Piloting devolving decision making for child victims of modern slavery
The Home Office has launched a pilot programme that will test alternative models of decision making for child victims of modern slavery and human trafficking.
Documents
Details
The pilot programme began in June 2021 with 10 pilot sites. Between February and April 2023, 10 additional pilot sites joined, with now 20 pilot sites operating in the pilot.
The general guidance document sets out where the pilot operates, the rationale behind the pilot sites and the requirements of the programme.
Details on decision making are set out in the decision-making guidance for the pilot sites in England and Wales, and separately for Scotland.
Decisions are taken through a multi-agency structure with representation from the three safeguarding partners: the local authority, health and police.
Updates to this page
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Updated the guidance for pilot sites in England and Wales and pilot sites in Scotland.
Update history
2026-02-26 14:19
Added ‘Decision making guidance for pilot sites Northern Ireland’.
2026-02-24 13:24
Updated the guidance for pilot sites in England and Wales and pilot sites in Scotland.
2025-08-15 11:46
Added details of the third phase of the pilot.
2023-12-05 16:42
Updated Annex A.
2023-12-04 09:00
Updated the general guidance, guidance for pilot sites in England and Wales, and guidance for pilot sites in Scotland.
2023-07-20 15:15
Wording of introduction section of general guidance document updated.
2023-07-12 14:03
The wording has been changed in Annex A: Case transfer guidance.
2023-06-30 12:11
There have been changes made to the ‘Devolving child decision-making pilot programme: general guidance’, ‘Decision-making guidance for pilot sites in England and Wales’ and the ‘Decision-making guidance for pilot sites in Scotland’ guidance pages.
2022-07-01 15:21
English language versions of the following documents updated: Devolving child decision-making pilot programme: general guidance, Decision-making guidance for pilot sites in England and Wales and Decision-making guidance for pilot sites in Scotland. They have been updated due to a change in guidance relating to cases that are no longer in scope of the pilot if there is uncertainty over whether or not an individual is an adult or a child.
2022-06-21 15:46
Added accessible Welsh versions.
2022-04-05 12:12
Added Welsh versions.