A new report by The Rights Lab and ECPAT, a leading children’s rights organisation, has highlighted the ways in which the UK government and local authorities could become more effective at handling child protection in relation to modern slavery.  

One of the principal findings of its research was that earlier identification of children who could be vulnerable to exploitation is needed. One of the best ways to achieve this is to implement more training for the relevant stakeholders who carry responsibility for the care of children. 

... there was a lack of consideration of faith by those involved with families, as well as inadequate cultural skills and knowledge when working with faith-based organisations, who had the potential to provide crucial expertise on the families. As practitioners didn’t feel sufficiently well versed in dealing with religious communities, opportunities to gather information from an external perspective were missed.