Vox Pop: Should the DCLG take the lead on child trafficking issues?
Monday, September 6, 2010
Campaigners have called for the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to have control of child trafficking.
YES - Hannah Pearce, policy and advocacy manager, ECPAT UK
Children who have been trafficked are children first and foremost, and as such should be looked after by local authority children's services. This is a straightforward responsibility under the Children Act.
While the Home Office has a key strategic role in co-ordinating the UK's response to human trafficking this should not extend to the responsibility for the welfare of individual children.
Trafficking is a complex subject and necessarily involves co-ordination between several government departments, but the support for these children needs to be clearly managed by one department, the DCLG.
NO - Susie Ramsay, policy adviser, The Children's Society
We agree that the DCLG has a key role to play in ensuring that local authorities fulfil their statutory duties to vulnerable young people.
However, child trafficking is first and foremost a serious safeguarding issue, therefore the Department for Education should be the lead department to drive this agenda forward.
A joined-up approach involving other government departments must be taken, which needs to include the Home Office, which will be crucial in convicting perpetrators.
YES - Lisa Nandy, Labour MP for Wigan
Finding and helping trafficked children involves social workers, education and healthcare professionals, immigration officers and the police. But unless one department leads, these children won't get the priority they deserve.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) was best placed to do this before it was axed. For trafficked children, the DCSF was a step forward as, for the first time, they were seen as child victims instead of an immigration problem.
Now that it has gone, the DCLG should lead. Others must up their game but unless one department champions these children across national and local government they will continue to be let down.
NO - Kamena Dorling, legal and policy officer, Children's Legal Centre
Ensuring the best interests of all migrant children are upheld, including those who have been trafficked, is of great concern to the Children's Legal Centre, as is the Home Office's duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
The solution to child trafficking issues cannot easily be found by one department. However, responsibility for the welfare of trafficked children should, in the first instance, be that of the children's minister and the Department for Education, co-ordinating the actions of other government departments according to their specialist functions and abilities, and holding them to account.