Fellowship Funding Call: Support for Children with Lived Experience of Modern Slavery (UK)

Deadline: 31-Jan-23

The Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (Modern Slavery PEC) has issued a funding call for research on assessing the impact of support for children with lived experience of modern slavery in the UK.

The Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (Modern Slavery PEC) seeks to fund a research fellow for a period of nine months.

Over the course of nine months, the Modern Slavery PEC will work with the successful research fellow to co-design a programme of work to explore the nature of modern slavery affecting children in England and Wales, as well as the impact of receiving support from Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs) on children’s outcomes. The fellowship will be undertaken in close collaboration with Barnardo’s, who are one of a small number of UK organisations who provide direct, specialist support to trafficked children and who are funded by the Home Office to run the ICTGs services across England and Wales.

The Fellowship will be awarded as a grant to the host university or Independent Research Organisation (IRO), and the Fellow will be employed by that host for the duration, retaining all the usual benefits of employment. To complement the Fellowship, the Modern Slavery PEC and Barnardo’s will offer the Fellow management, guidance and support in developing and delivering on the objectives of the Fellowship as well as offering other benefits as outlined later on in this call guidance.

Objectives

• Essential objectives:
  • Co-design and lead a flexible, dynamic programme of work to:
    • Analyse the nature of modern slavery affecting children in England and Wales with respect to available data sets.
    • Undertake quantitative and qualitative research to assess the benefits and limitations of Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs) on long-term safeguarding and protection outcomes as well as well-being/recovery indicators for trafficked children in England and Wales, exploring any patterns. This will involve a period of co-design in collaboration with the Modern Slavery PEC and close working with Barnardo’s.
    • Develop evidence-based recommendations for policymakers and practitioners about how policies and services can support the recovery of children with lived experience of modern slavery.
    • Support the Modern Slavery PEC’s engagement with specific groups of policymakers and decision-makers that it is trying to influence with its research, for example, Government officials in the Home Office and Department for Education.
    • To undertake any other reasonable duties as may be required in relation to the project as determined by the Directors of the Modern Slavery PEC.
• Desirable objectives:
  • Test a model for engaging young people with lived experience of modern slavery in the co-design and delivery of research, using participatory research methods.
  • Explore feasible approaches and undertake a comparative analysis. This analysis would consider the impact of ICTGs compared to services delivered by local authorities in England and Wales for trafficked children in areas without ICTGs, looking at long-term safeguarding and protection outcomes as well as indicators of well-being/recovery.

Benefits

• The successful research fellow will benefit from working with both the core Modern Slavery PEC team and Barnardo’s during the course of their work. Benefits include:
  • Undertaking cutting edge research to further policy developments in the protection of children from modern slavery
  • Access to new and novel data
  • Dedicated policy, partnership and communications support, giving the successful applicant an opportunity to expand their professional networks and further develop their impactrelated skills
  • A better understanding of how government and support services work in this field, and how research can produce real life impact
  • Ability to build your network, becoming part of the Modern Slavery PEC’s network of networks
  • Opportunity to develop a range of outputs with dedicated support
  • Opportunity to take part in researcher workshops run by the Modern Slavery PEC for funded projects.

Funding Information

• A maximum budget of £100k at 100% full economic cost (FEC), to be funded at standard UKRI rates, is allocated for this fellowship, with rates of pay detailed. The Modern Slavery PEC expects to fund one fellowship for this work, but joint applications on a job-share basis are permitted for this funding opportunity (see call document for full details).

Phases of work

• The research fellow(s) will work closely with the Modern Slavery PEC and Barnardo’s over three distinct phases of work: operational setup and co-design of methods, carrying out of research activities and collaboration on outputs, dissemination and policy impact. To do this, the fellow(s) will:
  • Scope and lead on research activities including quantitative and qualitative analysis of data
  • Work closely with the Modern Slavery PEC and any collaborating organisations
  • Collaborate with the Modern Slavery PEC on relevant policy impact and communications activities.

Eligibility Criteria

• The successful fellow must be based at either a UK higher education institution or an approved research organisation eligible to receive UKRI funding. This opportunity is open to early to midcareer academics who hold a PhD or equivalent research experience. As well as relevant subject matter or methodological expertise, experience of working in a policy context is beneficial. See person specification for more information.
• The fellow will work alongside the Modern Slavery PEC and Barnardo’s to ensure the aims and objectives of the fellowship are met, and that outputs are delivered on time and within budget. The fellow will be the main point of contact with Barnardo’s for the purposes of this research, therefore applicants must be able to work with Barnardo’s.
• The quantitative data analysis required to meet objectives A and B are conditional on securing a data sharing agreement with Barnardo’s and the Home Office who are joint data controllers for data generated through the ICTGs service. The data sharing agreement will cover the one-way sharing of the data from the Home Office and Barnardo’s to the research project. Should the data sharing agreement not be possible, the Modern Slavery PEC will work in collaboration with the successful fellow(s) to agree alternative objectives.

For more information, visit Modern Slavery PEC.