Crime Reduction Toolkits

Trafficking of People

Children

The responsibilities of social services regarding child victims of trafficking may include:

·         providing victims/potential victims with a safe place to stay;

·         provision of support services (e.g. counselling, legal advice, schooling);

·         identifying victims/potential victims according to agreed profiles or receiving referrals from other agencies who have identified them;

·         contributing to joint inter-agency profiling of victims/potential victims;

·         undertaking initial interviews, including joint interviews with the local police, to assess risk, harm and agree child protection plans;

·         provide advice about who to contact concerning their immigration status;

·         assist in the identification of possible traffickers masquerading as ‘relatives’;

·         ensure contact with police and provision of information to the police;

·         finding of relatives in country of origin, and verification of what would be in the best interests of the child, and whether they should be able to remain in the UK or if it is safe to return home;

·         ensure that NGO or other support is available if they are returned to their country of origin;

·         monitoring of children in social services for signs that they are meeting the traffickers including monitoring their phone calls;

·         providing support and building up a relationship to encourage the child not to leave with the trafficker. 

One approach that has been successfully employed in some areas has been to appoint a designated lead officer with responsibility within their child protection procedures for the trafficking of children and young people. 

The National Missing Persons Helpline has a Department of Health funded project ‘Missing from Care’. This project receives, from a number of Social Services departments, all details of young people who are missing from care. This includes children and young people who have been victims of trafficking[1].