Aisha Mugalu

For my final placement, I was based in an adult modern slavery response team in a voluntary setting. Key legislation incorporated in my tasks includes the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the Care Act 2014, the Equality Act 2010, and the Human Rights Act 1998. My role was to meet the ECAT entitlements (European Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings) of adults referred by the National Referral Mechanism with a reasonable or positive conclusive grounds decision. Their ECAT entitlements include financial support, access to healthcare and mental health support from the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC). Any service users with a positive conclusive grounds decision are assessed within 5 working days if they still have recovery needs about their modern slavery experience through a recovery needs assessment.

Key learning I have taken away from this placement include:

• The importance of trauma-informed practice when working with adult survivors of human trafficking
• The importance of multidisciplinary practice
• Effective time management strategies for daily tasks and navigating through caseload

My first placement was based in a supported housing service for 18-24-year-olds, who are Care Leavers. The service is run by Support and Progression Officers whose role is to support and measure the needs of young adults. There are also different teams embedded in the service. There is a legal team, which provides young people information about their rights, a job, education and training team, which provides young people support in educational opportunities, an activities team, which offer activities for young people to participate in and a mental wellbeing team, which provides young adults support with their mental health.

Key learning I have taken away from this placement include:

• Keeping up to date with relevant research and knowledge
• How to critically analyse and mitigate risks
• Participated in team meetings, contributing how to safeguard and needs and wellbeing of young adults