The link is to a story about child trafficking in Oxfordshire. Extracting from the start of the article:
Police swoop on paedophile gang accused of modern-day slavery of girls in care aged 11 'bought and sold' for sex
More than 100 officers swoop on homes across Oxford yesterday
Alleged victims as young as 11, many of whom brought up in care
'Groomed and given drugs so they could be raped by tormentors'
Police chief: 'Arrests intended to protect girls from further harm'
I have been worried for some time about the number of children that are lost to the care system. These are children that leave care for "other reasons". Some of the reasons are reasonable (such as babies leaving with their mothers), but others are children being trafficked.
I asked a simple question of the government which was to keep better records so we knew what was happening to the children.
They refused see here
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will expand the destination codes in the SSDA903 return to identify when a child runs away from care or is abducted or trafficked. [82417]
Tim Loughton: The Department has no plans to expand the codes under which local authorities provide statistical returns on children missing from care, as this will lead to an unnecessary increase in reporting requirements. It is the responsibility of local authorities to safeguard and promote the well-being of children in care, and they will hold more detailed information on each child who has gone missing from their care.
This is in my view another sign of the government's dreadful complacency about the care system.
Police swoop on paedophile gang accused of modern-day slavery of girls in care aged 11 'bought and sold' for sex
More than 100 officers swoop on homes across Oxford yesterday
Alleged victims as young as 11, many of whom brought up in care
'Groomed and given drugs so they could be raped by tormentors'
Police chief: 'Arrests intended to protect girls from further harm'
I have been worried for some time about the number of children that are lost to the care system. These are children that leave care for "other reasons". Some of the reasons are reasonable (such as babies leaving with their mothers), but others are children being trafficked.
I asked a simple question of the government which was to keep better records so we knew what was happening to the children.
They refused see here
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will expand the destination codes in the SSDA903 return to identify when a child runs away from care or is abducted or trafficked. [82417]
Tim Loughton: The Department has no plans to expand the codes under which local authorities provide statistical returns on children missing from care, as this will lead to an unnecessary increase in reporting requirements. It is the responsibility of local authorities to safeguard and promote the well-being of children in care, and they will hold more detailed information on each child who has gone missing from their care.
This is in my view another sign of the government's dreadful complacency about the care system.
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