Known for her outstanding work in the social policy and humanitarian fields, Dr Helen Connolly – Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Course Coordinator for the University’s new MA in Human Rights and Social Enterprise – was commissioned by the Home Office to evaluate the UK’s Child Trafficking Protection Fund. This programme is part of a £40 million Government initiative announced in 2017, committed to tackling child sexual abuse and trafficking.

The Child Trafficking Protection Fund was established to test innovative ways of caring for and supporting trafficked and exploited children in the UK and overseas. Since its launch, the programme has awarded funds to projects delivered by seven organisations working at the frontline of child trafficking protection and prevention efforts, with a focus on local responses to this national and global problem, including ECPAT UK, The Children’s Society, AFRUCA, Coram, Unseen UK, Barnardo’s and IOM – the International Organisation for Migration.

In order to receive funding, each organisation developed counter child trafficking projects which aimed to:

• Offer child support and recovery, including specialist care
• Reduce child vulnerability to exploitation
• Prevent children from going missing and potentially being re-trafficked

Whilst the projects were not without their challenges in a complex area of practice, Dr Helen Connolly’s evaluation finds that overall, the Child Trafficking Protection Fund has been a valuable and experimental initiative, successfully building on the existing expertise, practical knowledge and experiences of NGO’s working at the forefront of child trafficking response and prevention efforts.

The evaluation finds that the Fund has been an important step towards improving the landscape of specialist child trafficking services in the UK and worldwide and in contributing towards the systemic improvement of local prevention and response approaches. The evaluation offers a range of key findings and makes recommendations for policy and practice across the three areas of:

• The creation and exchange of new knowledge
• Building professionals’ capacity and awareness
• Providing direct support to children

The evaluation emphasises the significance of youth participation, peer support group work and the creation of safe social networks, as well as encouraging opportunities for children and young people to influence policy and practice as ways of supporting their recovery and well-being. The report also further emphasises the need for training of professionals and multi-agency collaboration tailored to local need but nationally coordinated, and for a commitment to longer term Government funding and support for further innovation.

Based at the University of Bedfordshire’s School of Applied Social Sciences, Dr Helen Connolly said of the evaluation:

It was such an important evaluation to do in terms of understanding how best to innovate towards better outcomes for trafficked and exploited children and young people. It has some very important synergies with work that some of us at the University have already been involved in on the Modern Slavery Act (2015) and provision of Independent Child Trafficking Guardians for trafficked and exploited children. That continuity of involvement and influence is really important for policy that is meaningful in the lives of children and in the implementation experiences of practitioners.

Completed at the end of October, the evaluation report has now been published by the Home Office and can be found online:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-child-trafficking-protection-fund

Further information about study and research opportunities with the School of Applied Social Studies, including the new postgraduate course in Human Rights and Social Enterprise, visit: www.beds.ac.uk/howtoapply/departments/appliedsocialstudies

We're proud that @uniofbeds evaluation of @ukhomeoffice's #ChildTrafficking Protection Fund found ECPAT UK's PACT project provided an “important pathway” to reduce children’s vulnerability to #trafficking and improve local authority practice.

Read more⬇️https://t.co/03V2r85uJK

— Every Child Protected Against Trafficking (@ECPATUK) November 19, 2020