Evaluation of the Alexi Project ‘Hub and Spoke’ programme of CSE service development: key messages

The Alexi Hub and Spoke programme was an £8m service development programme, funded by the Child Sexual Exploitation Funders’ Alliance (CSEFA). It was designed to rapidly increase the capacity and coverage of specialist, voluntary sector child sexual exploitation (CSE) services within England. Sixteen CSE services were funded for three years each,1 over a five year period,2 with the aims of: 1. Making specialist support available to children and young people in a series of new locations. 2. Improving the co-ordination, delivery and practice of local services responding to CSE – including the police, children’s services and other partner agencies. The model known as ‘Hub and Spoke’ was used to achieve this, whereby a voluntary sector organisation (the ‘hub’) placed experienced CSE workers (‘spokes’) either within its own or into new neighbouring local authority areas, in order to extend its coverage and reach. These spoke workers undertook a variety of activities, including individual casework with children and young people, consultancy, and training and awareness-raising with children and young people and practitioners. In total, 53 spoke workers were placed out in 35 new local authority areas and supported by the 16 hub services.