Exploitation

'Modern Slavery' is the term used within the UK and is defined within the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The Modern Slavery Act categorises offences of Slavery, Servitude and Forced or Compulsory Labour and Human Trafficking.

Trafficking a person can means transporting someone across international borders, form one UK town or city to another or even just moving them a few streets. A person is still considered to be a victim of human trafficking if they have not yet been exploited but have been moved for the purpose of being exploited. 

Human trafficking is defined by the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings as:

"the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of person by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purposes of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs'.  

The Modern Slavery Statutory Guidance for England and Wales (published under Section 49 of the Modern Slavery Act) outlines the 3 components of adult trafficking. These are, the action, the means and the purpose of exploitation. 

For child trafficking, only the two components of the action and the purpose of exploitation need to be present. This is because a child is unable to consent to what is happening.

There are a number of different types of exploitation that victims of modern slavery may be subjected to, and this could be multiple forms simultaneously. The government has published a typology of modern slavery offences, which includes:

• Sexual exploitation
• Labour exploitation
• Forced criminality (this could include county lines and cuckooing)
• Domestic servitude
• Debt bondage
• Organ harvesting

‘Cuckooing‘ describes when criminals target the home of vulnerable person, often so they can use the property for criminal purposes such as drug-dealing, hiding weapons and other criminal activities. The term comes from the behaviour of cuckoo birds, who take over the nests of other birds. 'Cuckooing' isn't a specific criminal offence but could feature various criminal offences including modern slavery.

Criminals may befriend adults who are vulnerable in some way in order to exploit them in this way and use their property for criminal activity. The person is usually intimidated and too scared to report it to anyone.

Please refer to the cuckooing guidance and reporting pathway for more information.

• Salford Connect is Salford's response to the exploitation of children and adults.
• The multi-agency team was formed in January 2019, using existing Operation Phoenix workers, and since then it has expanded significantly. 
• The team is co-located in Salford. There is a constant drive to further develop links with other partners in Salford to achieve our aims of improving outcomes for children, young people and adults and disrupt and prosecute perpetrators of exploitation.

More information about exploitation of children can be found on the Salford Safeguarding Children's Partnership website.

Complex Safeguarding

'Complex Safeguarding' is a term used to describe criminal activity (often organised) or behaviour associated with criminality, involving children and adults, where there is exploitation and/or a clear or implied safeguarding concern.

This term includes, but is not limited to: Criminal Exploitation, Modern Slavery (including Human Trafficking) and Sexual Exploitation.

Within Salford partner agencies, 'Complex Safeguarding' is generally known as 'Exploitation'.

Contextual Safeguarding

'Contextual Safeguarding' is a safeguarding approach that focuses on understanding the situations outside of an immediate family environment that may put an individual at risk of harm. It was originally created to focus on children and young people of 10-25 years old, but can be applied to vulnerable / at risk people of any age as a way of identifying areas of risk and creating plans to minimise harm.

Transitional Safeguarding

'Transitional Safeguarding' is a term that has been used to highlight the need to improve the safeguarding response to older teenagers and young adults in a way that recognises their developmental needs. 

In keeping with the notion of Transitional Safeguarding, some areas of Greater Manchester Complex Safeguarding teams are working with Adult Services to develop an 'all-age response', recognising that the risk to young people does not stop when they turn 18 years old.