School nurses’ role in detecting child criminal exploitation and in early safeguarding

Unlike many other safeguarding concerns, child criminal exploitation frequently occurs outside the family home, and can therefore be challenging for professionals such as nurses, social workers, police and teachers to identify. Through their regular contact with children and young people, school nurses are well placed to identify early indicators of criminal exploitation. The author undertook a narrative literature review to examine how the knowledge and practice of professionals influence the identification of child criminal exploitation, with a focus on the role of school nurses in detection and safeguarding. While school nurses are well placed to help prevent child criminal exploitation and promote welfare-focused responses, their effectiveness in doing so is limited by a lack of specialist education, professional autonomy and recognition of their role within the multiple agencies involved in child protection.