Guardianship Service
Since 2014 Barnardo’s National Counter Trafficking Centre has been working with the Home Office to establish the best model of guardianship for children who are trafficked or those that could be trafficked. We are passionate about finding effective long-lasting ways to support all children who are identified as being trafficked in England and Wales.
What can the ICTG Service do?
How to we work, where do we work?
The ICTG Service provides direct and indirect specialist trauma-informed support to children affected by trafficking in 2/3rds of local authority areas in England and Wales.
We work directly with children who do not have someone with parental responsibility for them in the UK. We meet children face-to-face to build trust relationships to support them through the complex systems and processes they find themselves in. We help children build a positive and safe future.
We work indirectly with children who do have someone with parental responsibility for them. We support the professionals that are making decisions about their lives through advice, guidance and professional challenge to make sure that actions for children are in their best interests at all times.
We tailor our support to children’s needs, and we listen hard to what children say to us, acting on their views and opinions.
You have been there for me from day one…in all my struggles, you were there to encourage, teach, challenge, comfort and support me. I have so much respect for you and Barnardo’s
— child giving feedback to their Guardian
The ICTG Service has been an invaluable part of the team around our young person and has increased knowledge within our fostering team of safety planning strategies, community routes to developing a sense of belonging and maintaining identity, professional roles and processes in the complex immigration system and supporting professional advocacy and challenge
— Supervising Social Worker
I could not have fostered T without the support of the ICTG Service. Unwavering support and specialist knowledge enabling young people to trust and understand their place in the world, often after severe trauma. Obviously this takes a special person and a special organisation to attempt such work, but I believe it has change the course of T (child)’s life for the better
— foster carer
If you are a young person who has been supported by the ICTG Service we’d love to hear your comments about how we did, you can let us know via this form
To help us to continuously develop and improve the support we provide, we welcome feedback from professionals about our work. If you have been supported by a member of our team and would like to share feedback, you can do so here
If you are the parent or carer (including foster carers) of a young person supported by our service and you would like to share your feedback about our work please do so via this form
