Our team

Staff

Batseba Asefaw — Youth Coordinator
Diana Repcenko — Finance Officer
Laura Durán — Senior Policy and Research Officer
Lois Fallon — Fundraising Officer
Patricia Durr — CEO
Phil Spencer — Training and Practice Officer
Sinead Geoghegan — Communications and Media Manager
Temitope Adekoya — Youth Programme Assistant

To contact a member of the team, email [email protected] or call 020 7607 2136

For press enquiries, contact Sinead on [email protected] or 020 3903 4630
For training enquiries contact [email protected]
For youth group enquiries contact [email protected]

Trustees

Photo of Liz Barratt

Liz Barratt, Chair of the Board of Trustees

Liz is the Joint Head of Immigration at Bindmans and has acted in many cases involving children who are unaccompanied and trafficked as well as for looked after children. Prior to qualifying as a solicitor, Liz worked in the voluntary sector as a housing adviser and as a refuge worker for Women’s Aid.

Liz is also a former trustee and Chair of the Trustee Board for the charity Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID). Liz has acted in several high profile cases involving unaccompanied and trafficked children, and her work on the application of the Dublin Regulation led to a change in the law and Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year 2012:

MA and BT v SSHD C-648/11 relating to the application of the Dublin Regulation to unaccompanied children, which clarified the law in this area
R (on the application of SA) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] EWHC 1611 (Admin) in relation to the application of good character requirements for registration of children as British citizens

Annabel Mullin, Trustee

Annabel is Principal Consultant at OneFifty, a specialist consultancy in digital communications, and focuses on supporting clients work in Sustainability and ESG. She has many year’s experience running political campaigns and is co-founder of politically-oriented organisations Stand for Something and Advance Together, as well as co-leading the organisation Renew.

Annabel is also on the supplementary magistrate list and sat for nine years at the Central London Bench including the Old Bailey. Before this she worked in financial analysis in the City, with the NHS to rehabilitate and reintegrate offenders with severe mental illness, and as a Met police officer. Annabel is currently completing her ESRC Funded PhD at UCL using life course data to understand criminal propensity and guiding policy to reduce offending.

Deveena Sahota, Trustee

Deveena is a Young Women’s Practitioner at the organisation Abianda and has been advocating for young people at risk of exploitation for 10 years in roles across the charity sector. Deveena has supported organisations in the development of their approaches to participation, equalities work and thinking intersectionally.

Deveena has worked in partnership to tackle violence against women and girls and managed staff across three London boroughs in the delivery of a specialist project tackling child sexual exploitation. At Abianda, Deveena provides support to young women who have been exploited, providing 1:1 support and advocacy.

Geoff Corre, Trustee

Geoff is a social worker, trainer, consultant in countering trafficking and modern slavery and an accredited serious case review author. He wrote the first serious case review into the death of a child believed to have been trafficked from Vietnam to the UK and conducted a major local review of child sexual exploitation. Geoff was a trustee and Chair of the Board of Trustees for the National Working Group on Child Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking.

Geoff has extensive experience in child protection as a provider, commissioner and regulator. He has acted as Head of Child Protection for a large county council and managed a multi-agency safeguarding hub. As an HMI, he has inspected child protection services in local authorities and police forces for Ofsted and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary. Geoff is a member of Locate International’s advisory board and a trustee with the Peace Hospice in Watford.

Ian Hanham, Outgoing Chair of the Board of Trustees

Ian is Director of Finance and Information Systems at The Nuffield Foundation. He has been a member of ECPAT UK’s Board for a decade, with numerous years leading oversight of the charity as Chair.

Ian is also a Trustee of the charities Family for Every Child and Kindled Spirit. He has many years’ experience in financial and operations leadership roles at organisations including Water Aid, the Workers’ Educational Association, EveryChild and the British Red Cross.

Keith Richards, Outgoing Trustee

Keith is a barrister, arbitrator and accredited mediator. He has served as an independent member and non-executive director on regulatory bodies in a variety of sectors and specialises in professional / industry self-regulation, equality and inclusion, consumer rights, and alternative redress. He set up the Consumer Panel at the Civil Aviation Authority and served as its Chair for six years until 2017.

He is currently a Board Member and equalities lead at the consumer watchdog Transport Focus, Chair of the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) at the DfT, and an independent member of the General Chiropractic Council. Keith is a Panel Member at the Competition and Markets Authority and a member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). For many years he was Director of Consumer Affairs at ABTA – the Travel Association where he led the industry’s work on issues around accessibility and child protection.

Nicky Guy, Trustee

Dr Nicky Guy is the Deputy Director for Culture and Sport at the Welsh Government. She joined the Board in 2016 having previously been the Head of Vulnerability, including child trafficking and missing people, at the Home Office.

Nicky has undertaken a range of Civil Service roles, focusing on culture, heritage and support of vulnerable people. She has a strong interest in south eastern Europe, especially Albania and Kosova, following her PhD and book on Albanian independence.

Renata de Groot, Trustee

Renata is Head of Enabling and Delivery at Oxfam and has over ten years’ experience in the charity sector, with particular expertise in international development and fundraising. At Oxfam, Renata has developed strategy, managed operational teams and designed ways of working, as well as delivering fundraising and communications.

Renata has also worked with Hope and Homes for Children in the UK as well as a local child protection charity in the Philippines, and has a strong commitment to supporting organisations to develop feminist, anti-racist and safe practice.

Latest

Nationality and Borders Bill: Second Reading Briefing

The government's Nationality and Borders Bill includes measures that will impact all child victims of trafficking in the UK as well as all children and young people subject to immigration control. The bill reforms modern slavery legislation; extensively changing the system for identifying, protecting and supporting victims of trafficking. In this briefing, we analyse measures in the bill and set out our concerns about how they will affect all at risk children and child victims of trafficking.
Statement on the Nationality and Borders Bill

The government’s new nationality and borders bill will significantly impact children’s rights to protection and leave them at risk of dangerous journeys, trafficking and criminalisation. The legislation does not just contain measures on immigration which fail to protect those in need of safety but also makes extensive changes to the identification, protection and support of victims of trafficking and modern slavery, which is not an immigration matter.
Northern Ireland bill to provide greater protections to child victims of sexual exploitation online

Today, Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly Member Naomi Long has introduced a new bill aiming to improve services for victims of trafficking and exploitation and enhance public safety by updating laws on child sexual offences. ECPAT UK welcomes The Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Bill, which contains a number of provisions to strengthen the response to child sexual exploitation.
Webinars and events

Watch our free webinars and events on child trafficking and the issues facing survivors in the UK.

About us

ECPAT UK is a leading children's rights organisation working to protect children from child trafficking and transnational child exploitation. We support children everywhere to uphold their rights and to live a life free from abuse and exploitation.
Our approach

We take a rights-based approach, centring every child’s fundamental human right to be protected from trafficking and exploitation as outlined in national legislation and the European and international legal framework. Our work is child-centred and guided by the meaningful and ethical participation of the young people we support.
ECPAT International

Established in 1994, ECPAT UK is the national member of ECPAT International, a global network of children's rights organisations coordinating research, advocacy and action to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
Our history

Thirty years ago, a campaign to end child sexual exploitation was launched in Thailand by a small group of concerned individuals. Thirty years later, the ECPAT campaign has evolved into a global network of dedicated civil society organisations.
Contact us

If you have an immediate concern about a child's welfare, please contact your local council's social care department, who are available 24 hours a day. For all other enquiries related to our work, contact [email protected] or call 020 7607 2136.

The Secret Gardeners: New film on child trafficking from Vietnam

The Secret Gardeners aims to inform professionals about the plight of children who are forced by organised crime gangs to grow drugs in houses across the UK but who often face criminalisation and prison.
Child trafficking statistics

The latest data on the number of victims of trafficking in the UK and worldwide.
Demand specialist support for trafficked children

In 2018 we worked with Care2 to call on the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid MP, to overhaul the current system of identification and support for victims of trafficking – the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).
Urgent action needed: Independent guardianship for all trafficked, unaccompanied and separated children

Last October, an incredible 120,535 supporters called for specialist support for all trafficked children. However, the fight is not finished. Make sure your voice is heard by contacting the Home Secretary asking him to provide guardianship for all trafficked, separated and unaccompanied children
Volunteer

ECPAT UK relies on committed volunteers to support the work that we do. Without their help, we would not be able to campaign as effectively against child exploitation.
Before the Harm is Done: Examining the UK's response to the prevention of trafficking

The UK Government is failing to protect thousands of children from exploitation by lacking a plan to prevent child trafficking, according to a new report by the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG), a coalition of twelve UK-based charities, including ECPAT UK. The report Before the Harm is Done, stresses that the UK has no specific strategy in relation to preventing trafficking in children, putting thousands of children at risk.
Our team

ECPAT UK's team has more than 30 years' experience working on issues of child trafficking, child protection, child sexual exploitation, unaccompanied children, modern slavery and more.
Heading back to harm: A study on trafficked and unaccompanied children going missing from care in the UK

Trafficked and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are going missing from UK care at an “alarmingly high” rate, according to a new study by leading charities ECPAT UK and Missing People.
Contact us

If you have an immediate concern about a child's welfare, please contact your local council's social care department, who are available 24 hours a day. For all other enquiries related to our work, contact [email protected] or call 020 7607 2136.
Still in Harm's Way: An update report on trafficked and unaccompanied children going missing from care in the UK

Following our ground-breaking 2016 research, leading charities ECPAT UK and Missing People have revisited the issue of trafficked and unaccompanied children going missing from care using 2017. Still in Harm's Way: An update report on trafficked and unaccompanied children going missing from care in the UK finds that these children are still going missing at an alarmingly high rate.