THE future of a specialist team tackling child sexual exploitation in Oxfordshire should be reviewed, a Government advisor has said.

A review of reforms made by authorities after the Bullfinch scandal has raised questions over the Kingfisher Unit, set up jointly by Oxfordshire County Council, Thames Valley Police and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust in 2012.

The unit – widely praised for its groundbreaking approach – is based at Cowley Police Station and works with victims of abuse and grooming to try to bring those responsible to justice.

But in her commentary on progress made since Operation Bullfinch was launched following an Oxford gang grooming and sexually abusing young girls in 2011, child protection specialist Sophie Humphreys questioned if it was the best long-term approach.

Ms Humphreys wrote: “Much credit has been given to Kingfisher, rightly so.

“However, as with any discreet service working well, there is the risk of over- reliance, capacity pressures and thresholds and access becoming a challenge.

“There was similar concern about how Kingfisher might impact on the system in the long term and that child sexual exploitation needs to be seen as the ‘day job’ of children’s social care.

“Kingfisher was an appropriate response in Oxfordshire, at a specific time, to the findings from the Bullfinch investigation into child sexual exploitation.

“However it is important that [Oxfordshire] continues to reflect on whether it is the right response on a long-term basis.”

Ms Humphreys was appointed by the Government in March to independently oversee a progress report by the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board (OSCB).

The report was commissioned after a serious case review of the Bullfinch scandal exposed serious failings in authorities to stop seven men from grooming and sexually abusing six young girls in Oxford.

Maggie Blyth, independent chairwoman of OSCB, said she agreed with Ms Humphreys’ and that specialist skills of Kingfisher needed to be widespread across the authorities.

She suggested its responsibilities could be moved to the recently-established Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).

This was established in 2014 as a “single front door all referrals to children’s social care”.

Ms Blyth said: “There are still high numbers of children coming forward and disclosing [sexual abuse] and while that is happening, there is a case for having a specialist response there.

“Longer term, there may well be a need to integrate Kingfisher’s multi-agency learning, probably into the MASH, because child sexual exploitation is only one of the problems that children face in Oxfordshire.”

The Kingfisher Unit – comprised of about 20 staff who are rotated every two years – has been praised for its groundbreaking approach to tackling child sexual exploitation, chiefly through intelligence sharing between authorities.