Improving survivor-informed support for trafficked children and young people - it's a long-term commitment

Lead Research Organisation: University of Stirling
Department Name: Applied Social Science

Abstract

Ensuring better outcomes for children and young people who survive modern slavery is a major and urgent challenge facing the UK. Across the UK over 3,000 unaccompanied children claimed asylum in the year to March 2019 (Home Office 2019) and events in summer 2020 around channel crossings indicate upwards of 400 new arrivals in Kent alone. Data suggests that approximately 40% of unaccompanied children evidence indicators of trafficking and exploitation (Scottish Guardianship Services). Without appropriate child-centred, actionable policies and interventions that are effective throughout a child's future pathways, there may be a continued threat of being drawn back into exploitative circumstances.

While the exploitation experiences and immediate support needs of separated children are well documented in research, the evidence base on child trafficking victims/survivors' medium and especially longer-term trajectories is limited. The majority of evaluations of support focus on stories of trafficking and needs immediately after identification. Once children and young people move beyond this stage, the spotlight on them recedes. To date, no wider study has specifically investigated victims/survivors' longer-term needs or considered the potential effectiveness and sustainability of services. This lack of evidence is restricting policy and practice efforts to plan and provide effective services. Consequently, there is an urgent need to address this challenge and fill this knowledge gap.

The proposed study is designed to address this exact policy and practice challenge and knowledge gap. It moves beyond the timeframe of previous research to explore short, medium and long term experiences of recovery, directly involving children and young people who have made their homes in the UK.

We will do this in three ways. First, we will use data from the Scottish Guardianship service (SGS), established in 2010 to provide support for all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children arriving in Scotland, with a particular focus on victims of trafficking. The Scottish approach to support for trafficked children has been recognised as a good exemplar of a child centred, human rights-based practice, but little is known about the long-term effectiveness and sustainability of these services. Using SGS as a vehicle, we will draw on 10 years' of support and advocacy delivered in an increasingly hostile immigration environment for migrants, without the need for further, potentially traumatic, interviews of children and young people on their exploitative experiences.

Second, we will interview victims/survivors who are receiving or have received short, medium and long term support. We will ask them about their needs and choices at relevant stages of their recovery, the support they received and what recovery means to them. These interviews will focus on experience of services rather than of exploitation. Similarly, we will interview professionals who support victims/survivors, including police offices, SGS workers, social workers, educators and foster carers. We will ask them about children and young people's needs at different stages, the support that services provide and what recovery means to them.

Third, we will work with young people and others using creative methods to co-produce narratives of recovery from different perspectives. Resources based on these narratives, including an animation and case studies, will focus on what helps or hinders children and young people's capacity to thrive at different stages.

As the numbers of trafficked children identified across the UK rise, it is vital that the unique challenges they face are not once again overlooked. A stronger evidence base, with an extended timeframe, will better inform policy and provision of services. Guided by the insights of young people, study findings will address the longer term nature of support, recovery and outcomes on the journey to thriving in a new country.
 
Title 'Bare Minimum' Song 
Description Song called 'Bare Minimum' written by young people who have experienced trafficking, reflecting their perspectives, including that - as a bare minimum - people should treat them like any other young people. The song was recorded/animated with support from our partner Standing Tall Scotland. 
Type Of Art Composition/Score 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact Young people were delighted with the final song, and enjoyed being involved in all aspects of the process. Wider impact is yet to come - we are working with partners on how best to share this output. 
 
Title Creative writing output 
Description Short piece of creative writing by a young person about the pain of other people not understanding experiences of seeking asylum and / or being trafficked. 
Type Of Art Creative Writing 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact Beyond the young person's own participation, wider impact is yet to come - we are working with partners on how best to share this output. 
 
Description Context
Improving outcomes for separated children and young people who have experienced human trafficking is a major and urgent challenge facing the UK. While the exploitation experiences and immediate support needs of separated children who have experienced trafficking are well documented in research, the evidence base on what happens in the longer term for children and young people - and how they feel about it - is more limited.

Once children and young people move beyond this stage, the spotlight on them fades. This study sought to extend the timeframe to explore short, medium and long-term experiences of support and recovery. The study directly involved children and young people who had made their homes in the UK, eliciting narratives of recovery with a focus on their choices as well as needs, alongside data recorded by, or gathered from, professionals.

The aim was to improve understanding of what constitutes sustainable support over a longer timeframe, thus offering valuable insights for all those working with this group of children and young people, in the UK and internationally. The number of potential human trafficking victims in the UK is usually recorded by referrals to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).

Key findings
Young people in Scotland who have experienced trafficking and professionals used various definitions of recovery. They described it as a long, even life-long, process; where one is able and feels confident to make and voice choices; has regained a sense of control; has the ability to think about the future and make plans, as well as acknowledging exploitative experiences. Young people's accounts highlighted safety, identity, community and autonomy as inter-linked factors that promote recovery.
'System trauma', in particular navigating the asylum system, is one of the biggest barriers for young people's ability to recover following experiences of trafficking. The impact of the asylum process, including being interviewed and waiting for a decision, interferes with nearly all other areas of their lives. Young people and professionals described how feeling safe goes beyond physical safety to include stability provided by familiar routines and regular contact with people they trust, as well as a sense of predictability about the future, free from the insecurity caused by precarious immigration status.

Trusting relationships which promote agency and choice are vital. It takes time for young people to build trust in relationships, particularly following experiences of exploitation. Over the long term, these relationships helped children and young people to develop their confidence and knowledge, leading to increased autonomy.

Although effective multi-agency working has long been recognised as facilitating better support for young people, this remains an area of concern for professionals. They emphasised the continued need for clear coordination between agencies, specialist training on working with young people who have experienced trafficking and consistency of services across the country.

Young people indicated a high degree of satisfaction with the support provided by and through the Scottish Guardianship Service, highlighting activities that provided a structure and that brought them into contact with other people as particularly important.
Exploitation Route The findings from this report have a number of implications for policy and practice, outlined below. More widely, we hope the outcomes of this project are useful for anyone who supports unaccompanied children and young people who have experienced trafficking, by contributing to understanding of their experiences and lives over the longer-term.

- The UK and Scottish Governments must ensure that a child protection framework of support and processes take priority over NRM referrals. OSCE (2022) indicate that any NRM should build on existing national child protection systems, where a child's best interest is at the centre of decision making in line with state obligations under the UNCRC.

- The Home Office must ensure that decision making processes are timely. Immigration status is crucial in allowing young people to make plans and organise their lives. Ensuring decision making is timely is imperative to recovery.

- The Scottish Government and other funding bodies need to ensure that services are properly resourced to provide adequate and appropriate levels of support. Limited provisions work against building trusting relationships and can often impact on the effectiveness of engagement and subsequently longer-term outcomes for young people. Continuity and consistency are vital in establishing trusting relationships as a pre-condition for recovery. The Scottish model of guardianship support for all separated children, regardless of NRM decisions, combined with provision of support post-18 for care experienced young people, provides this. Identification and support in Scotland is not conditional on a positive NRM decision and reflects the importance of the child protection and support framework and process as indicated in the first recommendation.

- Clear collaborative objectives that over-ride the organisational priorities of any one agency need to be reinforced. Strengths-based practice approaches should be adopted, alongside multi-agency co-ordinated working and integrated responses within the child protection system.

- Young people require support - including education, financial, accommodation and mental health support - that goes beyond specific services related to trafficking in order to meet their longer-term needs and support longer-term recovery. These are presently available in Scotland under child-care and throughcare and aftercare provisions and professionals need to ensure equal access to services across the country, supported by additional training where necessary. Service outcomes should reflect the priorities of children and young people and their understandings of 'recovery'.

- All statutory and non-statutory bodies working with separated and trafficked children need to ensure that the focus remains on children's needs rather than particular national groups. Professionals have ongoing concerns about the patterns of over-representation of specific nationalities in processes of identification. Ongoing training regarding patterns of arrivals, the importance of assessment within a child protection framework utilising possible trafficking indicators, and the need for a multi-agency response (including cross border) are all important factors regarding the focus on needs.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

URL https://modernslaverypec.org/resources/trafficked-children-scotland
 
Description The findings from our research highlight the circumstances and experiences of unaccompanied children in Scotland who have experienced trafficking, and in particular what happens over the longer-term as they move into early adulthood. We worked closely throughout the research with Guardianship Scotland, which works directly with unaccompanied children and young people, including those who have been trafficked. The research took place during a period of significant policy and practice developments affecting unaccompanied children who have been trafficked, including the passage of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 and the devolved decision-making pilot for the National Referral Mechanism. The findings have generated interest from policy-makers and practitioners across a range of organisations. As outlined in the outcomes reported here, we have delivered a number of presentations and met with organisations individually to discuss the implications of these findings for their work. For example, Dr Paul Rigby, a co-I on the study, attended the Scottish Government Human Trafficking Strategy Review with multiple stakeholders to ensure the findings from the research were taken into account for the next iteration of the Human Trafficking Strategy for Scotland.
First Year Of Impact 2023
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy
Impact Types Policy & public services

 
Description Scottish Cross-Party Group on Human Trafficking - Research Presentation
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Scottish Government Child Trafficking Strategy Group
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Scottish Government Child Trafficking Strategy Group - Research Presentation
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Scottish Government Human Trafficking Strategy Update Review
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
 
Description Article in the Stirling Observer newspaper 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Article in local newspaper the Stirling Observer on 15 September 2021, entitled' Trafficking survivor study: University's research project', helped us reach the general public across the central Scotland area. Working on the press release was a collaborative effort between the research team and communication officers from University of Stirling and the Modern Slavery Policy and Evidence Centre (AHRC partner).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Blog post - Listening to the voices of survivors of child trafficking to improve support 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Blog post introducing our research study and its aims and methods, on the basis that to understand what works in the long-term for children with experience of child trafficking, we need to listen to them more closely.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://modernslaverypec.org/latest/listening-to-support-child-survivors
 
Description Blog post - The Odyssey of the new policy: Reflections on the UK's Nationality and Borders Bill 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Blog post to raise awareness of the study in the context of the passage of the UK Borders and Nationality Bill.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.sccjr.ac.uk/news_item/the-odyssey-of-the-new-policy-reflections-on-the-uks-nationality-a...
 
Description Interview on national news 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact The Research Project Lead and a young person who had experienced trafficking (supported by our project partner Guardianship Scotland) were interviewed by a reporter for STV News, which is broadcast across Scotland. Both interviews were used as part of an evening news feature, with an accompanying article on STV online, on the impact of the Illegal Migration Bill on children who have experienced trafficking.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://news.stv.tv/scotland/illegal-migration-bill-my-life-would-be-totally-destroyed-if-i-was-sent...
 
Description Meeting with Scottish Government policy makers 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Meeting with two Scottish Government policy makers, facilitated by the Modern Slavery Policy and Evidence Centre, to communicate our research plans.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021