound and lasting consequences, harming children, parents and carers, and our communities. Frontline organisations continue to identify children across Wales who have been targeted, groomed, manipulated, and coerced into criminal activity. We recognise and pay tribute to the efforts of these organisations, professionals and volunteers who work every day to safeguard children and support those affected. 

As a government, we are taking urgent action to address the criminal exploitation of children in a coordinated, urgent, and sustained way, recognising children who are criminally exploited are victims of a form of child abuse. We are committed to a response that is child-centred, trauma-informed, and evidence-based while drawing on lived experience and ensuring alignment with wider responses to other forms of harm. Our national ten-year Strategy for Preventing and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse, launched earlier this month, recognises the links between child sexual abuse and criminal exploitation.

In 2024, the Jay Review of Criminally Exploited Children and the Senedd Children, Young People and Education Committee’s report on children on the margins highlighted the scale and impact of criminal exploitation. We have welcomed both reports and accepted the majority of the Children, Young People and Education Committee’s recommendations directed at the Welsh Government in order to take effective action to address this harm.

Both reports highlighted the importance of improved coordination between agencies and partners. To build on this, we took action: last year we organised a national workshop on the Welsh response to the criminal exploitation of children, which brought together more than 200 practitioners. We organised this event in collaboration and partnership with Action for Children, Barnardo’s, The Children’s Society, CASCADE and policing in Wales. We were able to share and gather insights on how agencies across Wales can collaborate to prevent exploitation and support children. The workshop was also used to highlight key resources, such as the Complex Safeguarding Wales Practitioner Toolkit.

In October 2025, the Minister for Children and Social Care opened the ExChange Conference on Safeguarding Approaches for Criminally Exploited Children which focused on taking action across agencies to address criminal exploitation. Later that month, we held the Anti-Slavery Wales 2025 conference, where we launched new online learning on modern slavery, to strengthen awareness across Wales of all forms of exploitation, including child exploitation. All actions designed to ensure our actions target the most vulnerable, in a context where modern slavery referrals continue to rise, with children making up most cases and criminal exploitation remaining the predominant form of harm they face.

The Welsh Government’s approach recognises that education is a crucial safeguarding partner, often being the first place where concerns about a child’s wellbeing or safety are identified. Schools, colleges and other education settings have unique insight into changes in behaviour, vulnerabilities, and early indicators of exploitation. Their contribution is essential to multi‑agency safeguarding arrangements. We will continue working closely with our education partners to support them in fulfilling this vital safeguarding function, ensuring they have the guidance, resources and multi‑agency support needed to identify concerns early and protect children effectively. 

We are collaborating within Wales, and we are also engaging the UK Government on its Crime and Policing Bill to ensure our children are safeguarded. The Bill introduces new criminal offences of child criminal exploitation, cuckooing and coerced internal concealment, and it establishes child criminal exploitation prevention orders. The Welsh Government wants to ensure we protect the most vulnerable. That is why we welcome these important changes, and we will continue to engage on the detail. 

Our view is that collaboration at every level is absolutely essential because those who criminally exploit children do so across national and jurisdictional boundaries. Collaboration within Wales. Collaboration between the Welsh Government and the UK Government. And collaboration between the Devolved Governments. This is at the heart of our approach as we engage with organisations in every part of the system who are working to protect and safeguard children in our communities. 

Finally, we are developing proposals for a new consolidated Practice Guide on safeguarding children from exploitation, under the governance of the Wales Safeguarding Procedures Project Board. We recognise the vital input of partners, including The Children’s Society, into this important work. We will continue to take actions where necessary to keep children safe.