Modern Slavery

How to use this book

Modern slavery rarely arrives labelled. It may first look like a bad job, a housing problem, a child going missing, an assault, a charge sheet, an immigration worry, or a person who cannot speak freely.

This book is for the people who meet those situations in ordinary work: social workers, police and custody staff, teachers and youth workers, housing and hostel teams, advocates, interpreters, employers, commissioners and clinicians.

This is a working reference. It is designed to help you recognise control and exploitation, distinguish modern slavery from neighbouring harms, have safer conversations, make a useful record, choose the right safeguarding route and plan what happens next.

The legal categories matter. Slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour and human trafficking are related, but they are not interchangeable. Movement across a border is not required. A British passport tells you nothing either way.

You do not need to decide the criminal case before you act. A credible concern can justify privacy, careful recording, advice and proportionate safeguarding. That is not the same as making a formal Reasonable Grounds decision under the National Referral Mechanism.

Adults and children do not follow the same route, and the four UK jurisdictions are not operationally identical. The book flags those differences and gives the controlling sources. Where a live process has changed, use the current official route.

From a working edition. The final published text may differ.