Summary:
This webinar aimed to raise awareness and help preparation for the new provisions on criminal exploitation of children and criminal exploitation protection orders within the Crime and Policing Act. It raises awareness of what these measures offer, how they may strengthen existing responses, and how they connect with the powers, duties and child protection approaches already available. It is intended as a starting point, with further guidance and learning to follow as implementation develops.
Bios:
Donna McEwan
Donna works as a Practice Development Advisor and one of the main areas she is involved in is advancing the Whole System Approach. The Whole System Approach is an opportunity to achieve the best outcomes for our children and young people; to meaningfully support them across all levels of youth justice and promote practice development. Prior to working at CYCJ Donna worked as a social worker in both Children and Families and Justice locality teams.
Detective Sergeant Stephanie Bertram
I have over 16 years policing experience in various roles within response/community policing, CID and Public Protection Departments. In my current role within the Retail Crime Task Force, I lead a small yet very successful team “Operation Dynos” that specialises in Criminal Child Exploitation and youth offending. The team and I work closely with some of the most vulnerable young people across the West of Scotland, implementing inclusive and effective responses to mitigate risk of harm whilst adopting a contextual safeguarding approach. I am passionate about child protection and have a positive mindset and approach my role with a “can do” attitude by being a visible leader and ensuring I consider the welfare, views and opinions of my staff, the organisation, external partners, and the young persons.
Relevant links:
- Stephanie.Bertram@Scotland.police.uk 01698 202512
- Paul.Steell@Scotland.police.uk 07814105649
- Jonathan.Cain@Scotland.police.uk 07866220761
- Matthew.Lloyd@Scotland.police.uk 07814951187
- Sharon.McDermott@Scotland.police.uk 07817879809
- OpDynos@Scotland.police.uk
- donna.mcewan@strath.ac.uk 0141 444 8622
References and sources
Key sources for the legal and practice content
- Crime and Policing Act 2026
- UK Government factsheet: child criminal exploitation, cuckooing and internal concealment
- CYCJ Info Sheet 123: UK Government’s Crime & Policing Act 2026 Part 4, 2026
- Scotland’s Framework for Practice: Criminal Exploitation of Children (2025) with CEC Screening to…
- Referring a child to the Children’s Reporter with concerns of criminal exploitation CYCJ Contextua…
- Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015
- Lord Advocate’s Instructions on non-prosecution of victims of human trafficking and exploitation
- CYCJ E-Learning with specific CEC module
Other relevant links from CYCJ:
- CYCJ Webinars – CYCJ’s upcoming webinars.
- CYCJ E-bulletin – Sign up to receive our e-bulletin
- CYCJ has a new e-Learning platform! Click here to find out more.
- New module on Tackling Harmful Sexual Behaviour is out now: M141: Tackling Harmful Sexual Behaviour | Centre for Lifelong Learning
- Learning and development opportunities: https://www.cycj.org.uk/what-we-do/learning-and-development/
- Deadline approaching to apply for the CYCJ Post Graduate certificate in children and young people in conflict with the law – 31/10/26