Sunrise team working with Hopwood Hall College on child sexual exploitation awareness

Child sexual exploitation poster

The Sunrise Team, the borough’s multi-agency hub for tackling child sexual exploitation (CSE), will be working with Hopwood Hall College delivering workshops on healthy relationships and CSE awareness later this year.

Sunrise has a long-established, successful school engagement programme and these new partnerships will enhance the team’s work even further. The new training will include E-safety, which deals with keeping children safe online, and the dangers of mobile devices and social media. Working with Hopwood Hall College the Sunrise Team will be delivering workshops on healthy relationships and CSE awareness later this year.

Sadia Khan, one of Hopwood Hall College’s student support tutors involved in working with the Sunrise Team, highlighted the importance of the groups working together to raise awareness of CSE, she said: “We approached the Sunrise Team to do a series of workshops with our learners in an attempt to highlight CSE, healthy relationships and the invaluable work that the team do in the borough.

"Raising awareness of issues such as CSE is a high priority for the college, allowing learners to understand how to keep themselves safe and spot the signs of possible danger.

"The welfare of young people is absolutely central to the Student Support Team and we are committed to working with the Sunrise Team, and other agencies, to ensure that learners are equipped with the knowledge of how to stay safe.”

Working in partnership with The Rochdale Education and Learning (REAL) Trust, the Sunrise Team will deliver e-safety and CSE awareness training to new teachers, teaching assistants and other school staff, as well as general awareness-raising sessions about the work that the Sunrise Team offers schools, in order to give them a good grounding in these issues as they begin their careers.

The Real Trust delivers training to staff from schools throughout the borough. Dr Emma Metcalfe-Dunham, head of the trust said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for us to work in partnership with the Sunrise Team. It will ensure that their messages are shared and that our school staff have a good understanding of the importance of e-safety and an awareness of CSE. In turn, they can encourage and support children and young people in the Borough to stay safe and understand the importance of these issues.”