4. Role of Child Protection Committees and public agencies
Child Protection Committees
The role of Child Protection Committees is to co-ordinate, at a strategic level, what is done by their members to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their local area and to ensure the effectiveness of that work. That will include addressing potential cases of trafficking. Local child protection committees should maintain links with community groups and have a strategy in place for raising awareness within the local community of the possibility that children are trafficked and exploited, and how to raise a concern. Local child protection committees should consider whether there is a need to develop inter-agency protocols to guide action where there are concerns that a child has been trafficked, including sharing concerns about a child's safety. The protocols should be consistent with relevant national guidance 13, 14 and the framework for standards for child protection 15. They should also be consistent with local procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, with procedures for working with children in need, and with relevant aspects of youth justice processes. The identification of a child who has been trafficked, or is at risk of being trafficked, should always trigger the agreed local procedures to ensure the child's safety and welfare, and to enable the police to gather evidence about abusers and coercers.
Role of specific agencies and services
Safeguarding and promoting the rights and welfare of children depends on effective joint working between agencies and professionals that have different roles and expertise. In the case of trafficked children, it is particularly important that links are established between statutory agencies and the voluntary and community sectors.
It is the responsibility of all those who work or are in contact with children to work together to safeguard and promote the rights and welfare of children. This includes trafficked children.
It is a principle of Getting it right for every child that all relevant agencies should be alert to the needs of children with whom they have contact and should take appropriate steps to improve their situation. It is recommended that there should be a "lead professional" who will co-ordinate and monitor implementation of each child's plan and be a single point of reference for child and family when different agencies (or different services within single agencies) are involved. (Note: In Glasgow, there is also the Asylum Lead Professional Team which works to provide information to UKBA on case resolution families.)
General principles on information sharing
Professionals should discuss any concerns and relevant information about a child or their circumstances with those other professionals or agencies with responsibilities for the protection of children when it is in the child's best interests to do so. The needs of each child are the primary consideration when professionals decide upon the relevant and proportionate sharing of information. All decisions and reasons for them are recorded. Agencies should actively manage and support the sharing of information recognising that confidentiality does not prevent sharing information where a child is in need of protection. Professionals should take account of each child (or other data subject's) views when deciding when to share information without their consent and should provide reasons and explain to them in an age appropriate manner when they have shared information without consent.
Local authority social work services
Under section 22 of the 1995 Act, local authorities have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their area who are in need, regardless of their immigration status. They also have responsibilities for unaccompanied children, as well as those who arrive in the UK with their parents, for whom there are concerns regarding their safety and welfare. Children "in need" (as defined in section 93.4 of the 1995 Act) are those children in need of care and attention because they are unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development unless services are provided or if the child's health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired, unless such services are provided; or if the child is disabled; or is affected adversely by the disability of any other person in their family.
Where there are immediate concerns about the safety of a child under 16, section 57 of the 1995 Act provides for the issue of a child protection order on application to a sheriff. Such an order can require any person in a position to do so to produce the child; or authorise the removal of a child to a place of safety; or authorise the prevention of the removal of a child from any place where he/she is being accommodated; or stipulate that the location of any place of safety should not be disclosed to any person or such persons as specified in the order. Under section 58 of the same Act the sheriff can also regulate contact arrangements. When a sheriff is not available emergency action can be taken by referral to a Justice of the Peace (1995 Act, section 61).
Section 25 of the 1995 Act requires that a local authority shall provide accommodation for any child who, residing or having been found within their area, appears to them to require such provision because no-one has parental responsibility for the child; or the child is lost or abandoned; or the person who has been caring for the child is prevented, whether or not permanently and for whatever reason, from providing the child with suitable accommodation or care. However, the local authority cannot provide voluntary accommodation under section 25 for a child if any person who has parental responsibilities in relation to him and the parental rights is willing and able either to provide, or to arrange to have provided, accommodation for him, objects; and any such person may at any time remove the child from accommodation which has been provided by the local authority under this section 25.
When information is received by a local authority which suggests that compulsory measures of supervision may be necessary, they have a duty (under section 53.1 of the 1995 Act) to cause inquiries to be made unless they are satisfied that such inquiries are not necessary, and if it appears that compulsory measures may be necessary, the local authority also has a duty to give the Principal Reporter such information about the child as they have been able to discover.
Children's Reporter
Although Reporters do not currently have specific guidance on trafficked children, the ethos of the Children's Hearings system would underline the need for a child-focused approach and considered assessment and decision making. The needs and best interests of the child would be paramount.
Education services
Children trafficked into the country may be registered at a school for a term or longer, before being moved to another part of the UK or abroad. This pattern of registration and de-registration may be an indicator that a child has been trafficked. This has been identified as a particular concern in schools which are situated near ports of entry, but practitioners should be alert to this possibility in all schools. However, they should also bear in mind that not all children who go missing from education have been victims of trafficking. For example, there may be instances of children from communities that move around - Gypsy, Roma, traveller or migrant families - who collectively go missing from school.
"Safe and Well: A handbook for staff, schools and education authorities 16 is recommended as a standard reference for education professionals in Scotland. Safe and Well specifies that each school should have a Child Protection Co-ordinator who will co-ordinate the school's response to concerns for children and young people's safety and wellbeing. Also, every Education Authority should have a designated officer for Child Protection who will ensure schools work effectively to keep children safe and well.
If a member of the school staff suspects that a child may have been trafficked, they should contact the police or local authority children's services immediately. They can do this through their school's child protection co-ordinator or head teacher. School staff, as any member of the public, may also pass information direct to local authority children's services or the police if for any reason they do not wish to pass information to the Child Protection Co-ordinator or Headteacher. Any person, including education staff, may refer to the Reporter directly when a child may be in need of compulsory measures of supervision.
Local Authority Children Missing from Education
Those responsible for local identification of children missing from education may encounter children who may have been trafficked. Where this is the case, they should contact the local authority children's services or the police immediately. Detailed national guidance on Children Missing from Education has already been developed 17.
Some children are less accessible to assessment of their needs and the risks to which they are exposed because they are being home educated. In some situations this arrangement could be a means to avoid contact with statutory agencies and Local Authority staff should be alert to this. However, it should not be assumed that instances of exploitation are more likely to arise for children who are home educated. The Scottish Government has produced separate guidance on home education 18 for use by parents and local authorities.
Health services
This guidance applies to all health practitioners. Trafficked children may be seen at Accident & Emergency services, community pharmacies, minor injury units, Genito-Urinary Medicine ( GUM) clinics, GPs, optometrists, family planning clinics, the Scottish Ambulance Services, out of hours services and by school nurses. Practitioners in the statutory, private, independent and voluntary sectors should be alert to inconsistencies in addresses, any deliberate vagueness and children or carers being unable to give details of next of kin, names, telephone numbers or other personal details. Health Visitors and Senior Nurses who may follow up visits to Accident & Emergency and doctors who provide statutory health checks and reviews on children in care, should also be alert to child trafficking concerns.
GPs and GP reception staff should be aware of Temporary Residents who have a pattern of frequent moves. Practitioner Services Division may assist in identification of such a pattern. An inquiry should be triggered during the circulation of an NHS or child missing from Education/Missing Family Alert. Guidance on Missing Family Alerts 19 describes information sharing processes between police, social work services, Children Missing from Education, and NHS services, including NHS 24.
When children or their carers give addresses in other countries, stating that the child is resident outside of the UK, reception staff are advised to record the current holiday address as well as the home address in their own country. Staff should be alert to local holiday addresses, in case patterns emerge that suggest numbers of children are moving in and out of the same address or when they are presented with unusual ailments (such as genital warts or TB).
School nurses should discuss any relevant concerns with the relevant NHS designated doctor or nurse. School nurses should be added to the "Transfer of Information When Children Move Schools".
Mental health promotion is fundamental to the vision of Scotland's Ministers. Scottish Government policy in this area is to improve the quality and accessibility of local CAMHS, at all tiers so that services are able to provide a good response to the variety of mental health needs found in the local population (mainly school age), including the particular needs of young asylum seekers.
Any child given leave to remain in the UK is regarded as ordinarily resident for the purposes of primary care, and is treated in the same way as any other UK resident. Some will have multiple health and social care problems and language barriers may mean that any consultations need planning and can be lengthy. CAMHS are organised in 4 tiers, encompassing primary care level services through to highly specialised inpatient facilities. Many of the young people with mental health needs are able to access GP and other primary care services and some will be referred on to specialist services. GPs and hospital staff should speak to their Community Health Partnerships if there are any doubts about a child's status.
Health professionals may also refer children to the Reporter (under section 53.2 of the 1995 Act.)
Policy guidance on information sharing on children at risk was provided to public authorities in 2003 in "Sharing Information about Children at Risk: A Guide to Good Practice" 20
Youth Justice Teams
Staff working in local authority Youth Justice Teams may encounter children from abroad or others who have been trafficked. Children who have been trafficked may be reluctant to disclose the circumstances of their exploitation or arrival into the UK for fear of reprisals by the trafficker, owner or pimp or misplaced loyalty to them. There are cases when trafficked children have been charged with criminal offences, for example when involved in cannabis farms.
This reluctance to disclose the real circumstances in which the child arrives into the country will have implications for the Children's Hearing System and youth justice processes. Parenting and carer assessments may be difficult as adults presenting as carers may be implicated in the trafficking process and would not be acting in the best interest of the child. In addition, age verification processes may have to be invoked and specific work may be needed to address any post traumatic stress.
Police
The police have powers to safeguard and promote the welfare of any child in Scotland. There are a number of specialist teams in police services across the UK who have expertise in dealing with trafficking cases. There are also joint intelligence teams in key locations across the country comprising of immigration, police and other agencies which help to identify child protection concerns. Police services should take all necessary steps to ensure that children at risk of being trafficked do not fall through the gap between operational teams.
Scottish Police forces have established the Scottish Human Trafficking Group. This is a multi-agency forum, bringing together representatives from the 8 Scottish police forces, the SCDEA, SOCA, British Transport Police, HMRC and the UK Border Agency to co-ordinate action to tackle human trafficking in Scotland. The group has played a key role in Scotland's involvement in Operation Pentameter 2 ( UKTP2), which focuses principally on tackling Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation. It has an action plan which covers awareness training, communications strategy, intelligence co-ordination and development, enforcement and victim care. In Scotland it is the role of Divisional Family Protection Units to investigate trafficking in close co-ordination with local authority social work colleagues.
It is important that officers investigating offences committed by children who may have been trafficked are able to recognise and identify such cases. The child's welfare needs and protection should be taken into account and appropriate safeguarding processes should be followed. An oversight of trafficking into the UK and ways of preventing it is available on the Home Office crime reduction website 21.
The police must refer a child to the Reporter (1995 Act s53.2) where they have cause to believe that compulsory measures of supervision may be necessary in respect of a child. For offences where the Lord Advocate's Guidelines to Chief Constables apply (in relation to offences alleged to have been committed by children) 22, the child will be jointly reported to the Procurator Fiscal and the Reporter. Discussion will take place to decide who will deal with the matter. Where the circumstances of the child or the offence suggest trafficking this should be highlighted in the Police Report and both agencies will be alert to cases of trafficking.
Question 3 - Have we scoped all the agencies that are likely to come into contact with children who may have been trafficked?
Question 4 - Are you content with the actions required of agencies outlined within this section?