Modern Slavery/Trafficking in Bristol:

Guidance on Referring to the National Referral Mechanism

Bristol is participating in a Home Office pilot on identifying victims of modern slavery in the South West.

From 1st November 2015 potential victims of trafficking and/or modern slavery are referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) by the local Safeguarding Slavery Leads (SSLs).

Contact an SSL if you have identified a potential victim of trafficking and /or modern slavery in Bristol. Telephone 0117 9036629 8.30 am– 5pm. Email

To refer an individual into the NRM, you will need to complete the NRM form, which is available here - along with accompanying guidance.

Adult referrals: you must explain the implications of filling in the NRM form to the potential victim, and they must be asked if they consent to the form being filled out for their case. They must consent to enter the National Referral Mechanism.

Children referrals: (including where there is an age dispute but the victim is believed to be a child) they do not need to sign the consent form. It is good practice to consult the child in making the NRM referral, explaining the purpose, concerns, benefits and the possible outcomes, where appropriate.

Following consent from the potential victim / in the case of a child, the SSL will help you to complete the NRM form.Do include as much information about the case as possible, and explain why you think the individual is trafficked/a victim of modern slavery.

Send the NRM form to the SSL using the email address

The SSL then considers the case and decides whether there are ‘Reasonable Grounds’ to believe that the individual is a victim of trafficking/modern slavery. The Reasonable Grounds decision should be made as soon as practicable from the case being received by the SSL, ideally on the same working day. This will ensure that potential victims can access support quickly. The SSL will then write a short decision minute explaining their reasonable grounds decision. The SSL is responsible for ensuring that the victim is verbally informed of the decision and next steps, often via the frontline worker or they must speak to the victim themselves.

If the decision is positive, the SSL should call The Salvation Army to arrange for the potential victim to be supported, where the potential victim has requested support. Once the SSL has confirmed the positive Reasonable Grounds decision, the Salvation Army will liaise with whoever is with the front line worker to establish the potential victim’s support needs.

The SSL will send the NRM form, their decision minute and any other supporting documentation to the Case Management Unit (CMU) on the same day as the decision is made, in order for CMU to issue the Reasonable Grounds decision letter (and, where a positive decision was made, begin preparing the case for the multi-disciplinary panel. This panel will convene fortnightly to make final, ‘Conclusive Grounds’ decisions on all potential victims of trafficking/modern slavery).

For further information on modern slavery and trafficking go to:

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