Council bosses have come together to discuss ways of protecting young people from sexual exploitation.

The Enfield Safeguarding Children Board met this week following the recent high profile cases in Rotherham and other English towns and looked at the likelihood of exploitation happening in Enfield.

The board reviewed private fostering arrangements in the borough to ensure privately fostered children are being adequately protected.

Geraldine Gavin, the independent chairman of the board, said: “Our primary role is to protect children and our message is simple – if you’re concerned about a child, don’t keep it to yourself, tell somebody.

“We are absolutely committed to working together to protect children from abuse, mutilation and neglect and all the partners represented on our board are committed to bringing the perpetrators of crimes against children to justice while making it as difficult as we can for abuse to happen in the first place.

“We had some very useful discussions about the best way to head off exploitation and FGM and we’ll be looking to introduce a number of initiatives in these areas in coming months to beef up our procedures and further improve the protection available for children.”

Cabinet member for education, children’s services and protection, Councillor Ayfer Orhan, said: “The board does remarkable work protecting children from potential harm and we are utterly supportive of their efforts.

“The safety and wellbeing of children and young people in this borough is the responsibility of us all and we must be vigilant to keep them from harm.”