Supply, exploitation, debt and unsafe peer or adult influence

Substances are often used to groom, reward, control or indebt children. Older peers or adults may offer free vapes, alcohol or drugs at first, then expect money, favours, sex, deliveries, silence or absences in return. A child who appears to choose the contact may already be exploited.

Working Together 2026 asks professionals to consider wider safeguarding when a child is being controlled outside the family home. In residential care, supply may occur alongside missing episodes, county lines activity, sexually harmful situations, local hot spots or unsafe transport routes.

Signs that should widen the safeguarding picture

• Debt and fear: the child talks about owing money or needing to pay someone back.
• Older associates: adults or older peers are supplying items or offering lifts.
• Repeated missing links: the child goes missing to meet the same people or visit the same places.
• Multiple phones or secrecy: contact patterns look pressured or are hidden.
• Gifts and sudden items: vapes, cash, clothes or substances appear without explanation.

Manager focus: exploitation links

When substances arrive through fear, debt or older peers, the real issue is not only use. It is control.