Government’s Safeguarding Minister sees Justice & Care’s work on the frontline

The UK’s Safeguarding Minister, Jess Phillips, has spoken about the ‘clear passion’ of Justice & Care’s Victim Navigator Team and their desire to work with police to pursue traffickers.

She made her comments following a visit to see our groundbreaking project first hand – to help understand the impact the programme is making.  

The Minister met in Leicestershire with our CEO James Clarry, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Tatiana Gren-Jardan and members of our Victim Navigator team to learn about our work helping survivors of modern slavery to rebuild their lives and secure justice against their traffickers. 

They were also joined by our partners at Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire Police, two of many police forces that we work closely with in the fight against this crime, and the Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Unit. 

Our team was pleased to get the chance to highlight the powerful impact of our award-winning programme, which has supported over 650 survivors with highly complex needs and seen over 58 exploiters convicted, with many more in the pipeline. 

‘It was invaluable to be able to meet with Justice & Care and to be able to hear directly from their Victim Navigators. It is evident that there is a clear passion to not only help survivors in their recovery and improve their lives but to also aid the police in their response and understanding of such crimes to bring perpetrators to justice.’ Jess Phillips  

During the visit, our Navigators shared case examples from our frontline work, demonstrating the incredible strength of the survivors that we work with. The importance of partnership and how no one organisation can end this crime alone was also discussed. 

Based on our own research, there are thought to be more than 100,000 victims of human trafficking in the UK. Our Navigator programme was created after it was found that low engagement from survivors was a major reason as to why so few prosecutions are successful in the UK. 

Navigators are deployed into the heart of many police forces across the UK to support survivors to engage with the criminal justice process and assist the police with specialist knowledge during investigations.  

They also help survivors to rebuild their lives by providing specialist support, including with food, housing, healthcare, repatriations, access to counselling, finding jobs and helping them fight for compensation. 

More than 90% of survivors who are being supported by a Navigator engage with the criminal justice process – compared to 44% without.   

Detective Superintendent Ganash Thayanity, from the East Midlands Specialist Operations Unit, said it was a privilege to be at the meeting and talk about the impact the Navigators have on investigations, ‘Their compassion, dedication, and determination are humbling. We can only address this horrendous problem by standing and working together as professionals, partnerships, and communities. It can never be OK for the value of a person to be reduced to a commodity, service, or “thing” to be exploited. To anyone living in circumstances like this, or to anyone that knows about who and where these crimes are happening – we are ready to see you, hear you, and can help.’ 

James Clarry, Justice & Care’s CEO, said he was so thankful for being able to demonstrate the importance of the project to the Minister ‘I was extremely proud to host Jess Phillips MP with our partners and introduce her to the most brilliant Victim Navigators. They are transforming the lives of survivors daily, ensuring they get the support they need, while traffickers are being sent behind bars. The endorsement from our police colleagues showed the true spirit of partnership which makes this programme unique and effective.’