Source · Select Committees · Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
Recommendation 8
8
Accepted
Share good practice to improve NRM awareness and use among NI welfare and justice agencies.
Recommendation
We are concerned about the lack of use of the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in NI. The NRM is a tool for public agencies to provide a strategic safeguarding response to paramilitary activity. While we acknowledge that support for modern slavery victims is devolved, we recommend that forthwith the Government share good practice with the Executive on improving awareness and use of the NRM among NI welfare agencies, social services and those in the criminal justice system. (Paragraph 56) The effect of paramilitary activity and organised crime on society in Northern Ireland 49 Coordination to tackle paramilitary and terrorist activity
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the importance of the NRM, noting that the NI Executive's Child Criminal Exploitation Task and Finish Group's action plan includes increasing NRM awareness among agencies, and the draft Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Strategy also aims to improve NRM use.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The UK Government acknowledges the importance of work to ensure that the Northern Ireland framework for safeguarding children and young people protects those abused by paramilitary or organised crime gangs. This is a policy area for which responsibility has been devolved to the NI Executive. The restoration of the NI Executive provides an important opportunity to make progress on this issue. Following advice from the NI Children’s Commissioner, a Child Criminal Exploitation Task and Finish Group was established by the cross departmental Child Protection Senior Officials Group (CPSOG) to make recommendations on an improved system wide response to child criminal exploitation, drawing on lessons learned from the EPPOC. The Northern Ireland Department of Justice, working jointly with the Department of Health, led on the work of the Task and Finish group and its recommendations were subsequently approved by CPSOG. The CCE action plan that has been developed is monitored through the CPSOG sub-group with an implementation timescale of 24 months. Funding has also been secured from EPPOC for a dedicated CCE Professional Officer employed by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland (SBNI) and work on a number of key CCE actions will be coordinated through the SBNI Child Exploitation Committee. Across the departments and partner agencies involved in the Task and Finish group, a definition for child criminal exploitation has now been agreed for NI, informed by research with young people on their perceptions and experiences of child criminal exploitation in NI. The definition takes account of Home Office guidance. Work is ongoing to include the new definition in relevant policies and procedures. It is intended that policies will be updated before the end of the year. In turn the implementation of these policies should strengthen the criminal justice system’s ability to prosecute offenders and improve prosecution rates. Other actions in the CCE action plan include, in line with the draft three-year Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking (MSHT) Strategy 2024–27, increasing awareness of offences as they relate to children in the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act NI 2015 (“the 2015 Act”) and consideration of whether it is in the child’s best interests to make a referral into the National Referral Mechanism. The draft MSHT Strategy 2024–27 also includes a number of actions to improve support for child victims and to increase awareness of the NRM across a range of agencies in Northern Ireland.