London Borough of Hillingdon
Between 2007 and 2009, 79 young people in the Hillingdon area went missing shortly after arriving in the country. Many of these were potential trafficking victims who had been brought into the country. Hillingdon established an operational model in partnership with law enforcement agencies with the aim of disrupting the issue. Hillingdon’s work on this includes:
Education
• The Hillingdon schools child protection (CP) advisor has arranged twilight briefing sessions for the designated CP teachers in each school to
highlight the London SCB Trafficked Children Toolkit and how to identify children who may have been trafficked, or may be at risk of going missing.
• The LSCB website includes a page on child trafficking, with a hyperlink to the Hillingdon Schools Education Network.
• Head teachers and school governors have been briefed on child trafficking and what to do if children go missing from the school roll.
• The LSCB has sponsored a comprehensive multi-agency training
programme on child trafficking, missing children and private fostering. This programme is evaluated at the end of each year to ensure that it is fit for purpose and reflects up-to-date research and best practice.
• Residential staff and foster carers have been given bespoke training on how to talk to children and advise them about the risks of trafficking and/or going missing. Written guidance has been produced to assist them in this task.
Prevention
• BAA give permission for high profile flights to be targeted (e.g. over the school summer holidays) for an awareness-raising exercise. Staff from the Paladin team and social workers spoke directly to passengers about the risks associated with children going missing, including forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
• The LSCB has developed a community engagement group which has made contact with minority communities such as the Somali community and West African church groups in the borough. Informal briefings have been given to these groups in their own language about the dangers associated with children going missing and also the prevalence of child trafficking for reasons of benefit fraud and domestic servitude.
Intelligence
• A multi-agency operational group made up of frontline staff meets every six weeks to discuss and assess the situation of every child reported missing to the police in Hillingdon. This includes any children at risk of trafficking on arrival at the airport. This group uses and applies the
trafficking toolkit to help identify trafficking issues, create child safeguarding plans, and arrange the de-briefing of victims.
• A small group of managers from UKBA, children’s social care, Paladin and the police meets fortnightly to share profile data and information relating to every unaccompanied child arriving through the airport.
Communication
• The Senior Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) is comprised of senior managers working at the strategic level, from a range of agencies such as UKBA, police, health and the local authority. The LSCB produces an annual report which is shared at chief executive level with each of the partner agencies. The annual report includes a section on child trafficking and missing children. This ensures that these safeguarding concerns are formally communicated as part of the strategic priorities within each agency.
• The LSCB trafficking, exploitation and missing children sub-group is made up of middle managers. Its role focuses on policy, procedure and training. This group meets six to eight times a year and includes representatives from CEOP, police, UKBA, as well as local authority teams and non- governmental organisations.
• The LSCB in Hillingdon has established communication with organisations in other countries which deal with child trafficking and children who have gone missing (e.g. the Red Cross in Denmark).
• The LSCB website contains comprehensive information on child trafficking and missing children including current research, which is used by
professionals and members of the public.
• Leaflets are available in 12 different languages on the website warning against the hazards of child trafficking and children who go missing.
Support
• The Safeguarding Children and Quality Assurance Unit have been given the lead in preventing children from going missing and countering child trafficking. Several managers have been trained at an advanced level, so that they can offer support to practitioners on these key issues, through consultation and team briefings.
• Foster carers who have children placed with them who are at risk of going missing, or where there is a suspicion of child trafficking, are supported out of hours by social workers from the fostering team who are trained, and who are on stand-by duty by phone and email.
For more information contact Paul Hewitt (contact details in Appendix 3)
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire have multi-agency work in place through the formation of the Hertfordshire Anti-Trafficking Board. This is a multi-agency board co-chaired by children’s services and the police with representation from health,
Their approach has been to adopt a police model called EPICS - Education, Prevention, Intelligence, Communication and Support. This has deterred traffickers from operating in Hertfordshire.
Hertfordshire consider that it has been important for them to reflect on the stage of trafficking the child is experiencing at the point of intervention. They have noted that children go missing within 48 hours of arrival in Hertfordshire. Children are unlikely to be aware of the fate that awaits them as they are invariably in transit to another part of the country (usually a major city). Given this context, the local authority have focused on ensuring the child is able to build a level of trust with the professionals they meet so that they know where to go if they need help; they are made aware of their situation and they
undermine the traffickers’ message that if they say anything they will be treated as offenders rather than victims.
Hertfordshire’s work also includes:
Education
• Integrated training programme for designated teachers which look at identification and reporting of trafficking concerns.
• Hertfordshire Police have delivered a specialist training programme to foster carers about missing children and identifying risks relating to trafficking.
• Local health services have issued guidance to all GPs, A&E departments and health visitors about reporting concerns about trafficking.
• A Hydra training programme is due to be launched later this year which will provide an immersive learning experience for developing an inter- agency awareness and response to trafficking issues.
Prevention
• Continuing to conduct joint operations with Hertfordshire Police,
conducting lorry stops and handing out leaflets about the illegal transport of people.
• Working with Stop the Traffic to develop a project to heighten awareness of trafficking issues within the local communities of Hertfordshire.
• Working with the local community to produce stickers about reporting trafficking to put in taxis. The police have also agreed to provide a protocol on working with taxi drivers who wish to report concerns about passengers who may be trafficked.
Intelligence
• The police have engaged with women and children who they have identified as potential victims during brothel and cannabis house raids. This has led to successful prosecutions of people about whom they have given evidence or intelligence.
• Developing a 'first 48 hours' response which includes out of hours
resources to support young people who may have been trafficked. A part of this approach is to gain intelligence about trafficking operations.
• Linking work to wider areas such as missing persons and victims of sexual exploitation initiatives within the authority. As Chair of the Hertfordshire Anti-Trafficking Board, they sit on the police strategic missing person’s board.
Communication
• The Hertfordshire Anti-Trafficking Board has become an increasingly valued resource by partner agencies as a reference point to gain and share information about local, national and global trafficking patterns. This has proven especially effective in enabling voluntary groups (e.g. Stop the Traffic) to communicate concerns to the police.
• A recent HCC highlighted the work of the Hertfordshire Anti-Trafficking Board in recruiting carers to work with this group.
Support
• Foster carers are receiving additional support from their service about trafficking issues. This includes publications from partner agencies as well as bespoke briefings.
• Specialist foster carers are flagged as such to professionals who make referrals out of hours to ensure the agreed protocol with police is followed. For further information on Hertfordshire’s methods and sharing of best
practice, please contact Laurence Chester (contact details in Appendix 3).
Operation Newbridge
Operation Newbridge was developed in West Sussex to respond to concerns about a number of children who arrived at Gatwick Airport. These young people were believed to be victims of trafficking and taken into local authority care, but subsequently went missing. A local multi-agency protocol was developed involving the local authority, UKBA and Sussex Police. Clear procedures were laid down for each agency to follow where a trafficked child was identified. The operation was highly successful in reducing the instances of children at risk of being trafficked going missing from the care of the local authority.
For further details please contact Detective Inspector Jon Gross (contact details in Appendix 3).