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<p>Criminal exploitation in the form of county lines has a devastating impact on those
affected and we must work together to identify and safeguard the vic-tims and potential
victims of this form of exploitation as early as possible.</p><p>We welcome the report
published by the Children’s Society and will consider its findings carefully as we
continue to develop and strengthen our response to county lines.</p><p>In 2018, the
Department for Education revised the Working Together to Safeguard Children and Keeping
Children Safe in Education guidance to reflect the risks to include specific mention
of the risks to children from county lines, criminal exploitation and other harms
from outside the home.</p><p>New arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare
of all children, must be implemented by safeguarding partners by the end of September
2019. It will be for local determination what the arrangements cover, but they must
set out how all children, including those at risk of child criminal exploitation,
will be kept safe. In order to bring transparency about the activities undertaken,
the safeguarding partners must publish a report at least once in every 12-month period,
setting out what they have done as a result of the arrangements and how effective
these arrangements have been in practice.</p><p>The Independent Review of the Modern
Slavery Act 2015 considered the def-inition of exploitation under the Act and found
it is sufficiently flexible to meet a range of new and emerging forms of modern slavery.</p><p>In
addition, there is an existing, published definition of child criminal exploi-tation
in the Serious Violence Strategy. The strategy is available <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/698009/serious-violence-strategy.pdf"
target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/698009/serious-violence-strategy.pdf</a></p><p>Section
48 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 which makes provisions for Inde-pendent Child Trafficking
Advocates was also considered by the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act
2015. In-line with one of the Review’s recommendations, Independent Child Trafficking
Advocates have recently been renamed Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs).</p><p>ICTGs
are an additional source of advice and support for all trafficked children and somebody
who can advocate on their behalf. The current service model provides one-to-one support
for children who lack a figure of parental responsibility for them in the UK and an
expert ICTG regional practice co-ordinator whose role will be to focus on children
who do have a figure of parental responsibility for them in the UK. The ICTG regional
practice co-ordinator works with statutory bodies including the police, social workers
and the Criminal Justice System to foster effective multi-agency working to safeguard
these vulnerable children.</p><p>The Government remains committed to rolling out ICTGs
nationally with the service currently being available in one third of local authorities
in England and Wales.The Government Response to the Independent Review was published
on 9 July and is available: <br> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-independent-review-of-the-modern-slavery-act"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-independent-review-of-the-modern-slavery-act</a></p><p>
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