Children are being sexually abused “in far greater numbers than was ever imagined” according to the UK’s children’s minister Tim Loughton.

In a speech to launch the government’s plan to tackle grooming, Mr Loughton warned: “Too many local areas have failed to uncover the true extent of child sexual exploitation in their communities and failed to properly support victims and their families,” the Daily Telegraph reports.

The plan, entitled Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation Action Plan intends to bring different agencies and support organisations such as the Crown Prosecution Service and police together to try and combat children being groomed for sex.

Police will also receive specialised training to help them recognise the signs of sexual exploitation.

“This is an extremely seriouis crime and must be treated as such, with the perpetrators pursued more vigorously,” the minister said.

“We need to make going to court much easier for the young victims and their families. It is worrying that many incidents go unreported because victims are unwilling to come forward.”

Barnardo’s chief executive Anne Marie Carrie welcomed the plan saying: “We cannot underestimate the scale of this sickening abuse and the damage it is doing to thousands of girls and boys across the UK.

“At Barnardo’s we hear so many heartbreaking stories which are every parent’s worst nightmare. I hope today marks a new beginning, so fewer of these nightmares become reality and the pernicious individuals behind this exploitation are brought to justice.

“The Government’s action plan to tackle child sexual exploitation will lay down the gauntlet for the criminal justice system to bring more prosecutions of this type of sex offender – but we need urgent action for the innocents who are groomed and exploited for sex.”

Meanwhile, a leading head teacher in the UK has blasted the “liberal dogma of the past” for leaving British society with the “moral abyss of the present”, as she hit out at the sexualisation of children.

Dr Helen Wright, President of the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA), warned of “an avalanche of images and malign influences” which is overwhelming young people.

And she cautioned that parents who “no longer know right from wrong” are “unwittingly ‘indulging’” their children with make-up and provocative clothing.

Dr Wright made the comments at the GSA’s annual conference. The GSA represents the interests of independent girls’ schools in the UK.

In her speech Dr Wright said she had “long been concerned by the seeming erosion of the innocence of childhood in the 21st Century”.

And she commented that now, “more than ever”, children “are assaulted by inappropriate images everywhere they look – from the internet, to the pages of magazines, to billboards, to displays in shops”.

She asked: “In what sort of twisted reality is it acceptable to run pole-dancing classes for young children and advertise them with pictures on the internet, for instance?”

Dr Wright continued: “What hope have we got of safeguarding our children’s sacred childhood if they are knocked off their feet on the nursery slopes of life by an avalanche of images and malign influences?”

But she praised parents who have fought back against sexualised products in shops.

And she said: “It is time to take up the drawbridge on the liberal dogma of the past which has left us with the moral abyss of the present.”

Dr Wright, who is head teacher of a school in Wiltshire, cautioned: “If parents can’t see anything wrong in dressing up their children in ‘Future WAG’ t-shirts and letting them wear make-up, high heels and ‘mini-me’ sexy clothing, then something is intensely wrong in our society.”

She said education was one key way to “break the cycle”.