Not on My Watch – UK track

NOT ON MY WATCH is a digital service to engage community members to spot and report even the smallest signs of what could be a case of child sexual exploitation (CSE).

Long Description

NOT ON MY WATCH is a digital service to engage community members to spot and report even the smallest signs of what could be a case of child sexual exploitation.

Our focus is not on health care professionals, but on passive observers in the community – small business owners, such as local grocer’s shops that are part of the local community. After talking to experts from several industries – from charities like Barnardo’s to social workers, general practitioners and safeguard agencies from the local authorities – we’ve identified that community members play a fundamental role as well as caring about their community, their business and the safety of their neighbourhood. They also have local knowledge and see things that sometimes make them feel uncomfortable, such as a minor hanging around with an older adult or starting to buy suspicious products.

We want to raise awareness and activate community members’ consciences so they can take informed action. A local campaign presented by CSE experts together with local authority officers at regular Small Business Association meetings would make such community members aware of the issue. Furthermore, through our digital service, they would be encouraged to report any sudden behavioural change they spot in a child while going about their daily business.

Using a heat map of signs, this collective community intelligence will help the police and social services to act as a preventative body, at the same time as contributing to the safety of the neighbourhood and protection of children.

1)    AWARENESS CAMPAIGN & CSE EDUCATION: a social worker and/or safety professional from the local authority together with a CSE expert will go to a regular Small Business Association meeting and introduce the ‘Not on My Watch’ campaign. At these meetings, members of the community will:

–       Be educated and become aware of the Child Sexual Exploitation issue;

–       Be presented to the NOMW digital service and invited to download the app right away, generating soft intelligence and empowering them to take action.

2) ENCOURAGEMENT TO SPOT CSE SIGNS: Once aware of CSE and the NOMW service, community members could feel more empowered to detect even the smallest signs of what could be a case of CSE;

3)    SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS ACTIVATION: at the end of each day, they will be reminded and encouraged, through the app, to report if they saw anything suspicious involving a minor during their working day. In just 2 simple steps they could:

1. select the gender of the child and their estimated age;
2. Write in more detail what they saw/their suspicion;

A thank you message will be immediately sent to the user, informing him or her of the increase in safety he contributed to his or her community.

4)  OUTPUT LIVE CSE DATA: these reports will create a collective data intelligence heat map, informing local police and social workers about suspicious CSE action in each community, helping them to recognise even the smallest signs and possibly preventing CSE from happening.

Team

• Erland Prendergast, student at Glasgow and intern at Design Thinkers Academy
• Eve Bayram, associate designer trainee at Civil Service at the Ministry of Justice
• Karen Rozenbaum, strategist and MA Service Design at the Royal College of Art
• Kieran Sull, Ministry of Justice
• Malcolm Casimir, Strategic User Experience Consultant at Ministry of Justice Digital

Design Jury Selection

This service proposition was awarded a ‘Design Jury Selection’ from the Design Sprint developed in September together with the Ministry of Justice, Design Thinkers Academy London, Royal College of Art and STBY. Acknowledged as the most interesting, feasible and viable concept, with the potential to be piloted in a local community and further scaled up.