Seeing the Invisible: Identifying Child Trafficking in the Modern World

13th Feb 2018

While identification of trafficked children has improved, more needs to be done to eradicate the practice. But, with Brexit potentially leading to tighter borders, many more children could be at risk. In 2014-15, 590 children were identified as being trafficked or suspected of being trafficked, with the majority of cases...

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For some years safeguarding has embraced two words that have embodied a strategic aspiration, a desired culture and a direction to us regarding how we should deliver our practice no matter which professional background we come from: ‘Working Together’. The blunt reality dawning on many is that it hasn’t been...
Big stories often break into the national consciousness, create waves and then vanish without any positive outcomes. Such was the case with a nine-year-old boy called Luke last October who made the ITV news as a result of persistent self harming. At the time the charity Place2Be reported Luke had...
Every year police forces and social work teams around the country are alerted to increasing domestic violence around Christmas and New Year.
Social care is littered with language that doesn’t belong. Some of it has been copied from business, while other phrases come from the NHS – which can be equally inappropriate. Some words have so many multiple meanings that using them renders discussion meaningless; they become those conversations that 10 people can...
Back in December we wrote a blog about Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to take over local authorities that fail to deal with child protection services. For many it signalled the start of privatising local services away from councils. This was the blog at the time. [View the story “What...
When the Chancellor recently announced he had signed up four government departments for 30% cuts as part of the next spending round, I was convinced local government would not be one of them.  It was. So what do we do now? Councils are on their knees, their eyes understandably more...
Lets have the big conversation about how we deliver integrated services of excellence everywhere and not make unachievable threats to one part of a system.
Stephen Rimmer is a keen advocate of multiagency safeguarding practices and is eager to see it embedded within the different agencies.
Alarmingly, in the UK rising numbers of teens have been trying to commit suicide or actually carrying it out in the past year. Every one of these cases is a desperately sad tale that needs to be told, so  we can try to understand the reasons why young people take their own lives. Furthermore,...
Earlier this year the iRights campaign was launched to promote the idea that children should be able to delete their online past.
The UK needs to reinvest in people. It needs to tackle the root causes of radicalisation in communities through more community cohesion.
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Former British world boxing champion Nigel Benn has joined a campaign that aims to reach out to under privileged children in tough inner city areas of Britain. Called the Voice of the Child, the campaign will give teenagers a platform to talk about their problems and concerns to a wider...
Payment for sex should be decriminalised, with exiting services provided to people exploited through prostitution; paying for sex should be criminalised.
The best way to reach people is to tell them stories. It’s a tried and tested method going back millennia – and it’s one we used in some Lewisham schools.
We can use social media to build community, to promote research, and to impart ideas and expertise on issues that impact on health and well being.
We have a duty to help refugees in desperate need; they need to be treated with respect and dignity. But instead Hungary is locking them up.
It's time we put in place a proper procedure around teenage sexting to help vulnerable children understand the consequences of their actions
I have argued ceaselessly during the past decade about how vital it is to use partnership information to make better and earlier decisions concerning the identification of need, harm and risk to children and vulnerable adults. But this has to be within the law – and the rights of every...
Most things are socially defined by what people say or do, or how they are in their social groups and teams. “Through the eyes of a child, all professionals are all simply adults with authority”. They do not necessarily see or understand professional training, status, qualifications or experience. They also...
How Suffolk responded to reports of missing persons in Ipswich that subsequently led to the murder hunt for the Ipswich prostitute murders
This is the first in a series of guest blogs by ex Detective Superintendent Alan Caton OBE about the Ipswich prostitute murders . In the winter months of 2006, I found myself at the centre of the biggest murder investigation ever in the UK. At that time I was the...
Prostitution is a very complex and difficult subject on which there are many controversial and diverse views.
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It was reminder of how times are changing and couldn’t have come any sooner for three girls about to be sent overseas to undergo female genital mutilation.
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This is my third blog in the Harmful Cultural Practice series Forced Marriage is exactly that; forcing someone to marry against their will. It is appalling practice and is recognised in the UK as a form of violence against women and men, domestic and child abuse, and a serious breach of human rights....
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When the new Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Harassment and Honour Based Violence (DASH) model was introduced in 2009, for the first time it enabled police services and partner agencies to use a common checklist to identify and assess risk with victims of domestic abuse. Since then model has become solidly...
In the UK and internationally the face of public services has changed dramatically in the past three decades. This is as a result of political beliefs and fast moving government policies that impact on provision in the wake of the financial crisis. This has influenced how we as professionals will...
Government has published a new action plan for tackling child sexual exploitation, including an extension of the wilful neglect offence to children’s social care, education and elected members where people have been found to have failed in their duty to take action in respect of cases of abuse and neglect....
The social work profession has come under a lot of pressure recently as social workers find themselves caught up in damaging public debates about their role in keeping children and families safe. Accusations of failure and incompetence appear in the press regardless of the myriad reasons behind these so-called practice...
All families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina This quote from Tolstoy is a timely – and timeless – reminder of how much grief and unhappiness exists behind the closed doors of the family home. Across the UK there are countless...
When three teenage girls flew to Syria to join Islamic State earlier this year, there was a lot of soul searching across the UK. Newspapers claimed Britain was losing the battle to stop extremists radicalising young people online through chat rooms and social media networks. Former government minister Lady Warsi...
When I read a BBC article about Violence against Women recently I was alarmed about the increase in prosecutions in 2014/2015.  It said that A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) report in June 2015 showed more than 107,000 prosecutions in the year to April. An increase of 16,000 (18%) on the previous year....
It is critical that the next government defines what we should expect of social workers working with our most vulnerable children, young people and families. The five main political parties in England and Wales revealed their manifestos in April outlining plans for the country if elected on 7 May 2015....
Can localism work during a time of huge public sector funding cuts? It’s a question that goes to the heart of front line service delivery. A few months ago Olly Martins, Bedfordshire’s Police & Crime Commissioner, devised what he thought was a practical way to fund 100 more police officers...