LOOPHOLE 'GIVES GROOMING GANGS EASY ACCESS TO CHILDREN'

Charity calls for swift action after rise in unregistered emergency care places

- BY PAUL JEEVES

GROOMING gangs can exploit a gap in child protection to access vulnerable girls, it is claimed.

Unregistered emergency carers are able to operate on a short-term basis with no regulatory oversight due to a legal anomaly, a Daily Express investigation was told.

It would mean children needing urgent protection could be placed directly into the hands of predators who will stop at nothing to gain access to their victims.

Care expert Paul O'Rourke, who has helped victims of the Rochdale grooming gang scandal, says he has little doubt the glaring gap is being pounced on by gangs who are able to exploit the law governing children's residential care.

He said, under the Care Standards Act 2000, it is an offence for a placement to last longer than 28 days without the provider being registered with Ofsted.

Mr O'Rourke believes some unscrupulous operators are ruthlessly exploiting the four-week window in which registration is not mandatory by operating on a shorter-term basis.

The Department for Education disputed claims there is a loophole in child protection legislation.

But Mr O'Rourke said: "I have seen an uprise in unregistered providers because there's a gap in the law. They are taking emergency placements from local authorities, and if it's starting to get close to your 28 days, then they simply move the child to another house, because that is deemed a new placement, which means the 28-day clock starts again."

This cycling of vulnerable children between unvetted properties allows providers to operate completely outside the law, he claimed.

It means no one checks the staff, their training, or their suitability, making it easy for predatory individuals to gain employment or even set up their own care-providing business.

The whistleblower said: "It could be like a game of tennis, with a child going back and forth between two different houses without any safety checks being needed."