Training to spot child trafficking

Child trafficking is by its nature a concealed crime. In a bid to boost the number of victims identified, a range of professionals – social workers, youth workers, the police, youth offending teams, GPs and midwives – are to benefit from training as part of a new Home Office scheme.

It is funded to the tune of just £70,000 and the timescale is short – training must be delivered by 31 March.

Four of the five organisations tasked with delivering training – the Counter Trafficking Bureau, Stop the Traffik, Eaves, and the NSPCC – will focus specifically on identifying child victims.

All already provide training on how to spot victims, but the fresh funding will allow them to reach more people through training sessions in five cities – London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Liverpool, Leeds and Brighton.

The Counter Trafficking Bureau, whose co-founder Philip Ishola is a former chair of the London Safe-guarding Children Board, will provide training for social workers, police and third sector organisations working with children.

Ishola says child trafficking is a far greater issue than official statistics suggest. In 2011, 234 children were referred to the National Referral Mechanism as potential victims of human trafficking, but because of the fact that the crime is hidden, only instances that are discovered are recorded.

“There is a lack of understanding and lack of knowledge of the indicators to identify victims,” he says. “Identifying child trafficking victims is a very difficult and complicated issue. They rarely say ‘I’m a victim’. Sometimes they don’t know they are being exploited or don’t understand what it means.”

One of the key messages he hopes to communicate through the new training is that professionals should act as though child trafficking is definitely taking place if there are any suspicions about a case.

“If you understand what the indicators are and you spot them, it is crucial to have a rapid response,” he explains. “If you operate on a ‘proof threshold’, there may not be enough evidence to warrant a response. But if you don’t respond, and they are a victim of trafficking, it will be a miracle if you see them again.”

The Home Office programme will also see training delivered outside the traditional realm of children’s services.

In addition to working with health service providers such as GPs and midwives, Eaves will train staff in women’s prisons to identify minors who have ended up in an adult prison because they have not been age-assessed, or have been wrongly deemed to be an adult.

Sally Montier, training and capacity building worker at the organisation, says an increase in trafficking for criminal activity, especially around cannabis cultivation, is leading to some young victims being sent to prison when they should receive support.

“There is some awareness among prison staff, but there is an identified need for more training and support,” she says.

Meanwhile, Stop the Traffik will work with local authority staff that do not routinely deal with children but can come into contact with potential victims, such as community safety partnerships, environmental health teams and benefit fraud investigation teams.

“There are frontline professionals who are seeing stuff but are not systematically equipped to tackle it,” says Bex Keer, UK co-ordinator at Stop the Traffik. “It would make a big impact for children and young people if those workers going into restaurants or multi-occupancy homes were trained.”

The NSPCC, which is receiving around £10,000 of the total funds, will focus on training social workers, as well as youth workers and youth offending team staff.

Steve Kay, head of young people’s support services at North East Lincolnshire Council, says youth workers can play a vital role in identifying child trafficking victims. His service runs an early intervention project alongside police and children’s social care to spot potential victims.

“People think trafficking happens somewhere else, not with the young people they work with,” he says. “There is also a misconception that it is an international thing, but it’s not. It can be around the grooming of vulnerable young people.

“Youth workers predominantly work with vulnerable young people, the same vulnerable young people susceptible to child sexual exploitation or child trafficking.

“They need to be aware of how to support a young person. If any training raises awareness of referral pathways, opportunities for signposting and liaison with other agencies, then it is a good thing.”


TRAINING PROVIDER REMITS

Counter Trafficking Bureau
Will train 120 people at level one, 80 at level two and 24 at “train the trainer” level – level three – so they can pass their knowledge on to others in the future.

Eaves
Will train staff in adult women’s prisons to help them identify under-18s who are trafficking victims but may not have been age-assessed. Health professionals will receive training as well.

Stop the Traffik
Will take a “three-pronged” approach to training through literature and information, as well as face-to-face sessions with people in three of the five locations – London, Brighton and Liverpool.

NSPCC
Will deliver training via its trafficking centre, through lectures to 50 or 60 professionals at a time, with smaller sessions provided for groups of 10 or 20 social workers or youth offending team staff.