Trafficking and exploitation strategy: summary

Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy: Summary

This document summarises the Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy, published on 30 May 2017. 

The Strategy is required under section 35 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 and ' sets out such actions, arrangements and outcomes as the Scottish Ministers consider appropriate in relation to the conduct which constitutes an offence under this Act.'

Outcome and vision for the Strategy

• Eliminate human trafficking and exploitation.

We realise this is ambitious, however no level of trafficking and exploitation is acceptable.

Action Areas

The Action Areas that will help us to move towards the vision are:

• Identify victims and support them to safety and recovery;
• Identify perpetrators and disrupt their activity;
• Address the conditions, both local and global, that foster trafficking and exploitation.

Each action area subdivides into a series of actions which need to be taken forward.

Arrangements

An Action Plan will be agreed with the Strategy Implementation Group and other stakeholders. This will sit below the Strategy and therefore be more flexible. These plans will detail how the actions are to be achieved.

Creating the Strategy

A wide range of stakeholders, including victims of trafficking, have contributed to the development of the Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy and their contribution is reflected in more detail in the full version of the Strategy.

In order to work out how we will achieve the results required in each Action Area we need to know in relation to each:

• What is already happening?
• What needs to improve?
• What actions will we take?

The full Strategy sets out our findings and what is already happening in terms of tackling trafficking and exploitation in Scotland. Identifying where improvements are needed has formed the basis for the Strategy.

Oversight of Strategy - Outcome and Vision, Action Areas and Related Actions

Action Area 1 - Identify Victims and Support Them to Safety and Recovery

Action Area 1 - Identify Victims and Support Them to Safety and Recovery

What Actions Will We Take?

In the short term

• The Scottish Government and partners will raise awareness amongst the general public about human trafficking and exploitation by means of a publicity campaign. Victims will be involved in the development of this campaign.
• The Scottish Government will work with partners to consider how members of the public can report their suspicions in a straightforward way.
• Members of the Strategy Implementation Group will lead a short-term project to develop an agreed set of materials that could be used by organisations to raise awareness amongst their workforce about human trafficking and exploitation.
• Members of the Strategy Implementation Group will facilitate work to create processes/pathways aligned around victims' needs with clear referral mechanisms and pathways developed within each public sector organisation.
• The Scottish Government and partners will work with non-public sector organisations to alert them to the likelihood that they may encounter victims in the course of their work.
• The Scottish Government will publicise the support available during the relevant support period through different organisations to all victims of human trafficking recovered in Scotland and entered into the NRM process.
• The Scottish Government will continue to work with the Home Office on the review of the NRM process (including as that affects children) and will consider the review recommendations when published.
• First responders who make referrals to the NRM will establish systems to ensure that victims are fully aware of the process and its implications.
• The Scottish Government and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde will, through the Anchor Centre, continue to offer specialist psychological assessment, formulation and therapy as appropriate (and referral to other mental health services if indicated) to all adult victims of human trafficking recovered in Scotland.
• The Scottish Government will continue to develop and refine arrangements for support services that are victim centred and sensitive to age, gender and culture.
• The Scottish Government will consider how victims of slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour should be identified and supported.
• Local public protection committees and partnerships, including those for adult and child protection and violence against women, should also ensure that their policies, training and practice meet current need with regard to human trafficking and exploitation.
• Support agencies will take an active role in making victims aware and supporting them to claim compensation, where appropriate.
• The Scottish Government will set up a network to provide the opportunity for local specialists to share learning and best practice.
• The Scottish Government will continue to work closely as appropriate with the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner on issues that will help to identify victims and support them to safety and recovery.

In the medium term

• Organisations who may encounter victims in the course of their work will establish clear referral mechanisms within their organisation for victims and incidents of human trafficking and exploitation.
• Local partnerships will be established or built on to help support victims' longer term and wider needs.
• The Strategy Implementation Group and others will create information sharing pathways and protocols that respect victims' interests and safety.
• Organisations should offer appropriate and proportionate training to staff who are likely to encounter victims in the course of their work.
• Organisations should carry out appropriate, regular awareness raising for staff who may encounter victims in the course of their work.

In the longer term

• The Scottish Government and other relevant statutory and support organisations will work to develop effective partnerships across the UK and in other countries to continue support to adult victims returning home.
• The Scottish Government will work with others to create effective communication channels so that victims know where to find help and support. They will ensure that victims' views are reflected to ensure that communications aimed at potential victims are accessible and reduce fear.

Action Area 2 - Identify Perpetrators and Disrupt Their Activity

Action Area 2 - Identify Perpetrators and Disrupt Their Activity

What Actions Will We Take?

In the short term

• The Scottish Government will take forward work in relation to the duty to notify, ensuring those with a duty are clear on what they have to do. We will ensure that process protects victims' human rights and that the information gained is helpful in breaking the cycle of trafficking and exploitation.
• The Scottish Government will work with agencies not directly covered by the duty to notify (including UK wide agencies), to ensure that full use is made of their knowledge and expertise.
• Police Scotland and COPFS will apply for the new court orders available (Trafficking and Exploitation Prevention Orders ( TEPO) and Trafficking and Exploitation Risk Orders ( TERO)) where appropriate to disrupt trafficking and exploitation.
• The Scottish Government will seek to facilitate accurate collection and sharing of data that can inform the development of local services and processes.
• Police Scotland will appropriately record and investigate all reports of trafficking or exploitation as a crime.
• Appropriate awareness raising will be considered for those who work in the criminal justice system, so that they have the knowledge of this kind of offending.
• COPFS will continue to assess and develop the role of the specialist human trafficking prosecutors as appropriate.
• The Scottish Government and partners will work together to ensure that convictions and victims' experiences are publicised in Scotland, the UK and beyond, while ensuring that this publicity does not compromise the safety of victims or their families.

In the medium term

• Police Scotland and COPFS, where it is appropriate and possible, will ensure that an application for a Joint Investigation Team is submitted to Eurojust [1] . Successful operations to apprehend perpetrators in and with other countries will mean an effective use of resources, as well as improved learning and co-operation across countries. This will also contribute to a more robust picture of trafficking in Scotland.
• The Scottish Government will set up a group to review how data is collected by different agencies, to ensure that data collected is useful and coherent, and to create a comprehensive picture of data collection with regard to human trafficking and exploitation in Scotland.

In the longer term

• Police Scotland and COPFS will develop closer working relationships with organisations in source/transit countries, where appropriate.
• The Scottish Government will aim to ensure that the benefits of cross-border co-operation between criminal justice agencies within the EU and beyond are maintained as set out in Scotland's Place in Europe.

Action Area 3 - Address the Conditions That Foster Trafficking and Exploitation

Action Area 3 - Address the Conditions That Foster Trafficking and Exploitation

What Actions Will We Take?

In the short term

• The Scottish Government will take forward the key actions in the Fairer Scotland Action Plan
• The Scottish Government will consult on a Delivery Plan for Equally Safe with work streams focusing on Primary Prevention, Capacity and Capability, Justice and Accountability.
• The Serious Organised Crime Strategy will address issues such as trafficking and exploitation that blight communities by working with schools, the third sector and other partners to raise awareness of the links with serious organised crime. Key partners on the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce such as Police Scotland will also work collaboratively and share information that will help detect, prosecute and disrupt those seeking to benefit from human trafficking and exploitation.
• The Scottish Government will support UK wide activity around the "transparency in supply chains" ( TISC) duty and will develop specific guidance for businesses in Scotland around trafficking and exploitation and other human rights issues in their supply chains.
• The Scottish Government will raise awareness to ensure that human trafficking and exploitation is reflected appropriately in policies and guidance.

In the medium term

• The Scottish Government will consider what action is needed to ascertain how trafficking and exploitation affects Scotland to contribute to a greater understanding of its impact on Scottish society.

• The Scottish Government and partners will develop an awareness raising programme around proactive steps the public can take to help eradicate trafficking and exploitation, encouraging them to think about how what they buy and who they buy it from could contribute to this crime.

• The Scottish Government will identify ways for the public to report trafficking and exploitation and highlight where it may be happening, empowering them to report their suspicions.
• The Scottish Government will consider how to research, identify and build partnerships with communities assessed as being at risk of trafficking and exploitation, such as the homelessness sector and to develop targeted prevention initiatives.

In the longer term

• The Scottish Government will work with the UK's Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner and others on work in source/transit countries, to improve partnership working and the capacity to break the cycle of trafficking and exploitation. We will also work with others to tackle poverty in source countries.
• The Scottish Government will build on existing work to assess how conditions that foster trafficking and exploitation can be addressed, to improve partnership working and the capacity to break the cycle of trafficking and exploitation.

4. What Actions Will We Take Specifically in Relation to Children?

The three Action Areas above will also apply to children. However there are also some actions that are specific to children and these are listed below.

In the short term

• The Scottish Government will continue to take forward the Child Protection Improvement Programme ( CPIP) announced in February 2016, of which addressing child trafficking is a key work stream.
• Local Child Protection Committees should ensure that there is robust partnership working in place to address child trafficking and exploitation. This should be underpinned by specific and appropriate arrangements on child trafficking and exploitation in place through guidance, protocols or procedures, which are known and implemented by relevant services. This should include having in place appropriate strategic and practice linkages between child and adult services for older children and arrangements for the provision of advocacy
• Local services working directly with children should have in place appropriate processes regarding the use of interpreters to support practice in relation to children where English is not their first language.
• The Scottish Government, in consultation with stakeholders will bring forward guidance on the use of Sections 22 and 25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 regarding the provision of support to children.
• In implementing the updated national action plan to prevent and tackle child sexual exploitation, we will ensure that Scotland is a hostile place for perpetrators and facilitators of CSE. This will be achieved through a variety of actions; to ensure perpetrators are identified early, held to account through the criminal justice system and by encouraging victims to report. This includes improving consistency in local problem profiling in order to build a national profile of CSE across Scotland.
• To strengthen the multi-agency response to prevention, disruption and detection of perpetrators across Scotland, Police Scotland are currently piloting a child sexual exploitation and abuse intelligence sharing toolkit, which will formalise information collection and sharing arrangements between the police, other law enforcement agencies, statutory agencies (including social work, education, housing, health and licensing), community groups, voluntary sector services and the business community (including hotels, taxi companies, food outlets, off licenses and hostels). The toolkit will be evaluated ahead of national rollout.
• The Scottish Government will continue to support NHS Boards to meet their access targets for specialist child and adolescent mental health services with a programme of improvement.
• For unaccompanied children, who do not have someone with parental rights and responsibilities for them in the UK, the Scottish Government will consult with partners on introducing formal arrangements that will meet the duties in section 11 of the Act. Once that section is fully in force, Ministers will be under a duty to make arrangements to enable a guardian to be appointed to children who have been trafficked, and relevant authorities will be under a duty to refer these children to this service. We will work together with partners in developing how this will be implemented.
• The Scottish Government will work with partners to update the 2012 Age Assessment Practice Guidance [2] to reflect the provisions of Section 12 of the Act and consider the need for any other revisions.
• The Scottish Government is taking forward a refreshed Child Internet Safety Action Plan. Whilst the Plan is wider in its scope than child trafficking, it will recognise the role that social media and online activity can play in the trafficking and exploitation of children.
• The Scottish Government will commission a piece of research that will work with frontline workers and services (for example, the police, social workers) to identify the presence of young people who have been trafficked and to establish their routes to arrival. Through this we can then make an evidenced based decision with our partners on whether any other action (such as the development of guidance) is needed to protect and safeguard and, where possible, to prevent any such activity taking place.
• Child and Adult Protection Committees should consider how best to collaborate to share learning and best practice in relation to addressing child trafficking and exploitation and supporting victims, particularly in relation to children transitioning to adult support services, where human trafficking issues may contribute to them being an adult at risk of harm.

In the medium term

• The Scottish Government will work to ensure that local authorities across Scotland continue to provide care to a consistently high standard and, in terms of a child's entitlement to continuing care introduced by the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, both in the short term and when they leave care.
• Child and Adult Protection Committees should consider how partners can best work together to identify and meet training needs.
• The Scottish Government, through the Child Protection Improvement Programme will support Child Protection Committees to identify and make better use of data for strategic and individual planning.
• Child Protection Committees should have in place appropriate mechanisms for the monitoring of effectiveness of guidance, protocols or procedures in place to address child trafficking and exploitation.
• The Scottish Government, linking to the national Mental Health Strategy, will consider how (with partners) we can best maximise the current children's mental health provision and work together to better support recovery in the longer term.

In the longer term

• The Scottish Government recognises that a sustained and collaborative effort is necessary and will continue to take a joined up approach with partners to support victim recovery, assist with reintegration and continue to address the conditions that foster child trafficking and exploitation.