Welcome to our first newsletter! 

As a team, we are always exploring new ways to link in with professionals. Like us, many of you are home working and dealing with the technical joys this brings. Downloading every app and trying various virtual meeting platforms in an effort to continue ‘business as usual’. COVID19 has brought about new challenges in supporting children and young people. Despite the current issues, the exploitation and trafficking of children and young people continues. Creative methods may be required to meet needs and provide the required support. As a team, we recognise this and are seeking new ways to engage and deliver awareness in line with our role. In coming weeks, we will be reaching out to you in a number of ways, in additional to a regular newsletter; we will be offering a variety of awareness videos, interactive Q&A session and sharing useful links and resources. Watch this space! 

About our service 

The role of the Independent Child trafficking Guardianship Service (ICTGS) is outlined in section 48 of The Modern Slavery Act (2015). It provides for ICTGS to have a duty to advocate for trafficked and potentially trafficked children with in adopter sites, which are, Wales, Greater Manchester, West Midlands Combined Authorities, East Midlands, Croydon, Hampshire & the Isle of Wight. 

The Independent Child Trafficking Guardians provide direct support to trafficked and potentially trafficked children where there is no-one with parental responsibility for that child. 

The Regional Practice Coordinator (RPC) works with professionals to support them in recognising and responding to exploitation and trafficking of children where there is parental responsibility. They offer individual case consultation focusing on safeguarding within the context of exploitation, and support referrals into the National Referral Mechanism. 

Meet the RPCs 

(Cydlynydd Ymarfer Rhanbarthol) 

Bina Godhania Croydon [email protected] 07872047484 

Jo Arbenz Hampshire and Isle of Wight [email protected] 07525 800970 

Sian Humphreys Pan Wales [email protected] 07715 234488 

Laura Finnigan Greater Manchester [email protected] 07849 825141 

Jonathan Savage East Midlands [email protected] 07706 001239 

Bev Lewis West Midlands [email protected] 07925 894774 

Our 24/7 Support Line for professionals offers: : 

Advice & guidance on Indicators of Trafficking, Country specific information e.g. culture, language, customs, history of trafficking, Support to make a referral to the National Referral Mechanism, Help with the next steps of safeguarding. Call: 0800 043 4303 

The National Referral Mechanism is completed electronically here 

We recommend downloading the offline version to view the information that will be required. You will need to verify you are a 1st responder, this is done be confirming your name and the name of your organization. You will be sent an active link to submit to your email address for you to complete the form. You will have 24 hours before the link expires. 

Tip- We have found that section 3 is best completed by pasting in a pre-prepared word document, which should not contain any spaces between paragraphs or use of special characters such as £ $%&*. 

Once the form has been accepted you will be sent an acknowledgement by email and you will be able to download a copy of the NRM form for your records and save to the relevant file. 

Referral to ICTGS 

If there is an ICTG’s service in your area, then you need to send a copy of the NRM/Referral form to us via our secure email: [email protected] if you don’t have access to a secure email address please call us on 0800 043 4303 

The Modern Slavery Act 2015  Statutory Guidance for England and Wales 

Making a referral to our service 

We recommend you contact us through our 24/7 support line, details on page 2. They will usually ask you to complete the referral form. So to save yourself some time you may want to have a look, or complete beforehand. 

March 2020 saw the release of the Statutory guidance, at 167 pages long, we are preparing a precis which we hope to share in next month’s newsletter, in the meantime the guidance can be found on gov.uk. The following guidance documents are superseded by this statutory guidance: 

Guidance: Duty to Notify the Home Office of potential victims of modern slavery 

Victims of modern slavery: frontline staff guidance 

Victims of modern slavery: competent authority guidance 

Multi-Agency Assurance Panels Guidance 

Duty to Notify Guidance can be accessed here 

Disruption Toolkit 

Barnardo’s National Counter Trafficking Service has contributed to the development of the development of an exploitation disputation tool by the National Working Group (NWG). 

The aim of this toolkit is to consider options available to disrupt perpetrators, using a variety of different powers and tools, which can be used within a multi-agency approach 

The document can be accessed here 

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Bye for now, Keep Safe!