Richard James works within the Barnardo’s Independent Child Trafficking Guardianship (ICTG) Service, which sits within Barnardo’s National Counter Trafficking Centre (NCTC). ICTG is the statutory support service for children who are potentially victims of trafficking within England and Wales, pursuant to s.48 Modern Slavery Act 2015.

 After completing his law degree, Richard worked in dispute resolution within the legal sector for several years before moving into policing and eventually joining the ICTG service as a frontline worker in 2017. Within his role as an ICTG Richard gained significant experience of working with asylum seeking and refugee children who were victims of trafficking. As well as having been being a frontline worker, Richard has been a manager for ICTG in Wales and is currently the ICTG Service Devolved National Referral Mechanism (NRM) Lead. Richard’s specific areas of specialism are age assessment, the non-prosecution of victims of trafficking, and the NRM.

Richard also joined Asylum Justice as a Trustee Board Member in 2024