Exploiters of children could be thwarted using an "Al Capone approach" in cases where they cannot be prosecuted for sex crimes, councillors were told.

Sex offenders and criminals in organised groups could be "disrupted" with other measures such as closing down dirty takeaways, a Durham County Council meeting heard.

Council and police chiefs were responding to the 185-page report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

In February the inquiry found "extensive failures" in the way child sexual exploitation by organised networks was tackled, after hearing harrowing testimonies from children across the country, including County Durham.

Now, bosses have outlined work done to learn and understand the scale of child sexual exploitation, help and protect children, assess risks and stop "victim blaming".

Read more: Durham police and council respond to child sexual exploitation report

Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Ashton from Durham Police said: "I think we are making children safer."

He said it was "really important that we investigate proactively, disrupt and prosecute offenders.

"We need to protect the victims but we also need to be looking at how we can disrupt those offenders."

He was asked about "disruption" at a meeting of the council's children and young people's scrutiny committee.

He said the Crown Prosecution Service tested whether or not there was sufficient evidence to prosecute.

He said: "Where there isn't, there would still be initiatives to try and disrupt that offender even if we couldn't get them prosecuted.

He referred to "child abduction warning notices" which can be served if the authorities have concerns.

Read more: 'Shocking' findings on Durham Police spark call for probe

He added: "There's a whole other raft of disruptions, particularly if we had an organised network.

"We've got a really good multi-agency organised crime disruption group.

"We look at how, if we can't disrupt this criminal group through criminal prosecution, we'll look at what kind of other type of legislation we could use.

"Sometimes, for example, if we've got a fast food takeaway and they're not complying with food hygiene but we're concerned about some of their activities... we might be able to go and shut the fast food premises down through food hygiene.

"So we look at the Al Capone-type methodology of how we can disrupt that.

"Sadly the prosecution in a sense is too late. What we want to do is try and intervene at an earlier stage and prevent that child from being abused in the first place."

He said children could be exploited in different ways such as trafficking, county lines, modern slavery and crime groups.

He said there were about 1,400 registered sex offenders in County Durham and Darlington who were strictly monitored.

Read more: Some households in Durham and Darlington could get council tax rebate

"Is it enough and does it hit every offender? Absolutely not," he said.

"And that's where we've all got that responsibility to be open to the signs and the potential symptoms of a child being exploited or abused.

"The high harm agenda in Durham Constabulary is what we talk about every day. They will always be given the priority."

John Pearce, the council's director of children and young people's services, said: "Often the perpetrators and criminal gangs and those who wish to exploit are always a step ahead. There's a really significant challenge.

"We have a child protection system that's based on the Children Act in 1989. In 1989 you won't have seen any reference anywhere to child sexual exploitation. There's a massive cultural shift.

"We aim to protect every child but we can't protect every child and we're always balancing risk and mitigating risk.

"I think there's been a significant improvement, particularly where we have professionals for whom this is very much part of their day-to-day work.

"I do think the picture has improved significantly but still a massive amount more to do."

He and Det Chf Supt Ashton told how the IICSA report investigated in 2017 to 2019 and there had been numerous improvements since.

These included a successful tracker with a "rank order of those children who are most at risk", along with more detectives, intervention and social workers, missing from home coordinators and a data analyst, links between organisations and numerous strategies, reviews, plans and training.

They talked of work with parents, families and other services to reduce risk, support and gain the trust of children - who sometimes do not realise they have been exploited - and to use intelligence and identify abusers and their tactics.

Helen Fergusson, the council's head of children's social care, said sexual exploitation was "underpinned by a culture of secrecy" and power where children were threatened, manipulated, even made to feel loved so they do not recognise it as abuse.

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