ALMOST 400 young girls and boys have been reported missing in Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley in the past six months.

Although it is impossible to say just how many are victims of child exploitation, Detective Sergeant Mark Wheelan, of Engage, said each one was "potentially being exploited".

Nearly 200 delegates from bodies including Lancashire Police, Blackburn with Darwen Council, the Blackburn branch young people's advisory group, Brook, Lancashire Safeguarding Children Board and alcohol charity Lifeline took part in the conference yesterday aimed at highlighting the issue.

The organisations have joined forces to form Engage, based at Connexions, Duke Street. It will succeed the police-led campaign, Operation Engage.

The conference was partly prompted by the Lancashire Telegraph's Keep Them Safe Campaign, which is aimed at tackling the growing number of men who are targeting girls for sex.

The conference heard how the team, comprising two police officers, a drugs worker, sexual health adv-iser and two social work-ers, will pool their skills to track down offenders who groom teenagers for sex, and offer support and protection to young victims and their families.

The team is helping 20 girls and has benefited from an extra £250,000 investment by the agencies involved, which is being used to create new posts.

Talks and presentations were staged yesterday to highlight the work done to tackle the problem.

Launching Engage, Gladys Rhodes, director of children's services for Blackburn with Darwen Council, praised the campaign as a "positive" opportunity to raise aware-ness. She said: "We are really grateful to the Telegraph for highlighting the issue and reporting it in a sensitive way.

"We need to continue to work together to keep it in the public eye."

Laurence Loft, chair of LSCB, said it was imp-ortant organisations shared information so people did not work in isolation.

The problem of sexual grooming was first high-lighted by the Telegraph in 2006 when the Keep Them Safe Campaign launched.

We revealed how girls, who repeatedly went miss-ing from home or care, were showered with gifts and attention and given drink and drugs before being forced to perform sex acts in return - sometimes with more than 10 men a night.

The government has now commissioned a national inquiry into the extent of the problem.

The team has a dedicated phone line, 01254 267790, where victims can call for support and advice.

Police in Pennine Division, which covers Burn-ley, Pendle and Rossendale have set up a similar operation called Freedom.