Identifying Pathways to Support British Victims of Modern Slavery towards Safety and Recovery: A Scoping Study

Since 2013, the number of British nationals referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) as potential victims of modern slavery has increased year on year, rising from 90 in 2013 to 3,952 in 20213. These figures include potential adult and child victims, referred for labour, criminal and sexual exploitation as well as domestic servitude. The largest proportion of these referrals in 2021 was for criminal exploitation involving children, representing 55% of all referrals of British nationals. Recent studies have begun to uncover the experiences of British nationals who are exploited in modern slavery, including findings that British survivors are failed by the current support system (see Centre for Social Justice and Justice and Care report). Through analysis of data collected via surveys, interviews with survivors, support practitioners and criminal justice professionals, and a review of case law and legislation, this scoping study investigated the pathways to support for British nationals who are potential victims of modern slavery. Project aims: • Understand the recovery needs and experiences of British nationals who are victims/survivors of modern slavery • Identify gaps in support provided to British nationals • Understand barriers including why British nationals may not be identified as victims and may not engage with support • Understand the experiences of British nationals of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and the impact of potential erroneous prosecutions • Improve knowledge about what support for British nationals should look like to enable their recovery and prevent re-trafficking Key Findings • Missed opportunities by professionals in statutory and non-statutory services resulted in a failure to identify and protect British nationals, including children, prior to exploitation. • Professionals who interact with British nationals during exploitation are failing to recognise them as potential victims of modern slavery due to misunderstandings about who can be a victim of modern slavery. • If correctly identified as potential victims, British nationals are often not referred into the NRM due to misunderstandings about who the NRM is for. • There is a lack of knowledge of the statutory entitlements of British nationals resulting in missed opportunities to offer access to relevant support both in and out of the NRM. • Post-exploitation, British survivors fall through significant gaps in support offered both through the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC) and under other statutory services. • British nationals often present with complex needs (mental health and substance misuse, historical exploitation, criminal exploitation). Current systems, including mental health and criminal justice, both in and out of the NRM, are not set up to support this complexity. • Recovery pathways aimed at building resilience to reduce the risk of re-exploitation, based on understanding of their experiences, needs and statutory entitlements, have not been established for British nationals. • Survivors are experts by experience. Their experiences of the gaps in identification, support and justice are currently not being employed to inform the creation of improved pathways to recovery.