Pathways Through Liberation - Revealing Survivors' Support Journeys Outside of the UK National Referral Mechanism.

The 2018 Global Slavery Index estimated there were 136,000 victims of modern slavery and human trafficking in UK, and in its 2019 Annual Report on Modern Slavery the UK Government acknowledged that the scale of modern slavery in the UK is increasing. Across the UK, survivors are currently entitled to receive 45-90 days of support via the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), the government-funded system which provides access to specialist support, with support varying between regions and greater flexibility in the duration of support in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Yet in 2018, only 6,993 potential victims were referred to the NRM (including children). Of those, little is known about what happens to the majority of survivors after they reach the 'cliff edge' of support at the end of their time in the NRM, but there is some evidence that survivors are experiencing homelessness and destitution, and are at risk of further exploitation (Nicholson et al, 2019). Even less is known about the outcomes and support interactions of those who decline to enter the NRM, or who exit prematurely. The ongoing journeys and outcomes for these individuals are not routinely monitored by most support organisations or by governmental authorities. Data is not collected on the numbers of suspected victims of modern slavery who choose not to enter the NRM or who exit NRM services prematurely, or their reasons for doing so.

Our project will address this knowledge gap. Building on the work previously developed by research team members on place-based responses to exploitation (Birks and Gardner, 2019), and survivor support (Nicholson et al, 2019; Mead, Jordan & Nicholson, 2018; Toft, Nicholson & Cuypers, 2017; Trautrims, Nicholson & Boulghassoul, 2016; Murphy, 2018) this project seeks to gather rich data and provide analysis that delivers original theoretical insights and understandings of survivor support practice. We will be working with survivors to record and share their experiences of recovery and of their encounters with state and third sector services, and we have third sector commitment to facilitate interviews with survivors across the UK to reveal their non-NRM support journeys. We will focus on three distinct cohorts: 1) Potential victims who have chosen not to enter the NRM; 2) those who have consented to enter the NRM but exit NRM support services prematurely; and 3) those who have exited NRM services following the completion of the NRM support period. Via these interviews, and through an additional structured online questionnaire, we will draw out key messages and solutions from survivors' themselves, building an evidence base that will enable the effective development of existing models of front-line service provision. Our research will show what changes are necessary to enable survivors to recover more quickly, and provide them with the stability to co-operate in bringing their exploiters to justice, increase engagement with the NRM, and achieve sustained liberation.

Outputs will include: A website which will hold rich new empirical data which can be explored with visual tools; survivor-informed recommendations for local and national policy-makers on service interventions that can help to promote sustainable recovery and reintegration; a closing conference to reach key stakeholders and capitalise on momentum for change; and academic publications on our findings.

This research will contribute vital knowledge for academics, students, policy makers, NGOs and practitioners concerned with modern slavery and human trafficking, and can have a significant impact on practice and policy as it relates to survivor support in the UK and elsewhere. Research shows that improving survivor support would have a powerful impact on the economy and society, reducing re-exploitation, destitution, and homelessness, and improving employability and engagement with prosecutions, with a net benefit to the public purse (Nicholson et al 2019). However, from an empirical perspective, there has been no comprehensive UK-wide research on the post-identification journeys of survivors, a gap in knowledge that front-line practitioners and policy makers across the UK, including the Home Office, agree needs to be urgently filled. From a methodological perspective, national initiatives are not survivor-informed and lack the intimate knowledge that survivors would bring of the population-specific challenges of survival and recovery.

Given the ongoing concerns about the failures of the existing system to attract survivors to the NRM and to provide adequate support in and after the NRM (and by consequence mitigate the cost to society and the state), this research works with survivors and NGOs to fill the evidence gaps on survivor support and outcomes. The priority and impetus for improved support models is high. The Modern Slavery (Victim) Support Bill 2019, new NRM pilot programmes, the National Action Plan, the new Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Strategic Plan, and the UN Action Plan all identify survivor support as a priority. But the evidence base on which to implement change is extremely limited. This study could not be more timely, coming as it does at a moment when the Home Office has conceded that their 45 day policy for providing support for victims of trafficking is unlawful and now needs to formulate a sustainable needs-based system of support.

As the first study to examine survivors' journeys at key junctures outside of the NRM and across the UK, our project will enable a comparative analysis of regional support systems to draw out best practice and new survivor-driven solutions which could be translated to other countries' systems. Policy makers and service providers are aware of the devastating history and consequences of not listening to service users in, for example, care-homes or foster-care. This research will help stakeholders to better organise survivor support and service provision, providing a vital evidence base to help design a strengthened survivor support architecture.

We expect this work to directly benefit survivors in the improvement of existing support frameworks and pathways, and in the provision of training and leadership opportunities, by consequence increasing survivors' engagement, agency, stability and recovery. Service providers and representatives across the world will gain a stronger, more holistic, understanding of the challenges that survivors face, which will inform their practice and adaptation of services. The research will enable policy and legal developments to be constructed with survivors at the heart of change.

With victim support a key tenet of the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive 2011/36/EU and the UN General Assembly's Call to Action to End Forced Labour, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, the research has the potential for impact across a global community of stakeholders. It will be particularly valuable to those policy-makers in countries seeking to implement or improve their own central support mechanisms, for example the new Alliance 8.7 Pathfinder Countries (which have committed to developing detailed national action plans or policies on child labour, forced labour, modern slavery and/or human trafficking), by providing evidence for the strategic development of survivor-informed policy and legislative initiatives in their own states.