The issue of child trafficking is one that Glasgow City Council has been grappling with since 2006–7, when, along with partner agencies, concerns first started to be raised about unaccompanied and separated children arriving in the city. These concerns centred around the nature of their journeys and their stories of exploitation and abuse, prior to, during their journeys and on arrival in the city. During our first encounter with the concept of child trafficking we asked the question ‘does it happen here?’ We were expecting the answer to be ‘no’, but clearly this was not the case. This was the start of a long journey for child protection professionals in Glasgow. Both in coming to terms with the fact it was happening in the city, and having to respond and react to serious cases of child abuse without a national commitment to the established child protection framework as the most suitable multi-agency forum for identifying and supporting child trafficking victims.

As members of the local authority social work department we sit within the centre strategic and policy team, with a specific child protection remit. In brief, our role and function is to promote and support best practice in child protection policy and practice. This is done via policy and practice development, training and case consultation. We work in partnership with managers and practitioners from our own agency, as well as collaborating with partner agencies represented within Glasgow Child Protection Committee. We are also involved in collaborative work with academic institutions and the Scottish Government, and in relation to trafficking specifically we work closely with the Home Office (UK Visa and Immigration) and the UK Human Trafficking Centre.

In order to support the development of best practice responding to research and new trends in the area of child protection, it is vital that we keep up to date with current research and developments both nationally and internationally. Our commitment and experience of child trafficking has developed considerably since 2006. At the outset, although vaguely aware of child trafficking, our experience was limited and we forged a working partnership with the London Safeguarding Children's Board (LSCB), recognising their experience in this field. In partnership with LSCB we developed a risk assessment tool for child trafficking.