Child Criminal Exploitation: Signs, County Lines and What the New Law Means for Staff in Wales

Child criminal exploitation (CCE) is when a person or group uses a power imbalance to coerce, control, manipulate or deceive a child into criminal activity. County lines drug running is the best-known form, but children are also exploited into theft, holding weapons, moving money and working on cannabis farms.

The Crime and Policing Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 and creates a specific offence for adults who exploit children in this way. The law changes how exploiters can be prosecuted. It does not change what staff need to do: notice the signs early, record them accurately and report them through the Wales Safeguarding Procedures.

This guide is written for staff in schools, colleges, children's homes and adult services in Wales. It covers what CCE looks like, what the new law does, the warning signs to watch for and how to respond.

Please note: This article provides general information, not legal or case-specific advice. Follow your organisation's safeguarding, missing-person and emergency procedures and the Wales Safeguarding Procedures. The scenario is a fictional learning example.

What does child criminal exploitation look like?

CCE is a form of child abuse under the Wales Safeguarding Procedures, and a child who is exploited is a victim even when they have committed offences. The Complex Safeguarding Wales Practitioner Toolkit describes CCE as involving an exchange and criminal activity, and often violence or the threat of it.

The exchange is often something the child wants or needs: money, clothes, status, belonging, drugs or protection. What starts as gifts or favours can quickly turn into a “debt” the child is told they must work off.

Common forms of CCE include:

County lines, where gangs use a dedicated phone line to sell drugs into towns and rural areas and use children to carry drugs and cash, often far from home
Local drug supply, including holding, selling or hiding drugs closer to home
Carrying or storing knives and other weapons for older people
Shoplifting, theft or robbery to order
Working or living on cannabis farms
Financial exploitation, where others use the child's bank account to move money
Threatening other young people or drawing peers in

Recruitment increasingly starts online, through social media and gaming platforms, and some exploitation never involves meeting in person. Any child can be targeted. Children who are in care, missing education, excluded, using substances or who have special educational needs and disabilities face greater risk, as our post on protecting children with SEND from exploitation explains.

The scale is significant. Home Office figures show 2,891 children were referred to the National Referral Mechanism as potential victims of criminal exploitation in 2024, and police recorded 2,659 children involved in county lines in 2024/25. Both figures are likely to undercount, because many exploited children are never identified.

What does the Crime and Policing Act 2026 change?

The Act creates new offences and a new civil order aimed at the adults who exploit, not the children they exploit. Before the Act, prosecutors relied on offences such as modern slavery or encouraging crime, none of which named CCE as a crime in its own right.

Child criminal exploitation

Under section 48, an adult aged 18 or over commits an offence if they engage in conduct towards a child under 18 intending to cause the child to commit a criminal offence. The maximum penalty is 10 years' imprisonment, a fine or both.

CCE prevention orders

Courts can make civil orders on conviction, on acquittal or on application, such as bans on contacting named people or going to certain places. Breaching an order carries up to five years' imprisonment.

Cuckooing

It becomes an offence to take control of another person's home without consent so it can be used for crimes such as drug dealing. People under 18 and people who lack capacity cannot consent. The maximum penalty is five years' imprisonment, a fine or both.

Internal concealment

It becomes an offence to cause a child to hide a specified item inside their body for a criminal purpose, or to coerce or deceive an adult into doing so. The maximum penalty is 10 years' imprisonment, a fine or both.

Three further details matter for practitioners:

Age is no excuse. Under section 48, it is irrelevant whether the adult knew or suspected the person was a child, so “I thought they were 18” is not a defence.
Victims get more protection in court. Victims of these offences are automatically eligible for special measures, such as giving evidence from behind a screen or by pre-recorded video.
Exploiters can lose their assets. The offences are added to the list of “criminal lifestyle” offences, which opens the way to confiscation orders.

The Home Office factsheet on the new measures sets these out in more detail.

Is the new CCE offence in force yet?

Not at the time of writing. In October 2026, legislation.gov.uk lists section 48 as prospective: it is law, but commencement regulations have not yet brought it into force. Other parts of the Act took effect on 29 June 2026.

Existing offences, such as those under the Modern Slavery Act 2015, can still be used in the meantime. Check legislation.gov.uk for the current position.

What concerns remain about the new law?

The CCE offence applies only to adults. The Children's Society points out that the cuckooing and internal concealment offences can apply at any age, so a child who is being exploited could still be criminalised. Staff should keep describing exploited children as victims in records, referrals and conversations.

In Wales, the Welsh Government has welcomed the new offences. It is also developing a consolidated Practice Guide on safeguarding children from exploitation under the Wales Safeguarding Procedures.

Warning signs of child criminal exploitation

No single sign proves a child is being exploited. A pattern of signs, or a clear change from how the child usually behaves, is what should prompt a conversation with your designated safeguarding person.

Look out for:

Repeated missing episodes, returning late or not at all, unexplained absences, or being found in towns the child has no link to
New clothes, trainers, jewellery or cash they cannot explain, or talk of owing someone money
More than one phone, new SIM cards, constant calls or messages, or panic when they cannot answer
New older friends, being collected by unknown adults in cars, or dropping long-standing friendships
Unexplained injuries, exhaustion from being out at night, signs of substance use, or carrying weapons, drugs or travel tickets
Falling attendance, missed lessons, exclusions or a sudden drop in progress
Becoming secretive, withdrawn, frightened, aggressive or reluctant to stay in one place
New online contacts the child will not discuss, gang-related content or “easy money” offers

Signs can show up in places as well as in the child. A park, a takeaway, a flat or a stretch of railway line where several young people gather can tell you as much as one child's behaviour. Share those concerns too, because they help police and partners disrupt exploitation in the area.

Our guide to the top signs of vulnerability in children and adults covers wider risk factors that often sit alongside exploitation.

What CCE looks like in different settings

Schools and colleges

Education staff are often the first to notice a change, a point the Welsh Government made in March 2026. Watch for patterns in attendance and lateness, learners leaving site at lunchtime, phone use that seems to cause anxiety, and unfamiliar people waiting near the gates.

Time out of school can increase risk, because it gives exploiters more access to the child. Consider safeguarding when planning exclusions, reduced timetables or managed moves, and record the reasoning. Schools in Wales should follow the Keeping learners safe statutory guidance alongside the Wales Safeguarding Procedures.

Children's homes

Going missing is one of the clearest indicators for a looked-after child. Follow your missing-from-care protocol every time, and use return conversations to listen rather than to reprimand. A child who expects punishment is less likely to tell you who they were with.

Where you suspect a child is holding drugs, cash or weapons for someone else, any search must be lawful, proportionate and recorded. Our guide to room searches in children's homes sets out a rights-respecting approach.

Adult services

Cuckooing often targets adults with care and support needs, including people with learning disabilities, mental health needs or substance use. Signs include new “friends” staying over, a rise in visitors at odd hours, the person seeming frightened at home, and staff being refused entry. Report concerns as an adult at risk under the Wales Safeguarding Procedures, and pass information to the police.

How to respond to concerns in Wales

Your role is to notice, record and report, not to investigate. These steps follow the approach set out in the Wales Safeguarding Procedures; your own policy and Regional Safeguarding Board arrangements take priority.

1. Deal with immediate danger first

Call 999 if a child is at immediate risk, or is missing and you believe they are in danger.

2. Listen without interrogating

Let the child speak in their own words, stay calm, and do not promise to keep secrets.

3. Record the facts the same day

Note the date and time, the child's exact words, names or nicknames, places, vehicles and phone numbers. Write what you saw and heard, not your conclusions.

4. Tell your designated safeguarding person

They will decide on a referral to children's services. Under the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, relevant partners have a duty to report a child they suspect is at risk to the local authority, and anyone can contact social services directly if they need to.

5. Share information with the police

Report missing episodes, and pass on intelligence about adults, addresses and vehicles through the route your procedures set out.

6. Consider the National Referral Mechanism

Local authorities and the police can refer a child as a potential victim of modern slavery. Children do not have to consent to a referral.

7. Stay alongside the child

Exploiters work hard to isolate children. A trusted adult who keeps showing up, and a safety plan the child helped write, can make it easier for them to step away.

Do not confront people you suspect of exploiting a child, and do not move or search a child outside your policy. Either can put the child, or you, at greater risk.

Watch your language in records

Records are read by social workers, police and sometimes courts. Phrases such as “choosing to run drugs” or “involved in county lines” suggest the child is responsible.

Write “being criminally exploited” or “at risk of exploitation” instead, and describe the behaviour you saw.

Example: a pattern emerges in a children's home

The situation: Kai, 15, lives in a children's home in South Wales. Over three weeks he has come back late four times, once from a town 40 miles away. Staff notice new designer trainers and a second phone that buzzes constantly. Asked about them, Kai says a mate bought them and he “owes him a favour”.

A useful response: “Those trainers look brand new. I'm not cross with you, but I'm worried someone might be expecting something back for them. You can tell me as much or as little as you want.”

The member of staff records Kai's exact words, the dates, the town and the second phone, and tells the manager that shift. Each late return is handled under the missing-from-care protocol. The designated safeguarding person refers to children's services and shares the information with the police, and the home contributes to the multi-agency plan.

Avoid confiscating the phone or trainers as a sanction without a plan. Exploiters may tell Kai he now owes them for the lost items, which can deepen the hold they have over him. Agree any action like this as part of his safety plan.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between child criminal exploitation and county lines?

County lines is one form of CCE, in which gangs use children to move drugs and cash along a phone “line” into other areas. CCE is the wider term and also covers theft, holding weapons, cannabis farms and financial exploitation.

Can a child consent to being criminally exploited?

No. A child cannot consent to their own exploitation, even if they seem willing, are being paid or deny that anything is wrong. Treat the child as a victim and follow safeguarding procedures.

Does the new CCE offence apply in Wales?

Yes. Section 48 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 applies in England and Wales, as well as Scotland and Northern Ireland. Safeguarding practice in Wales still follows the Wales Safeguarding Procedures and Welsh statutory guidance.

Is the CCE offence in force?

At the time of writing in October 2026, section 48 had received Royal Assent but had not yet been brought into force. Existing offences, such as those under the Modern Slavery Act 2015, can still be used in the meantime.

What should CCE training cover?

Good training covers the signs and stages of grooming, online recruitment, how to talk to a child you are worried about, recording without blaming language, and the reporting routes in Wales. It should also link to your missing-person, search and knife crime procedures.

Help your team spot exploitation earlier

The new law gives police and courts stronger tools against exploiters, but most children are protected because an adult noticed a change and acted on it. Staff who know the signs, record clearly and report quickly make that possible.

SLC Training delivers Exploitation (CCE & CSE) and Knife Crime Awareness training for children's services, schools and adult services across South Wales. Contact SLC Training to discuss training for your team, including how it fits your safeguarding and missing-person procedures.