8. Safeguarding and sexual exploitation

Care Act 2014, s 42 — An authority must make or cause enquiries where it has reasonable cause to suspect that an adult with care and support needs is experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect and, because of those needs, is unable to protect himself or herself. Official source

Reported coercion for care is not simply a commissioning dispute. It may require a parallel safeguarding pathway. The enquiry should be person-led, trauma-informed and attentive to immediate safety, alleged perpetrator access, financial control, sexual violence, domestic abuse, forced labour and the adult’s desired outcomes.

Safeguarding should not wait for proof of a completed crime. The enquiry can coordinate immediate protection, fact-finding, independent advocacy, replacement care, police liaison and recovery. It should also avoid punishing disclosure by removing familiar support without a safe substitute or by treating the person reporting coercion as the problem.

8.0 Human trafficking for sexual exploitation: the statutory framework

Modern Slavery Act 2015, s 2 — A person commits human trafficking if they arrange or facilitate another person’s travel with a view to that person being exploited. Travel includes movement within a country as well as arrival in or departure from a country. Arranging or facilitating may include recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring or receiving the person, or transferring or exchanging control over them. It is irrelevant whether the person, adult or child, consented to the travel. Official source

Modern Slavery Act 2015, s 3 — Exploitation includes sexual exploitation where something is done to or in respect of the person that involves the commission of an offence under Part 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, or would amount to such an offence if it occurred in England and Wales. The relevant underlying conduct may include rape, assault by penetration, sexual assault, causing sexual activity without consent, abuse of a position of trust, or specified prostitution and pornography offences, depending on the proved facts and statutory elements. Official source

Anonymous reported account

An anonymous account describes an 18-year-old woman who was lured from Hungary to the United Kingdom with the promise of a waitressing job. On arrival, her passport was confiscated, she was imprisoned in a flat, raped repeatedly and forced into prostitution. She eventually escaped and reported the abuse, but says that police ignored her report and that she was deported to Hungary.

Status of the account This is an anonymous reported account, not a finding by a court or an accusation against any named person or organisation. A legal investigation would require the original statement, dates, travel and immigration records, police records, medical or forensic evidence, communications, witnesses and the response of each relevant authority.

If supported by evidence, the promised job and arranged journey may establish recruitment and travel under section 2; the confiscated passport, confinement and threats may evidence control, coercion and knowledge; and the alleged rape and forced prostitution may establish the intended sexual exploitation required by section 3 and separate offences under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The prosecution would still have to prove the involvement and state of mind of each identified defendant beyond reasonable doubt.

The alleged failure to act after escape is legally distinct from the traffickers’ alleged offences. It may require examination of safeguarding, policing, victim-identification, immigration and Article 4 protection duties, but neither an inadequate response nor removal from the United Kingdom automatically proves that an official committed trafficking. The account illustrates why disclosure should trigger immediate safety planning, preservation of evidence, specialist police consideration, appropriate medical and psychological support and assessment through the modern-slavery identification framework.

What must be proved

  • An identified defendant arranged or facilitated the person’s travel, including movement within England and Wales or harbouring, receiving or transferring control connected with that movement.
  • The defendant intended to exploit the person during or after the travel, or knew or ought to have known that another person was likely to exploit them.
  • The intended exploitation fell within section 3; for sexual trafficking, this requires the relevant connection with conduct amounting to a Part 1 Sexual Offences Act offence.
  • Consent to travel does not provide a defence to section 2. Consent to sexual activity remains a separate issue governed by the applicable sexual offence, including the freedom-and-capacity definition in section 74 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

    • Application in care settings

    Possible indicators include recruiting or moving a care-dependent person between homes or placements for sexual exploitation; harbouring or receiving them while controlling communication, money, medication, mobility or access to care; transferring control between exploiters; or conditioning essential care, accommodation or protection on sexual activity. Disability, communication barriers and dependence may increase vulnerability and explain why apparent compliance was not free agreement, but vulnerability alone does not prove trafficking.

    Sexual abuse and sexual trafficking are not interchangeable. A sexual offence may be committed without any arranged or facilitated travel, and trafficking may be complete where the travel is arranged with the required view to exploitation even though intervention prevents the intended sexual offence. Each offence must be analysed separately. The former trafficking provisions in sections 57 to 59 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 were replaced for England and Wales by the trafficking offence in section 2 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015; current analysis should therefore begin with sections 2 and 3 of the 2015 Act.

    QuestionEvidence to preserve
    Who arranged or facilitated movement or control?Travel records, placement decisions, messages, vehicle or address records, rotas and witnesses.
    What exploitation was intended or known to be likely?Demands, advertisements, payments, sexual communications, threats, recordings, medical evidence and prior reports.
    How was vulnerability or dependence used?Care plans, communication needs, control of medication or mobility, withheld support, financial records and evidence of available alternatives.
    What immediate protection is required?Safe replacement care, private communication, medical and forensic support, advocacy, police referral and preservation of digital evidence.

    8.1 What an effective referral should contain

  • The acts alleged, dates or date ranges, places and persons involved.
  • What was requested or demanded, and what care or resource was withheld or threatened.
  • Why refusal was not realistically safe or possible.
  • Messages, bank records, rotas, care notes, medical records and witnesses.
  • Current access by the alleged perpetrator and immediate protection required.
  • Communication adjustments and whether an independent advocate is needed.
    • Immediate reporting If anyone is in immediate danger, call 999. Non-emergency criminal concerns can be reported to police on 101. A potential victim or member of the public may contact the Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline on 08000 121 700. A safeguarding referral should also be considered; these routes can operate together.