Home Office awards £13 million to local authorities to help young people at risk of abuse

Some £13 million of Home Office funding has been awarded to projects which support vulnerable children, by ensuring they have positive adult role models in their lives such as youth workers, police officers, nurses and other professionals.

Eleven local authorities have been allocated a share of the Trusted Relationship Fund – a scheme that attempts to intervene early if a child is at risk of abusive predators or being drawn into criminality, such as county lines, by helping foster close relationships with trusted adults in the community.

It comes after a Home Office-commissioned review by the Early Intervention Foundation found that a trusted relationship with an adult is an important part of programmes to support vulnerable children, and that the lack of trusted relationships is consistently cited as a contributing factor in cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation.