A SOCIAL worker has won a national award for her exceptional work in keeping a group of vulnerable girls safe from serious harm.

Amy Bendall, from the Harrogate Safeguarding Children Team, carried out the work as part of North Yorkshire’s Multi Agency Child Exploitation partnership working arrangements.

She was recognised for her innovative work on a safeguarding strategy for several girls who were frequently found missing and were classed as at risk of either sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation, or both.

The girls were all friends and while some of them were working with social care, some were avoiding their social workers and not wanting to discuss any concerns.

Amy developed a group to enable targeted work with the girls in a way that was more likely to engage them.

It was recognised that the girls were all known to one another and they would often go missing to spend time together, so were likely to feel more comfortable working as a group.

Amy contacted other multi-agency professionals and sourced funding to find the right venue so that the girls would feel comfortable and able to work creatively and, where appropriate, would transport the girls to the meeting place and provide food and positive activities.

She worked with them on healthy relationships, identified a wealth of intelligence and importantly built a working relationship with some girls who had previously not spoken to social care.

Together with other professionals she also worked with their parents on safety planning and other areas.

By building and developing a trusting relationship with the girls as a group, they felt able to share information about those who were exploiting them and areas they were going to that presented a risk to them.

Commenting on receiving her award, Amy said: “It feels great that the safeguarding work delivered has been recognised in this way.

“The approach taken was bespoke to the needs of the girls involved and was an alternative way of tackling and managing the exploitation risks we had identified.

"I’m so pleased with the results that were achieved, the support from managers and partner agencies and the subsequent recognition it has gained.”

Amy added: “I would like to be able to carry out a similar model in the future if we identify a group of young people who are at risk and in the same peer group.

"I have seen how well this model works and how much it increases engagement, successful outcomes and information sharing, and feel very confident that it is an effective way of working with groups of young people as a social worker.”

Stuart Carlton, North Yorkshire County Council's corporate director of children and young people’s services said: “I would like to congratulate Amy on winning this prestigious national award.

"Thanks to Amy’s work, the perpetrators and their exploitation continues to be targeted and disrupted."