UK Human Trafficking Foundation

The UK’s Human Trafficking Foundation published an updated “UK Slavery and Trafficking Survivor Care Standards 2018.”

A.1.2 The Survivor Care Standards
The need for the Trafficking Survivor Care Standards (first published in 2014) grew out of the work of an Expert Working Group made up of practitioners working in anti- trafficking. The group produced the standards with the aim of ensuring that adult survivors of trafficking would consistently receive high quality care wherever they are in the UK. The standards were re-published in 2015 following the Modern Slavery Act 2015. This 2018 update, ‘The Slavery and Trafficking Survivor Care Standards’, accounts for changes in law, policy and practice in the rapidly changing landscape of preventing and combatting trafficking and modern slavery and supporting its victims to rehabilitate and rebuild their lives.

A.1.3 The Importance of Establishing Care Standards
Establishing Trafficking Survivor Care Standards is essential to ensure that, no matter who delivers the service, certain standards can be expected in the way support is delivered prior to, during and beyond the recovery and reflection period.Trafficking survivors are entitled to good protection and care under the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings (2005) and the EU Directive on Preventing and Combating Trafficking (2011/36/EU). In order to promote their sustained recovery, it is crucial that service providers have a minimum range of organisational and care standards in place. They should provide support that is integrated, holistic and trauma-informed and geared towards meeting the individual needs of each survivor including material needs. They should adopt a multi-agency approach, and work in partnership with other agencies to ensure that survivors can fully access their entitlements while they are supported to gain confidence and the skills they need to recover from trafficking and rebuild their lives.

In October 2017, the government committed that the Human Trafficking Foundation’s care standards would be adopted in future victim care contracts. As the then Minister responsible, Sarah Newton MP explained during a backbench debate on the Modern Slavery Act: The Government has mada a commitment that future support delivered through the victim care contract will be externally inspected using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). In light of the Government’s 2017 commitment to adopt the Trafficking Survivor Care Standards, these KPIs should be developed from these standards. Such independent, external inspection based on clear minimum standards is vital to ensure that victims who consent to enter the NRM can be certain about the minimum levels of support and advice they will receive and that they will be empowered to reach decisions regarding their individual needs and circumstances.

[Full report available at link above.]