Preparing for impact: How we can overcome barriers and cultivate a culture of collaboration, understanding, and respect to achieve impact on survivor support?

PRESS RELEASE | For immediate release – Thursday 2 July 2020

Launch of the IASC review Preparing for impact – How we can overcome barriers and cultivate a culture of collaboration, understanding, and respect to achieve impact on survivor support

 The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Dame Sara Thornton, has today launched a review examining how far the evidence base on support for survivors of modern slavery is informing policy and the work of practitioners in the UK.

Seeking to build a bridge between researchers, practitioners and policymakers, the review reveals the substantial amount of academic research on support for survivors of modern slavery.

However, the review finds that research is not always informing policy and practice, impacting the evidence base and effectiveness of survivor support.

Practical recommendations for researchers, policymakers and practitioners are outlined to overcome barriers and achieve further impact from research.

This review is the result of a collaborative project between the Office of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner and the Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security Research (PaCCS).

Read the review: Preparing for impact – How we can overcome barriers and cultivate a culture of collaboration, understanding, and respect to achieve impact on survivor support

Dame Sara Thornton, Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, said:

“Survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking often have complex support needs and it is important that survivor support policy and practice is informed by evidence and research.

In my Strategic Plan 2019-2021, I outlined the importance of building bridges between research, policy and practice in order to improve our understanding of modern slavery and develop well-informed policies to best support survivors. 

The findings of this review challenge us all to reconsider the way research is undertaken, received and implemented so that we can overcome barriers and adopt a culture of collaboration which ultimately supports victims and survivors to their long-term recovery.”

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Notes to editors

• Part 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 created the role of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner. The Commissioner has a UK-wide remit to encourage good practice in the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of slavery and human trafficking offences and the identification of victims.
• The Commissioner is given an annual budget with which to appoint staff and carry out her duties. She is accountable through her strategic plan and annual reports, which the Secretary of State lays before Parliament, setting out the extent to which objectives and priorities are achieved. Her Strategic Plan 2019 – 2021 was launched in October 2019.
• Dame Sara Thornton was appointed as the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner by the Secretary of State following consultation with the Scottish Ministers and the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland. She took up post at the beginning of May 2019 and her appointment is for three years.
• Juliana Semione, the review’s author, was selected as a policy researcher with the Partnership for Conflict, Crime & Security Research to undertake this review during a placement with the Office of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner.
• The Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security Research (PaCCS) was established by Research Councils UK (now UK Research and Innovation, UKRI) in 2008 as the Global Uncertainties Programme with an aim of delivering high quality, cutting edge research to help improve our understanding of current and future global security challenges.

Enquiries

• For press/media enquiries to the Office of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, please contact the IASC Communications Officer Katherine Lawson: Katherine.lawson@iasc.independent.gov.uk and 020 3513 0477
• For general enquiries, please contact iasc@iasc.independent.gov.uk and 020 3513 0477
• For press/media enquiries to the Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security Research, please contact the Partnership’s Communications Coordinator Kate McNeil: k.mcneil@jbs.cam.ac.uk