Risk Outside The Home (ROTH) Assessment Guidance

1. General Guidance

The ROTH Assessment is a risk assessment tool intended to help practitioners to think through the risks a child may be facing outside the home, record evidence and identify next steps to increase safety.

A ROTH Assessment should be completed as soon as potential concerns regarding any form of risks outside the home are identified. This may include child sexual exploitation (CSE), child criminal exploitation (CCE) (including county or local drug lines), serious youth violence, radicalisation or peer on peer abuse.

Information from multiple sources (including family members, the child concerned, school, other professionals, specialist Missing and Exploitation Teams and Police) should be used to ensure that you have as much information as possible and can evidence any indicators of vulnerability or harm.

Provide relevant details and evidence for each vulnerability and harm indicator identified, including timeframes. The frequency and extent of concerns will inform your understanding of the nature and extent of risks. Provide a summary of any highly relevant historical information, but focus on the last 3 months.

Be mindful of your use of language. Children are not responsible for their own
abuse/exploitation and often they do not recognise the risks we may be concerned about. Children who are groomed are unable to give consent to their abuse. Consult this guide for further advice and examples Appropriate-Language-Guide-Final-English.pdf.

A ROTH Assessment should be carried out at regular intervals to record any increase or reduction in risk and should inform appropriate intervention. As a minimum, it should be updated every three months or following a change in circumstances (for example, change in placement, missing episodes, intelligence data) as this can have a significant impact on risk.

Your assessment will result in a provisional set of risk levels, which will be reviewed by the relevant Missing and Exploitation Team, and potentially by a multi-agency ROTH Triage Panel in order to finalise the risk gradings.

2. Indicators of Vulnerability

This section includes factors that we know may render children and young people vulnerable to being victims of harm outside the home. Mostly these may be static risks and often linked to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) or parental/familial harm.

Has the child ever?

Experienced abuse or neglect from parents, carers or other family members?

• Has the child suffered emotional neglect and has this impacted upon their
  vulnerability to exploitation? Do they feel wanted and loved within their family? Are they likely to be at increased risk of seeking out attention, affection or belonging, due to their caregiving experiences outside of their family home.
• Has the child suffered physical abuse which is likely to have increased their
  vulnerability to exploitation? Is the child more likely to want to be away from family or carers and seek care from people not harming them.
• Has the child suffered sexual abuse in the past? This is not about current
  sexual exploitation – it is about considering whether the child has past experiences of sexual abuse, which may have or is negatively affecting their current attachments to care givers and increased their vulnerability to being exploited.

Been exposed to domestic abuse, substance misuse or mental health difficulties within the family?

• Is there a known history of domestic abuse within the family which may have
  impacted upon the child’s emotional wellbeing and understanding of healthy relationships? Is ongoing domestic abuse a reason for the child to avoid being at home? Is the impact of domestic abuse weakening the parent’s capacity to act protectively?
• Is there significant past or current substance misuse by family members which
  may increase the child’s vulnerability? Is parental substance misuse having an impact on parenting capacity setting boundaries and offering parental oversight of the child?
• Is there significant past or current mental health issues of family members
  which may increase the child’s vulnerability? Are parental mental health issues impacting on parenting capacity, are parents recognising risk and harm and acting to reduce risk?

Experienced a breakdown in family relationships?

• Has there been a breakdown in family relationships which might cause the
  child to avoid going home or make them vulnerable to others who may seek to befriend them in the wider community?

Been exposed to criminality within their own family?

• Has the child being introduced to criminality at a young age by a significant caregiver?
• Has criminal behaviour in a household been trivialised and normalized? Are
  carers actively committing criminal offences and so desensitising these behaviours to children?

Been diagnosed or shown indications of additional needs including neurodivergence?

• Having an ADHD/ASD or other diagnosis might mean a child fails to see risk in the wider community.
• Does the child have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)?
• Have any speech, language or communication needs been identified?

Been a victim of exploitation or other risks outside the home in the past?

• Is there a known and evidenced history of the child suffering harm outside the home in the past? What impact does this have for the child now?
• What were the key aspects of that harm that are relevant to the current situation?

Is the child currently?

These should be ticked if they are currently present or have been present during the last 3 months.

Regularly returning home late or being absent without permission?

• Is the child demonstrating a pattern of staying out late or has there been a recent change? Are they just pushing boundaries, or does it appear to be indicating
  something more concerning?
• Provide details of dates this has happened, how late they have stayed out, who they were with, where they went, how did they act when they left/returned?
• Note anything else relevant about the incidents. Are they missing and has this been actioned, recorded and followed up with a Return Home Interview?

Using their mobile phone excessively and/or secretively?

• Are they communicating with or being contacted by someone of concern? Are they sending/receiving explicit images? Are they receiving lots of calls/messages from unknown sources or at odd times of the day? Does their demeanour change following contact on their phone, or do they leave their home straight after? Do they have more than one phone, or is their phone use or messages indicative of involvement in drug supply?
• Remember: It is quite usual for teenagers to have sole control of their mobile phone so this in itself should not give you cause for concern. You need to think about the connection with the child’s mobile phone use and possible risks. It is also important to consider that mobile phones are expensive, and most teenagers do not have more than one phone. Those that do may need further clarification from a parent/carer.

Isolated from peers or part of a new social network? (including online)

• Does the child lack a stable safe and positive friendship group? Do they have appropriate friends of their own age? Do they struggle to maintain appropriate friendships and tend to drift around? Do they feel lonely and that they have no real friends so will readily be targeted by exploiters?

In contact with unknown adults online?

• Is there evidence that these people present an exploitation risk to the
  child? Do you have details of what they look like, car registrations etc. what can you evidence from other sources?

Misusing drugs or alcohol beyond teenage experimentation?

• Do you have concerns regarding the child’s drug/alcohol use which potentially increases their risk of harm outside the home? Does their substance use go beyond more common teenage experimentation (as this in itself is not an indicator of exploitation but could increase vulnerability)? Are drugs/alcohol being supplied to the child as part of a grooming process? Does the substance given reduce the child’s capacity to keep safe? Are there indications of a dependency/increasing dependency? Could the child be accruing a drug use related debt (Tic is a common term, Chore is a term for stealing drugs from others)?
• Relevant details: How is the child accessing/funding the substance? Who is supplying them? Who is the child using them with? What is the extent of their usage? What type of substance is the child using and what effect does it have on the child (this should assist you in considering why a perpetrator may provide the child with either drugs or alcohol or both)?
• Remember: This is about the child’s substance use, not their parents or anyone else’s.

Demonstrating low attendance in their education setting and/or being excluded from education on a fixed-term or permanent basis?

Not in education, employment, or training?

• Is the child out of education/training/employment and their whereabouts unknown because of this? Is the child missing from school and their whereabouts unknown or are there concerns about where they are going/who they are meeting?
• Consider that an exploited child may be made leave school premises to sell drugs and be under threat so show clear anxiety and a need to leave immediately.

Sexually active in a way that causes concern?

• Has the child contracted STI’s, been pregnant and/or had a termination?
• If the child is accessing sexual health services in relation to the above issues, does the sexual health nurse/health professionals have concerns? Was the child accompanied to any appointment by anyone, did the child use their own voice or where they close down or coerced?

Expressing new feelings of low self-esteem or a deterioration in mental health and wellbeing?

• When thinking about low self-esteem, does the child consider themselves unlovable, inferior or unworthy? Do they believe that they deserve bad things to happen to them? Do they accept when bad things happen to them and so are unable to change repeated patterns of abuse?
• Has there been a change in emotional wellbeing and/or behaviour which could be reactions to undisclosed trauma, for example, self-harming, acting very aggressively or withdrawn, taking overdoses?
• Consider the context around the behaviour and any potential triggers – consider any other likely explanations which may be non-exploitation related, remember that teenagers as part of their development will want to explore their own sense of self away from family.

A young carer?

• What is the nature of the caring responsibilities? Does the child feel a financial burden?

Living in unsuitable or inappropriate accommodation?

• Is unsuitable or inappropriate accommodation an issue and is this increasing the child’s vulnerability to being exploited? Is the child sofa-surfing or homeless? Are they in accommodation which is not suitable for their needs, for example, young people in supported accommodation or a known ‘Hotspot’ when they are known to be vulnerable? Are they in the care of the local authority with multiple placements and/or multiple placement breakdowns, are they being cuckooed?

Living independently and failing to respond to attempts by worker to keep in touch?

• This relates to young people who are living semi – independently (not at home), for example, they may be in some form of supported accommodation.
• Consideration should be given as to whether the child’s failure to respond to the workers attempts to keep in touch are a change in their usual behaviour or have a cause other than exploitation. Are they engaging with anyone else? Are there Cuckooing risks?
• This indicator relates to the concern that the cause for the young person’s non-engagement is because they are experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, exploitation.

Lacking a positive relationship with a protective and nurturing adult (i.e. parent, grandparent, carer, etc.)?

• Does the child have a positive relationship with an adult who is protective and nurturing of them, for example, parent, extended family, family friend, professional? Without this children are more likely to accept or be in negative friendships.

Coming to the attention of Police, or reported to be involved in anti-social behaviour?

• Has the child been arrested? Are they discussed at local Problem Solving Groups? Have they received Diversion support or other Youth Justice Service preventative interventions?

3. Indicators of Current Harm

This section includes factors that evidence children are likely to be suffering harm outside the home.

In the last 3 months, has the child?

Been missing repeatedly or overnight?

Had long periods of time where their whereabouts are unknown? (including missing education)

Travelled some distance away from home unexpectedly or without good reason?

• Have you listed dates and times of missing episodes, has the child gone missing overnight or longer? Provide details of when, what is known about where they have stayed or who with etc.
• It is important to provide details of how often this has occurred within a period and the duration of the missing periods, as well as any other known details regarding the episodes.
• Have Return Home Interviews been completed?
• Has the child been travelling out of the county whilst missing or found in another area/district with no obvious link (consider trafficking and county/drug lines risks).

Identified themselves as a member of a ‘gang’?

• Provide specific details of what the child said and where the gang is known to operate.
• Is this an established gang with a structure and hierarchy or is this a local group of children and young people?

Been spending time with other children who are suspected or known to have been exploited or involved in serious violence?

• That the child is associating with other children/peers who are suspected of suffering harm outside the home? Is there an indication the child may also be at risk because of this association?

Been in contact with adults who are suspected or known to be perpetrators of exploitation or serious violence? (including online)

• Do they believe they are in a ‘relationship’ with a named older person who gives cause for concern (e.g. older boy/girlfriend)?
• Are there concerns regarding relationships with an individual or group who have some control over them (this could be peers or adults)?
• The control element is important when considering this significant risk indicator – an exploitative relationship between a perpetrator and their victim is going to involve some degree of power imbalance and potentially control, intimidation, threats, and violence.
• Provide any details of the relationship, how long it been going on for, where did they meet/continue to meet, what they do together, what explanations have been given for their friendship/association/relationship, and details of any indications of control. Consider the young person feeling indebted; being coerced to do things they would not normally do; online or offline.
• This can often be confused with teenage relationship abuse: common signs of this include – emotional, physical and sexual abuse, online control as well as financial control in intimate relationships – these relationships are toxic and cause harm but do differ from exploitation.
• Has the child been seen or known to have been entering or leaving vehicles driven by unknown people/people of concern? If so – when did this occur (date/time), how many occasions, is there a description or details of the car/individuals in the car, do you have the registration number?

Been physically harmed by an adult or child outside the home, or sustained a physical injury without plausible explanation?

• Any incident where a child is being physically abused by a controlling person or presenting with injuries that they cannot give a plausible explanation for. This may indicate that they are being sexually/criminally exploited and that physical violence is being used as a way of controlling or punishing them.
• Physical injuries can also be linked to knife crime incidents and children involved in anti-social behaviours or fleeing threats.

Been sexually harmed by an adult or child outside the home?

• Have allegations been made and then withdrawn?
• Is there evidence of there being an individual/group who is grooming/exploiting the child and the child’s withdrawal of the allegation is an indication of the presence of the abuser’s control over them.
• There may be possible use of violence in advance of exploitation in order to control the child.
• Also consider issues relating to being forced to internally insert/swallow drugs inside the body to transport or hide them (‘plugging’).

Been financially exploited?

• Is the child seeking large amounts of money from home repeatedly?
• Is there any strange activity in the child’s bank account? Are there large unexplained withdrawals.

Been found in possession of unexplained amounts of money, expensive clothing, or other items for which there is no plausible explanation; and/or benefiting from social or beauty activities which they do not have the means to pay for?

• Has the child been observed with money, clothing, mobile phones or any other significant items that they cannot account for or give a plausible explanation on how they were obtained? If so, this could be an indication of goods being provided as part of an exploitation or grooming process? This can also include drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, does the child’s clothing and items cost more than could be reasonably afforded by the family.

Been going to places known for exploitation or associated with drug dealing?

Been going to adult places, or had access to premises they shouldn’t have, including hotels, ‘bandos’ or cuckooed properties?

• Is the child is frequenting somewhere where there are known concerns about children being targeted and groomed for sexual/criminal exploitation, or where sexual or criminal exploitation is taking place? Consider locations/addresses/properties (sometimes abandoned) linked to exploitation concerns.
• The terms ‘trap house’ and ‘bando’ are sometimes used to refer to addresses used as a base for drug supply. These can also refer to other locations including Airbnb, B&B’s, hotels, parks etc which may be linked to exploitation concerns.
• Care experienced children living in semi-independent accommodation may have little professional oversight and their vulnerabilities make then easy targets for cuckooing.

Had a drug debt, or been accessing drugs without having financial means?

• If a child has a drug debt or repeated debts that they are unable to pay, they may be required to run/distribute drugs further or in larger quantities or engage in other criminal activities. This may mean having to commit robberies or steal from others including their family to fund payments. Confiscating drugs/cash from a child may put then at further risk and planning needs to be considered around their personal safety. Specify how much the debt is, if known and over how long a period. Children under threat to pay or service a debt may show anxiety and trauma and be missing at short notice to deal.

Been found with large quantities of Class A or B drugs?

Been linked with known drug supply lines, or been identified as holding, moving or distributing drugs?

• If a child is involved in significant drug supply activity then it’s probable that they are being controlled/exploited by others. Due consideration needs to be given to what and who has led the child to become involved in this high-risk situation, and who is gaining from their involvement (often the child gains very little and/or may not have a sound understanding of the risk and harm).
• Whenever significant quantities of drugs are seized from a child there is the potential for them to become indebted to exploiters and be more susceptible to an increased risk of further harm, exploitation and trafficking. Safety planning around this must always be considered.

Been abducted or subject to false imprisonment?

Had unknown people coming to their address to look for or contact them?

• When did this happen and how frequently? Have incidents been reported to Police?

Been in possession of knives or other weapons?

• This indicator is about carrying a weapon and is often a learnt behaviour. Young people who carry weapons are more likely to have adverse childhood experiences such as trauma, abuse, victimisation and exposure to violence. Children are often injured themselves by carrying weapons and this risk should be considered.
• Have you seen a weapon, do you know what type of weapon, how often the child has one, are they scared for their own safety or life, have they been exposed to levels of violence that would be seen as damaging to their mental health and overall development.

Been involved in incidents of violence, robberies or thefts?

• This may be an indicator or evidence that the child is being drawn into criminal behaviours to be ‘tested’, to pay debts or for the benefit/gain of someone else.
• ASB including theft can be an early indicator of child exploitation and should not be considered in isolation.

Been in possession of multiple mobile phones or receiving lots of calls/texts from unknown sources?

Been watching, sharing or creating online material about youth violence or ‘gang culture’?

Made or shared indecent images of themselves or others?

• Does the child’s internet use give cause for concern regarding exploitation? Has their use of the internet changed and is this giving cause for concern? Are they using the internet to communicate with someone of concern?
• Are they sharing explicit images of themselves or receiving them from others? Are they arranging to meet up with strangers/people they only know from being online? Are there indications that they are being groomed on social media platforms or gaming platforms (X Box or PlayStation Live)?
• Consider if a parent or carer is able to monitor social media use and by not monitoring does that increase the risk of being groomed and exploited

Expressed interest in extremist ideologies and/or accessed extremist material online?

• Has the child made comments that raise concerns about extremist views?
• Have they viewed online content that promotes extremist views? How often? For how long have they been doing so?

4. Contexts for Harm

• You may have described the concerns in detail in the sections above. Here, state briefly any known names and places of concern.
• Understanding the wider context where harm is occurring is crucial to effective understanding and responses to risks outside the home.
• Harm could be happening in particular locations due to the presence of unsafe/exploitative adults, it could be linked to harmful dynamics within peer groups, it might be exacerbated by environmental and systemic factors (for example, poorly lit areas, poverty, school exclusions, adultification of ethnically minoritised groups). Through building our understanding of these contexts, the influence they have and the interplay between them, we can identify where contextual interventions may need to be targeted to reduce harm and increase safety.

5. Views

• Understanding the child and parents’ perspectives are vitally important to help assess what impact this has on their level of safety and whether risks were present but have now reduced or harm is increasing.
• Does the child/parent recognise the exploitation risks/concerns?
• Is the parent taking all appropriate protective steps and is this having any impact, or is a lack of action increasing the exploiters access to the child?

6. Strengths and Safety Measures

• Outline what is working well and any measures that have already been tried. Be specific about the actions that have already been taken, when they were done and what the impact has been (positive, negative or neutral).
• Presence of protective/safety measures may reduce the level of concern about current risks or a lack of these may heighten concern further.
• Examples:
  • Positive relationships with protective adult/s or supporting professionals
  • Sustained/access to positive peer relationships
  • Involvement in/access to diversionary/positive activities
  • Positive engagement with education or employment
  • Parental oversight/management of internet
  • Social media plan that is reducing contact to harmful people and material
  • Missing action plan
  • Direct work with child (educative or mentoring)
  • Community disruption
  • Safety mapping and planning with young people in response to locations they feel safe/unsafe
  • Presence of community guardians who have reach into the location or peer group and can increase safety (for example, youth outreach, local businesses, transport providers, community leaders)
  • Safe places the young person can access in the areas where harm is occurring/likely
  • Opportunities for peers to spend time together in safe environments
  • Trauma-informed school support plan to promote/sustain attendance and engagement

7. Risk Assessment

• Pay attention to the level descriptors for each category detailed within the ROTH Assessment.
• Consider whether a risk is suspected or evidenced.
• Remember that risk gradings are provisional until the assessment has been reviewed by the relevant Missing and Exploitation Team and/or ROTH Triage Panel.

National Referral Mechanism

• Human trafficking is often an integral process to child exploitation and can include the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person, by means of the threat of or use of force, or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of abuse of power, for the purpose of exploitation.
• The UNHCR (Guidelines 2006, Human trafficking) defines the process as a combination of three basic components:
  
  1. Movement (including within the UK) – WHAT
  2. Control, through harm/threat of harm or fraud – HOW
  3. For the purpose of exploitation – WHY
• For Child Trafficking only elements 1 and 3 need to be demonstrated. It is key for practitioners to ensure that they always consider trafficking as an issue related to
  child exploitation and act accordingly. Children may be taken from one place to another for exploitation including sexual activity and drug running. Practitioners also need to be aware that CCE and drug running for county lines falls under forced criminality. This is all covered in the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
• If a child meets the test for being trafficked as above, then appropriate safeguarding action must be the first step, followed by completion of a National Referral Mechanism (NRM) referral.

8. Help and Support

Should you have any further questions when completing the ROTH Assessment, please reach out to the relevant team for your area:

• Cambridgeshire: missingandexploitation@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
• Peterborough: