What Is County Lines, and Could It Affect a Child You’re Fostering?

“County lines” is not a phrase most people hear until it touches their own home. It means children being used to carry and sell drugs, often miles from where they live. Children in foster care are among those most likely to be targeted, and knowing the signs early makes the biggest difference.

Please note: this article touches on the law around children and criminal exploitation. It is general information, not legal advice for your own situation. Correct as of September 2026. See the Crown Prosecution Service and the Modern Slavery Act 2015 on legislation.gov.uk for current guidance.

What Is County Lines?

Groups move drugs out of cities into smaller towns and rural areas. They keep in touch with buyers through one mobile number, a “line”, that stays open even when the person holding the phone changes.

Children are given that phone.

They are called “runners”. They carry the drugs and collect the cash. Some stay for days in a “trap house”: a flat used to store and sell drugs, usually far from anyone who knows them.

Why Do Exploiters Target Children?

Police are less likely to suspect a child. Children are also easier to control, especially if they are already struggling.

A child is more at risk if they:

• have a social worker, or are growing up away from their family
• have experienced abuse, neglect or a difficult childhood
• have a learning disability, a physical disability or a mental health difficulty
• are struggling at school, or have been excluded
• already know people involved in gangs
• live somewhere with high unemployment and little for young people to do
• go missing often

That list reads like a description of exactly the children fostering exists to protect, including many children aged eight and over who arrive needing this kind of watchfulness from day one.

How Does the Grooming Work?

It is rarely fast, and it rarely looks like exploitation at the start.

• It starts with attention. Someone who finally seems interested in them.
• Then a small favour. Holding a bag. Making a delivery.
• Then control. Threats, debt, being told they owe something back.
• Then they feel trapped, and carry on because they are frightened of what happens if they stop.

A pair of trainers. A phone top-up. A lift into town when nobody else offered one. That is often where it starts.

What Are the Signs?

• Going missing, or coming home later than expected
• New things they cannot explain
• Being secretive about calls, messages or who they are with
• New friends, often older, while old friendships fade
• Unexplained injuries
• A sudden change in mood
• Slipping away from school

None of these proves anything on its own. A change in behaviour is rarely about being difficult for its own sake. Together, over a few weeks, these are worth paying attention to.

Is a Child Doing This a Criminal?

No.

A child forced to carry drugs is a victim of exploitation, whatever it looks like from the outside. The law recognises this. Section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 gives a child a defence where what they did was a direct result of being trafficked or exploited, and prosecutors are required to weigh up a child’s age, vulnerability and background before deciding whether to charge them at all.

That protection exists on paper. It helps far more in practice if a carer can already show what was going on before things reached a police station: a note of the new trainers, the odd phone calls, the evening they came back three hours late and would not say where from.

What Do You Do If You Are Worried?

• Talk to them. Stay calm. Skip the lecture.
• Tell your supervising social worker what you have noticed, even if you are not sure it means anything.
• If you find drugs or anything that worries you, do not get rid of it. Leave it and call your supervising social worker or the out-of-hours line.
• Keep a note of what happened and when, while it is fresh. It is one of the boundaries that sits alongside your usual safer caring routines at home.

What Do You Do If a Child Tells You?

Listen. Do not look shocked, and do not promise to keep it secret. Tell them plainly what happens next. A child who has just told you something like this needs to know they have not lost control of what happens to them.

Write down what was said as soon afterwards as you can, in their own words where possible. Then call your supervising social worker or the out-of-hours number.

If a child does not come home when expected, the steps are slightly different again. We cover what to do when a child goes missing from your care in more detail elsewhere.

You Will Not Be Doing This On Your Own

You are not expected to be a police officer or a youth worker. You are expected to notice, and to tell someone whose job it is to act.

Every Fostering Hearts foster carer has a supervising social worker who supports around six families, not sixty, so you are never far down a queue. Every child in our care carries a small card with numbers to call if something is worrying them, so getting help does not depend on remembering a name under pressure.

Training on safeguarding and safer caring starts in your first months and is refreshed every year. It is not left as a leaflet in a folder somewhere.

None of this makes the worry disappear. It means that when something feels off, you have somewhere to take it the same day, not a form to fill in and wait on.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly is county lines?

It is a form of child criminal exploitation where gangs use children to move and sell drugs between cities and smaller towns, keeping in touch through one phone line that stays open even as the person using it changes.

Are children in foster care more likely to be targeted?

Yes. Children with a social worker, a difficult childhood, or additional support needs are recognised by organisations including the NSPCC and the Home Office as being at greater risk of this kind of grooming.

Could a child in foster care be prosecuted for what they were made to do?

The law treats a child exploited this way as a victim first. Section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 gives a legal defence where what they did was a direct result of being trafficked or exploited, and prosecutors must weigh up how vulnerable the child was before deciding whether to charge them at all.

What should I do if I am worried about a child in my care?

Talk to them calmly, then tell your supervising social worker straight away, even if you are not certain. If a child goes missing, contact the out-of-hours line and the police without delay.

Where can I find more support or information?

Your supervising social worker and safeguarding lead are the first call. Outside that, the NSPCC Helpline (0808 800 5000, 10am to 4pm Monday to Friday) and Childline (0800 1111, for children and young people, 24 hours a day) both cover this. The Ivison Trust, formerly known as PACE UK, supports parents and carers specifically around a child’s exploitation.