INDEPENDENT ADVOCATES FOR TRAFFICKED CHILDREN

That this House notes the independent evaluation of the Child Trafficking Advocates pilot project, provided by Barnados and funded by the Home Office, which concluded that advocates assisted in keeping trafficked children safely visible once they started working with them, made relationships of trust and credibility with the children and other stakeholders, shared developing expertise in trafficking and case-specific information in purposeful ways, helped the children to orientate and navigate their ways through complex circumstances, spoke up for the children when necessary, maintained a momentum in a case that was suitable to the child's needs, including planning for a sustainable future and improved the quality of decision making; and urges the Home Office to act swiftly to build on these foundations, making sure that all trafficked children have access to the support of an independent advocate, recognising that if the scheme needs to be developed further then this should be done in the context of implementing the provision in Clause 48 of the Modern Slavery Act to provide an independent advocate to every trafficked child and the quality of the service should be improved while it is being rolled out.