WORK to keep children in Bury safe from criminal and sexual exploitation is being stepped up.

A new team to raise awareness of exploitation as well as supporting and catching those responsible has been set up.

It comes in the wake of a large scale police investigations into allegations child sexual exploitation in Bury, which has led to 20 arrests

Three new officers have been appointed to ensure children do not fall prey to gangs as part of the new complex safeguarding team.

They include two youth engagement workers and a dedicated missing from home office ­— who was appointed in October ­— who work with the police and children's services to stop them youngsters from falling prey to gangs.

And council officers say the work being done is already making a difference.

In March 53 youngsters of all ages, were reported missing.

Susan French, from the council, said: "We have two family support workers, one that does direct work with young people and families around exploitation and one that is dedicated to do interviews with young people who go missing.

"The role of missing worker is to do the return interview.

"She will go and see them and talk to them about why the reasons why they went missing and that has been really valuable and enables her to suggest services at a really early stage, so she has done referrals for instance to Healthy Young Minds, Early Break, Streetwise all of those agencies that can get in early to support young people."

Every month a panel, jointly chaired by the police and social care, look at all children who go missing in Bury and share "intelligence" to ensure the plans to safeguard them are appropriate.

Child Sexual Exploitation awareness training to schools and within community organisations has taken place

This month two youth engagement project workers were appointed.

Bury Council also received funding to commission a former police officer to visit schools to talk about gangs and criminal exploitation.

The youth engagement workers will work with young people who are "vulnerable to becoming embroiled in criminal exploitation or victims of criminal activity."

In February, police reported 20 people have been arrested on suspicion of child sexual exploitation offences in Bury.

Police said their priority is support the victims of abuse and praised the 25 young people who had found the courage to speak out.

And this week Greater Manchester hosted a national Complex Safeguarding Conference to discuss the ways of tacking reports of exploitation and modern slavery and the work of complex safeguarding teams which build on the work of Project Phoenix, Programme Challenger and the Trapped Campaign.

GMP’s Assistant Chief Constable Mabs Hussain said: "Tackling the exploitation of children and vulnerable people is an absolute priority for GMP and our partners. Child sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation and modern slavery are hugely complex crimes that the police cannot solve alone.

"This new approach will include the introduction of a specialist, co-located, multi-agency ‘Complex Safeguarding Team’ in every borough across Greater Manchester, focusing on all aspects of exploitation including child sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation and modern slavery.

"Ensuring that we build on already strong foundations and partnerships, we will be bringing existing teams together to work in a collaborative approach that protects children and vulnerable people from all forms of abuse and exploitation.

“We know that reports in these areas have increased significantly year on year as a result of both the work of the safeguarding teams and victims feeling more confident speaking out about the abuse they have suffered. Despite this, we still know that many incidents remain unreported, so we continue to see any increases in our figures as a positive.

“It is crucial that communities across Greater Manchester fully understand the many forms that exploitation can take and are able to recognise the signs. We encourage victims to come forward with the reassurance that their report will be taken seriously and that specialist support is available.”