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

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.