“There’s a 14-year-old girl with a man in the hotel and we need the police to come,” says the caller.
Within minutes of the 999 call, police are knocking at the hotel door – the man is arrested on drug offences and attempting to have sex with a minor.
This scene, captured on police bodyworn camera, has been shared with Sky News as an example of a new initiative to safeguard children.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is seeking to win back public confidence after a series of independent reviews found historical failings over the force’s response to group-based child sexual exploitation cases in towns such as Rochdale and Oldham.
Launched two years ago, Operation Luka has resulted in rape charges, hundreds of potential crimes disrupted, and about 270 children protected under the new scheme.
In an office just off St Peter’s Square in central Manchester, specialist child protection officers sit alongside social workers and health workers – combining their skills and contacts to do something they are often criticised for not doing: working together.
At the Complex Safeguarding Hub, specialists from these different professions have combined briefings and they go on patrol together in the city centre – looking out for vulnerable children and those who would seek to exploit them.
As we join the team, social worker Anthony Green stops to talk to several children out at night in Piccadilly Gardens, which has been identified as an area where young people are at risk.
“What time you’re going home?” he asks one 15-year-old girl who he also knows has been skipping school.
“I don’t know,” she replies.
“How are you getting home?”
“I don’t know.”
It’s past dinnertime. The evening market stalls are closing for the night and the square emptying of shoppers.
Clusters of young people gather in the dark outside McDonald’s.
Several of the children we meet are known to social services, some of them living in care.
Anthony might be the nearest thing they have to a trusted adult.
Out at night, the children are rubbing shoulders with criminals.
Drug dealers and shoplifters frequent the area – but more importantly, GMP says 40 people have been identified as a child exploitation threat operating within the Piccadilly Gardens area.
Mr Green told Sky News: “With traditional social work we’re usually seeing them at home or in their schools but seeing them in these environments is really important for us, as social workers, to really understand the harms and the risks that they may encounter.”
Anthony’s presence gives police an edge in gathering intelligence and identifying potential concerns, building up a picture of those at risk.
While we were on patrol, one of the children Anthony meets later sees someone carrying a knife in McDonald’s, and has the confidence to report it to the police.
“It’s all about trust,” says Detective Inspector Chris Chadderton from Operation Luka.
“Obviously, they’re happy to speak to their social workers. Us working together, being in the same office, that information passes on a lot quicker.”
The other arm to this safeguarding drive is Operation Makesafe, which gives hotel receptionists guidance on when to call in suspicions to the police, for example if they see a man checking in with an underage girl.
GMP has given Sky News examples of recent 999 calls.
In one, the receptionist calls in his concern about a girl who looks 15.
He tells the operator: “When the guy was distracted, I mouthed to the girl ‘do you need any assistance, do you need any help’.
“She was looking a bit scared, she said ‘no’ but she was looking frightened … the man was acting like he was controlling the girl.”
The operator feeds back information while they talk – and before the call has ended, police have arrived on the scene.
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Over the past two years, Operations Luka and Makesafe have resulted in two men being charged with rape and 363 criminal disruptions.
Most cases are individual offenders, but they also investigate group-based child exploitation.
DI Chadderton added: “It’s not always about whether we get that successful prosecution at the end, it’s sometimes about making sure we can get that young person out of that situation where they feel that they’re trapped.”
As for social services, it is easy to point at failures, harder to quantify success.
Mr Green said: “I think the successes for us are the relationships we build with children. And I think if they can turn to us or talk to us, and we can see them develop, grow, and get really good outcomes, then that’s a win for us.”
The scandals of the past still hang over authorities in this city.
Three independent reviews in the last five years exposed how child sexual exploitation had been a blind spot in Greater Manchester.
GMP insists it isn’t anymore.
