A report compiled by councils in Coventry, Dudley, Walsall, Solihull, Wolverhampton and Sandwell, in partnership with West Midlands Police, has found that 488 children across the West Midlands were victims of, or were vulnerable to sexual exploitation in the first six months of 2014. Stephen Rimmer, the senior civil servant who led the project, claimed the report provided “a proper picture for the first time of the scale and nature” of child exploitation in the region, and that its publication would help improve support for children going forward. Solihull recorded the greatest proportion of victims, although this was put down to it having better systems for identifying those at risk. All-in-all, 87% of those targeted were girls, a third of the children identified were in local authority care, while 25% of those living at home had previously spent time in a care home, and while online offending was most likely to involve white males – a “disproportionate” number of men from Asian Pakistani backgrounds were suspected in exploitation on the streets.