Operational Policing
Child Trafficking
Child trafficking into and within the UK has become a highly organised crime equivalent to a form of modern day slavery.
Victims are coerced, deceived or forced into the control of others who seek to profit from their exploitation and suffering. Many of these children are reluctant to disclose their plight either out of fear of reprisal or due to a misplaced loyalty to their trafficker.
Latest News
UK compliance with human trafficking convention
From 1 April 2009, the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against the Trafficking in Human Beings will be implemented throughout the UK. The convention was approved by the government on 17 December 2009. One of the key factors in complying with the convention will be the introduction of a national referral mechanism for identifying and protecting victims of trafficking. Where practitioners working within the Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCB) framework (or their equivalent) suspect a child has been trafficked they will need to provide evidence of this on a referral form and send this to the competent authority for assessment. The competent authority will then decide on 'reasonable grounds' whether or not the child is a victim of trafficking and confirm later with a 'conclusive grounds' decision.
To help practitioners in their assessment of whether a child is a victim of trafficking, an (optional) assessment tool (new window) is available on the Crime Reduction website. From the information collected, the practitioner should complete a referral form summarising the evidence and send this to the competent authority, whose address is on the bottom of the form. The referral form, guidance and further information on trafficking can be found on the Crime Reduction website. (new window)
New practice guidance
As a key measure of the government's UK action plan on tackling human trafficking (new window), the Home Office and DCSF published practice guidance in December 2007 called Working together to safeguard children who may have been trafficked (new window). This supplements the statutory Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance (new window), published in April 2006.
The new guidance provides professionals with information on child trafficking and guides them into taking appropriate action to safeguard a child victim of trafficking. It was developed through extensive consultation with a wide range of policy and practice professionals.
Child sexual exploitation
Government draft guidance (new window) to identify and protect children from sexual exploitation is currently being revised after a period of consultation. The guidance will be statutory for local authorities and forms a key element of the Government's Staying Safe Action Plan.
A new study by Bedfordshire University, commissioned by the Home Office, scopes the Criminal Justice System's response to tackling child sexual exploitation. The report highlights the varying responses to sexual exploitation by agencies and the need for this form of child abuse to be given a higher priority.
It recommends more resources for training and investigating cases, and that a national-led effort is devoted to developing a systematic approach to tackling child sexual exploitation.
NSPCC child trafficking advice and information line (0800 107 7057)
The Home Office played a pivotal role in scoping the need for a national advice line for children's practitioners and in bringing together several children's charities in setting up the NSPCC child trafficking advice and information line (CTAIL). This was launched on 7 October, 2007 and implements a second measure in the UK Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking.
The service is jointly funded by the Home Office and Comic Relief and is proving an invaluable resource to children's practitioners who suspect a child may have been trafficked. CTAIL provides quick and reliable support to practitioners and gives more in depth advice where cases need this.
Home Office funded e-learning tool kit
A new e-learning tool kit (new window) financed by the Home Office and developed by ECPAT (UK) provides practitioners with an additional resource to improve their skills in identifying and taking appropriate action to safeguard trafficked children.
United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) code of practice
Under section 21 (1) of the UK Borders Act 2007, the UKBA is committed to safeguarding vulnerable children at UK ports by operating a code of practice. UKBA will also align itself to section 11 of the Children Act 2004 duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. This new legal duty,which other social care agencies are already subject to, will be included in the Immigration Bill, to be introduced during the 2008 - 09 Parliamentary session.
Unaccompanied asylum seeking children reform programme
On 31 January 2008, the UKBA announced its strategy for providing improved support to unaccompanied asylum seeking children. The programme - Better Outcomes: The Way Forward aims to have better procedures in place for identifying and supporting unaccompanied asylum seeking children who are the victims of trafficking.
It plans to locate unaccompanied asylum seeking children with specialist local authorities to make sure their needs are met. UKBA officials are currently discussing a service specification with interested local authorities.
