The National Referral Mechanism, the framework for identifying victims of human trafficking or modern
slavery and ensuring they receive the right support, had 3,137 child referrals in 2018. This is a hugely worrying increase of 48% from the 2017 figure, in part due to the county lines phenomenon where children have been forced to sell drugs. Exploitation on any level is completely unjustifiable, but when it involves a child it is chillingly deplorable.

Independent child trafficking advocates (ICTAs) were introduced in law in 2015 to represent and support
children where there are reasonable grounds to believe they are victims of human trafficking. However, this service is only currently available in one third of local authorities across England and Wales.

An independent review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 published its final report in May 2019, with one part
of this review considering provision of ICTAs under the Act. One recommendation of this report was to fully roll out the ICTA service across England and Wales as soon as possible.

The UK Government responded to the independent review in July 2019 and committed to refer to ICTAs as
Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs) in future. It also outlined that it would publish a paper ahead of the national roll-out to set out its response to recommendations which it will consider further – including on the provision of the one-to-one service.

The Government stated in November 2019 that it “remains committed to the national roll out of ICTGs”.

I would like to see the UK Government commit to urgently providing additional resources to local authorities in order to enable them to provide guaranteed specialist support for child victims of trafficking. I also believe we should have dedicated funding to support the survivors of modern slavery, people trafficking and domestic violence.