Between February 2017 and July 2019 the UK Home Office, in partnership with the University of Bedford, conducted an evaluation of the Independent Child Trafficking Guardians service in three early adopter sites; namely, Greater Manchester, Wales and Hampshire. The Independent Child Trafficking Guardians were established by section 48 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and are designed to be advocates for all child victims of human trafficking, acting as an independent source of advice and holding a position where they can speak up on their behalf.  The evaluation sought to address the question of what the ‘added value’ is of Independent Child Trafficking Guardians service, whether this varied across different groups of children, and whether there was any difference between the early adopter sites.

The evaluation involved the collection and analysis of data from both qualitative and quantitative sources from three core data sets:

1. Data collected by the children’s charity Barnardo’s on the work carried out by the Independent Child Trafficking Guardians. Barnardo’s is the Independent Child Trafficking Guardians service provider.
2. Data collected from local authorities and social services.
3. National Referral Mechanism data on decisions, and the timeliness of determinations, in Independent Child Trafficking Guardians sites in comparison with the rest of England and Wales.

The evaluation found that 23% of children referred to the Independent Child Trafficking Guardians service went missing at some stage, though for the most part this was only on a temporary basis, and the Independent Child Trafficking Guardians service would continue to engage with other agencies for six months after a child went missing before closing their case. The evaluation also found children engaged with the Independent Child Trafficking Guardians service for a period of six months or more initially saw a decrease in the likelihood of their going missing, though this likelihood would subsequently begin to rise again. Finally, the most common reason for children exiting the Independent Child Trafficking Guardians service is turning 18. The Independent Child Trafficking Guardians is only for children under the age of 18 and the evaluation notes several concerns by support providers surrounding the management of transitioning individuals from child to adult support services. The full report can be found here.