News & Updates
NRM Reform newsletter 27/02/24
Posted on
| Survivor engagement on the future support model for adult victims of modern slavery |
| As many of you know, we are currently undertaking work to consider options for the future design of the adult victim support model for victims of modern slavery, known as the VS25 Programme. To date, we have welcomed a range of input through various stakeholder meetings, the Adult MSEF, two early-market engagement events and a stakeholder survey, as well as an extensive review of existing stakeholder research and literature. We have also heard from you and appreciate the importance of survivor voice in understanding the lived experience to shape the future design of support and to date are grateful to organisations who have invited us to discuss the VS25 programme with their existing lived experience forums. We are now delighted to share that the Modern Slavery Unit has the opportunity to pilot delivery of survivor engagement via a third party to deliver a short term engagement project with survivors to inform the VS25 Programme. We will be working with the Human Trafficking Foundation (HTF), to pilot this approach before the end of March 2024 and will use the learnings to inform options for survivor engagement in the future. The pilot will seek to engage up to 40 survivors from a range of backgrounds to gain further insight into their views of the needs-assessment / journey planning process and specific interventions proposed to enable recovery outcomes. HTF will recruit participants with lived experience of modern slavery and facilitate the engagement sessions, with Home Office officials attending in listening mode to take away the insight that survivors share to inform the next stages of the future support model work. The Human Trafficking Foundation will be in touch with frontline organisations with information about how survivors can get involved. If you would like to contact HTF directly, please email [email protected] If you have any wider questions about the VS25 Programme, please do reach out to [email protected] |
| Update to Modern Slavery Guidance – Conclusive Grounds prioritisation criteria |
Whilst progressing and considering all Conclusive Grounds cases, the Competent Authorities regularly have to allocate cases and are provided with the flexibility to respond to the operational needs of the day, including ordering within priority groups in order to meet the objectives of His Majesty’s Government. On 22nd February the ‘Modern Slavery: Statutory Guidance for England and Wales (under s49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015) and Non-Statutory for Scotland and Northern Ireland’ was updated to include the current priority criteria that the Competent Authorities work to (paragraph 14.129 of version 3.8). These priorities can change periodically, and where they do this guidance will be updated accordingly. |