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<p>On 23 February 2018, Newcastle Safeguarding Children Board and Newcastle Safeguarding
Adults Board published their joint serious case review (SCR) for Operation Sanctuary.</p><p>Specifically,
CPS North East is working closely with Newcastle Crown Court and other partners within
the Criminal Justice System to improve the experience of victims and witnesses when
attending court and to ensure that the commitments to witness care set out in the
Victim’s Code and the Witness Charter are properly delivered.</p><p>Child sexual exploitation
is abhorrent and the crimes perpetrated in Newcastle have had a devastating impact
on the lives of the victims. The Government acknowledges the seriousness of the issues
raised in this serious case review and is committed to improving the national response
to tackling sexual exploitation.</p><p>More broadly, the Government has already taken
significant action to tackle this issue. In February 2017, the Government published
its Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation: Progress Report and announced a £40m package
of measures to protect children and young people from sexual abuse, exploitation and
trafficking, and to crack down on offenders. This included £7.5m for a new, ground-breaking
Centre of Expertise that will identify, generate, and share high quality evidence
of what works to prevent and tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation. The recommendations
of the review cover a wide range of issues, which we will consider carefully in the
context of this existing programme of work.</p>
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