I am fortunate enough to work for the organisation that support Safe & Sound with their marketing, so I know first hand how much passion and drive their incredible team put into the work they carry out across the city and county daily and I have gained an understanding of how vital it is they are able to carry on providing their services across Derbyshire.

The pandemic has also lead to a sharp increase in the number of children, young people and families across Derbyshire who have been supported by Safe and Sound, this paired with the fact they have not been able to carry out their usual number of face to face fundraising events due to covid means the charity need to raise funds now more than ever before.

In 2021 the specialist local charity worked with 292 individuals. This includes 203 young people (compared with 150 the previous year) who are victims of or at risk of child exploitation such as online grooming, sexual exploitation, coercion to run drugs through County Lines, trafficking, Modern Slavery and radicalisation.

The figure also includes 49 families whose children are being groomed and exploited. The whole family is affected when a child is exploited and Safe and Sound help parent, carers and siblings to understand what has happened and how they can move on as a family.

The extended support includes help with housing and access to foodbanks to ease the additional strains on family relationships; helping parents whose first language is not English; and positive activities for siblings.