Children in care are at ‘major risk’ of joining sex trade

A former social care worker claims there is a major hidden problem of sexual exploitation involving vulnerable young people in the State care system.

Maurice Fenton, who worked in mainstream residential care for over two decades, said he saw first-hand young people exposed to the sex trade while still in State care.

He said there was a dearth of research into the issue here, despite studies in the UK and Northern Ireland that indicate up to 60 per cent of sex workers have been in care.

“I have seen the reality of how vulnerable young people in residential child care are to sexual exploitation and prostitution,” he said.

“It was something which I saw when I started working in the sector in the 1990s. If anything it’s become an even bigger issue in more recent years.”

There are about 6,300 children in the State’s care system. The vast majority are in foster care, while almost 350 young people are in mainstream residential care.

Mr Fenton said children in residential care tended to be among the most vulnerable, often because they had a history of broken care placements.

A 2011 study on child sexual exploitation in Northern Ireland found that children in residential care were more vulnerable to exploitation than those in other care settings.

This study found that, of the sample of 1,102 cases, sexual exploitation was identified as a cause of concern for almost two-thirds of young females.

“It would be naive and dangerous to assume we don’t have the same problem in the Republic,” Mr Fenton said. “We’ve tended to see this as an issue of individual failing on the part of young people. But it is a national issue, it’s a systemic issue.”

“It is not restricted to residential care alone. Nor are residential care centres alone responsible for failing to keep these children safe. They have not been resourced appropriately. In most cases the staff there strive to do their level best.”

Mr Fenton's claims are contained in a book to be published later this month, Social Care and Child Welfare in Ireland: Integrating Residential Care, Leaving Care and Aftercare.

“In order to effectively safeguard young people, research is essential to identify and interrogate these issues and to inform theory and practice,” he said. “This deficit in research and support . . . is a matter of grave concern.”

The most recent detailed research on this in the Republic by Focus Ireland, in 2000, identified prostitution as a difficulty for up to 14 per cent of care leavers.

Most research has found that young people in care at most risk of exploitation include those with poor relationships with carers, unstable lifestyles and who are leaving the care system. Tusla said it is strengthening aftercare arrangements for young people.