We did some exciting work with the Scottish Government Trafficking Team to involve people with lived experience in the development of their new Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy.

In October 2024 they consulted the modern slavery Scotland and Northern Ireland lived experience advisory panel (LEAP) about their plans to take a public health approach to trafficking and exploitation. This means more focus on prevention, and taking a collaborative approach, based on the data. The LEAP agreed this approach made sense.

In January 2025 we arranged an in-person focus group with the Scottish Government trafficking team in Glasgow. The trafficking team also wanted to hear from non-LEAP clients and I am very grateful to Migrant Help’s Trafficking and Exploitation Survivors’ Service team for mobilising at short notice and recruiting some of their clients! They also booked a Vietnamese interpreter so that we could involve two clients who didn’t speak English. This is part of our increased efforts to hear from a wider group of clients across the organisation.

Unfortunately, the first booking was thwarted by the notorious Scottish weather, with a storm preventing travel. However, the focus group was hurriedly re-booked and took place in early February with 2 LEAP members and 4 non-LEAP clients taking part. Unfortunately, not everyone could make the new time but the trafficking team then had two 1:1 sessions with LEAP members who couldn’t attend so 8 clients took part in total.

The Scottish Government asked for feedback on the vision of the strategy, the principles under-pinning it and the outcomes it hopes to achieve. They also asked how they can make sure they are involving survivors in a more organised and regular way to see if they are achieving the outcomes set out in the new strategy.  

The trafficking team said, ‘we very much appreciated the inputs and time that the survivors were able to share with us. We were able to benefit from some very interesting points raised by the participants during the session.’ They committed to involving the LEAP in their delivery plan for the strategy, which was great to hear. We look forward to continuing work with the Scottish Government to ensure survivors influence the delivery of the strategy and help monitor progress against the outcomes.

The Scottish Government shared the final draft strategy with us, which we discussed at the LEAP meeting in March. Feedback from the group included that they hope they can see the changes informed by the LEAP so that we can see the impact of our involvement. They also said it was great that ‘victim/survivor-informed’ is included in the principles and asked if it could be mentioned in the outcomes.

Safinatu, one of the LEAP members who took part said, ‘I felt amazing representing Migrant Help as a LEAP member. I am very passionate about it. Words cannot express my feeling. I really appreciate Gordon for giving LEAP members the opportunity. It meant that the Scottish Government acknowledges our input. I was very delighted and am looking forward to the feedback.

‘One of the discussions we had that took my attention was about the Scottish Government having LEAP members from different organisations to come together as a LEAP set up by the Government to contribute in the policy development of the trafficking department. That made me feel so good. I hope it can be put into action.’ 

Link to the published strategy.

Gemma Humphrey, Co-production Co-ordinator