A charity inside the investigation#
Justice & Care began in 2008 working against trafficking overseas, and still works abroad, including in Bangladesh. Its UK casework started in 2018 with the Victim Navigator programme, first alongside police in the south east of England. A Navigator belongs to the charity, not the police, but sits inside a police team with access from the very start of an investigation.
That gives Navigators two jobs. At the moment someone is found, they deal with the basics: food, warm clothes and a safe place to stay. Over the following months they stay with the survivor, helping them reach counselling, healthcare and training, keeping them informed about the case, preparing them for court and handling the practical arrangements and protection measures that go with giving evidence. The charity notes that a case can take up to two years to reach trial.
Where Navigators work, and how you meet one#
There is no self-referral and no helpline. Survivors meet a Navigator through a police investigation in a force that has one. The charity's 2025 impact report counts 12 Navigators covering about 40% of UK police forces and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, and its pages name the Metropolitan Police and Navigators in Scotland; in July 2025 it said the programme was underfunded and missing from much of the country. In 2025 it supported 292 survivors.
If you are worried about someone, or about yourself, its Spot the signs page sends you to the police (999 in an emergency) or to Unseen's Modern Slavery and Exploitation Helpline. For anything else there is a web form on the contact page. Every page has an Exit site link.
Documents, identity and the referral system#
Justice & Care publishes nothing about names. It writes about the reasons names and papers matter: its head of UK operations lists taking people's documents among the hidden ways exploiters keep control, and says many survivors struggle with their sense of identity after years of it. Getting papers back, or replacing them, is often part of recovery.
Its policy work focuses on the National Referral Mechanism, the Home Office's system for identifying victims. A positive first decision, called reasonable grounds, brings at least 30 days of support. The charity reported in July 2025 that about 60% of adults referred were being turned down at that first stage after the Home Office raised the evidence threshold in 2023.
Changing a name while you are a witness#
If you are giving evidence and want a new name for your safety, raise it with your Navigator or the officer in the case before you act, so that statements, court papers and your support all stay linked to you. The Home Office's names guidance treats vulnerable witnesses, alongside vulnerable victims of crime, as a group whose identity may be protected by separate arrangements, possibly with permission to use more than one name. The police or another accredited organisation would need to back the application.
Once a change is made, organisations will want to see why your documents differ. My name is different on my documents and proof of a new name explain what organisations accept. For help that does not depend on a police case, see Unseen.
This page describes what Justice & Care publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. Justice & Care has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
