A UK-wide push to tackle county lines has watered down public bodies' focus on child sexual exploitation (CSE), leaving councils at risk of further abuse cases, an expert has warned.

Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Alexis Jay, believes a widely-used local public services model tackling ‘child criminal exploitation' – which includes a broader range of threats, such as county lines drugs crime and modern slavery – has inadvertently moved resources and attention away from CSE.