What is the role of Barnardo's since you have given up the running of children's homes?

Chris Hanvey: Barnardo's still has some residential schools and projects but the majority of the work we do, with approximately 96,000 children across the UK, is based in community projects. We also made the decision that we wanted to reflect both devolution and regional debates which are going on in central and local government. Also, as well as a central office in London, we operate through Barnardo's Cymru, Barnardo's in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

The starting point for a lot of the work we do is working alongside statutory and voluntary agencies. We do this through a range of community projects, rather than taking children and young people out and putting them into residential homes from which even after they've had time in residential care they have to return to the community. Hence the change in the emphasis in the work we do over the last few years.

Is child prostitution a major concern for Barnardo's?

Chris Hanvey: Yes it is. It's an issue which has grown in the work we do. We first got involved in 1995 and then knew about 30 young people who were involved in prostitution. Since then we have discovered that this is a problem which is very much below the horizon for a lot of people but is one which is increasingly important and worrying.

As a result of this, Barnardo's now works with over 2,215 children in approximately 12 projects across the UK and it is one priority for the development of our work.

It's a good example of our community based work as we are working with these young people, often on the streets, in safe houses or projects.

How do kids get involved in child prostitution in the first place?

Chris Hanvey: In 2002 we produced a report called 'Stolen Childhood' which has within it a number of case studies which illustrate the way in which many of these children get drawn in. Quite often they are children who have suffered social and economic deprivation in a whole range of ways in their lives.

The approach to these young people by adults can be through careful selection or grooming. For some of these young children it's often the first time that, ostensibly, they have been given friendship or support and they are then drawn into a whole range of very unsavoury networks. This can then lead to prostitution or having inappropriate images taken of them relayed onto web sites and a further whole range of other ways in which they are lured into and find it very difficult to get out of that type of life.

So what should the government do to tackle the problem?

Chris Hanvey: We are in support of the government's White Paper and look forward to the Sex Offences Bill because we think, for the first time, that there is a real opportunity to recognise that these children and young people are being abused through prostitution. We hope that the legislation will be strong enough to enforce the recommendations in the White Paper.

Barnardo's has been involved in an Early Day Motion, which Linda Perham MP has put forward, which asks not only for greater protection for children and young people, but also priority for them in the National Policing Plan.

There are two disappointments about the plan. The first is that it is the first strategy for England and Wales since the Police Reform Act and therefore provides a tremendous opportunity to put child protection at the centre of the agenda. At the same time we are all awaiting the result of Lord Laming's inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie, which is bound to say something about the relationship between the statutory agencies, of which the police are clearly an important part.

As far as child protection is concerned, it's only dealt with in one particular paragraph of the report - almost as an add on alongside counter-terrorism and road policing. We would very much have liked to have seen the first annual National Policing Plan to have made child protection a key priority of the report.

In some ways this is all linked to Operation Ore, which is investigating the 2000 people who have downloaded child pornography images from the American internet. All the evidence is that the police do not have the resources to investigate and crack down on this type of crime.

So, in a sense, the National Policing Plan was a good opportunity to have put child protection at the top of the child protection agenda.

How are you going to persuade the government to respond to your concerns?

Chris Hanvey: We will do this in a range of ways. We will continue to lobby and obviously the Early Day Motion is a good example of this. We have also launched a poster campaign which attempts, in stark ways, to bring the issues of child abuse to the public's attention. We will also use other opportunities such as this interview to promote our messages to policy matters and the wider problem.

It's interesting that a recent NOP poll indicated that about 80 per cent of the general public realise that abuse through prostitution is now an issue for children in the U.K. This represents a sea change over the last few years. The hope is that with a greater awareness can come a realisation that, first and foremost, they are children.

The government has long talked of eradicating child poverty - are you happy with their progress?

Chris Hanvey: Certainly we welcome the government's pledge to abolish child poverty by 2020. It's a bold agenda to set for any political party. The report published recently by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation unfortunately indicated that the figures so far are below what is needed to meet those targets. I gather that about another 750,000 children and families are predicted to be taken out of the poverty statistics by 2004, but this is well below the number which the government needs to meet its targets.

We've still got two concerns. The first is there needs to be more of a focus on what we describe as 'hard to reach children'. These are the children with disabilities, children who come from families on very low incomes or who, for a whole range of reasons don't easily access services. The second is that low pay is still a problem. To some extent one of the many positives of low inflation is that it means that unemployment is relatively low. This, in turn, has assisted the government in moving towards the attainment of its poverty targets.

At the same time, this is presumably a situation which won't last forever and when inflation and unemployment go up, these targets may recede even further. But I would like to add that this government is concerned with trying to address the issue of poverty and attempting to deal with it in a coherent way.

Do you think that ministers do listen and respond to your concerns?

Chris Hanvey: Yes I do. I think that often it's difficult to see a direct relationship between cause and effect and you often have to make the messages in a whole range of ways. It's interesting that when we launched the poster campaign on Stolen Childhood, we sent 400 copies of the accompanying report to MPs, many of whom responded by saying they found it to be timely and correct in its analysis.

What are your main aims for 2003?

Chris Hanvey: It is to continue to develop our services in partnership with local and central government. The privilege of working in the voluntary sector is that you are free from the statutory responsibilities that local authorities have. I think the responsibility which goes with that is to try and work alongside government - whether central or local.

The other key priority is to respond to a whole raft of government initiatives. For example the proposed Green paper on Children at Risk; the work which is going on in the Children and Young Person's Unit and other initiatives such as Sure Start or Connexions, to ensure that we improve both services and the lives of children and their families.