Update 2024-2025
The Slavery and Trafficking Survivor Care Standards (Care Standards), first published in 2014, emerged from the work of a group of anti-trafficking practitioners and were coordinated by the Human Trafficking Foundation. These Standards were created to ensure that adult survivors of trafficking across the UK receive consistent, high-quality care. Following the passage of the Modern Slavery Act in 2015, the standards were republished, with the most recent update in 2018. The Care Standards have been endorsed by the government, referenced in the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract and are used by the Care Quality Commission when inspecting government-funded safehouses and outreach support for survivors of modern slavery. Given significant changes to the modern slavery landscape since 2018 and at the recommendation of two reports by Fulbright Scholar Sara Gilmer and the University of Nottingham Rights Lab, the Care Standards will undergo a new update starting in September 2024 to be published in October 2025.
Find out more about how the Care Standards will be updated here and view the recording of the Update Kickoff event here.
If you would like to join a working group to be involved in the updating process, please complete this Expression of Interest form if you are representing an organisation and this Expression of Interest form if you are an individual. Deadline for both forms is 8th November 2024.
Any queries, contact info@humantraffickingfoundation.org
The Trafficking Survivor Care Standards were developed in conjunction with experts in the anti trafficking sector with the aim of providing a blueprint for UK-wide service providers offering high quality care to adult survivors of modern slavery, including trafficking. The Standards provide a flexible framework with guiding principles and practical recommendations that support agencies can incorporate into their own existing policies and procedures. The ultimate goal is to promote an integrated, holistic and empowering approach that places the real needs of survivors at the centre of the process of sustained recovery, far beyond the ‘reflection period’.
In October 2017, government announced that it will adopt the Human Trafficking Foundation’s Trafficking Survivor Care Standards and include them in future NRM victim care contracts. The then Minister responsible, Sarah Newton MP explained during a backbench debate on the Modern Slavery Act:
“If a potential victim opts to enter the NRM, we must ensure that the care they receive is consistent and meets minimum standards, regardless of where in the country they are being cared for. That is why the Government will adopt the Human Trafficking Foundation’s trafficking survivor care standards as a minimum standard for victim support”.
In the UK, government funded care to survivors of trafficking is provided through the National Referral Mechanism for identifying victims of trafficking (NRM). In addition to ensuring good standards of care to survivors which respond to individual needs to facilitate recovery the standards also aim to support the professionals who work with survivors, ensuring that best practice is shared.
When someone escapes from slavery or trafficking their recovery and long term freedom is not guaranteed. The standard of support, care, information and legal which survivors receive through the NRM is vital to ensure victims of this crime are able to move on, rebuild their lives and access justice.
You can download the current Care Standards here.
The Standards make reference to the Helen Bamber Foundation’s Trauma Informed Code of Conduct which can be found here.
Vernon Coaker MP, Co-Chair APPG on Modern Slavery and Trafficking said:“I welcome government’s commitment to adopt the Human Trafficking Foundation’s Slavery and Trafficking Survivor Care standards into the next Victim Care Contract. We need to know that government funded services meet a decent level of care and that victims in the service are supported and enabled to access their entitlements under the Council of Europe Convention for Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, helping them to begin to access justice and to move on with their lives. These standards, updated in collaboration with experts from across the anti- trafficking sectors, if implemented, will ensure that the UK is a leader in victim care.”
Minh Dang, Survivor Alliance said: “To state that the Care Standards are important is an understatement. For too long, well-intentioned, but untrained individuals have entered into professional relationships with survivors of human trafficking and slavery without regard to their potential negative impact on human lives. The Care Standards bring our field into alignment with other professional fields where A Code of Conduct is the norm.”
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