Victims of modern slavery are presenting in healthcare settings and are not receiving the safeguarding and care they need.
The solution is not just about raising awareness. VITA training aims to improve identification, support and care for victims by equipping healthcare professionals to know what to do. It delivers practical, user-friendly, evidence-based guidance.
This training has been created and refined by doctors, who regularly apply the techniques and skills they teach during their own clinical practice.
1500 healthcare professionals have received VITA Training, which is now being commissioned and rolled out to thousands of NHS doctors across London and the South East
Bespoke tailored training is available for NHS Foundation Trusts, General Practices, healthcare professional trainee programmes and other health services.
Founder and CEO of VITA
NHS England Clinical Entrepreneur
Rosie is a Clinical Fellow in Emergency Medicine. She graduated with a medical degree and a BSc in Global Health from the University of Bristol. She founded VITA in 2015 and is passionate about a sustainable, evidence-based, survivor-focused healthcare response.
Rosie advised and contributed to the Home Office “Modern Slavery Act 2015 - Statutory Guidance”, is a core member of the NHS England Modern Slavery Network and is a member of the Victim Support Group of the Modern Slavery Strategy and Implementation Group shaping national support for victims. She was appointed as an NHS England Clinical Entrepreneur in September 2018.
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Research Director
Child & Family Modern Slavery Lead
Laura is a paediatrician with experience caring for children and families in challenging circumstances, including children who have experienced abuse, trauma, modern slavery and trafficking. The complex challenges involved in caring for these children and their families well led Laura into further training. She is now a researcher at Lancaster University where she has gained distinctions at postgraduate certificate and masters level in clinical and sociological research. Laura is now completing her PhD in the health response to child trafficking. Laura’s work is supporting the development of VITA’s educational material, research and academic engagement.
Strategy and Operations Director
Charlie is an anaesthetic trainee living and working in East London. Alongside clinical work, he has been involved in a number of research projects in the area of Modern Slavery and health since 2015. He has a particular interest in the interface between victims of trafficking and acute healthcare settings – in particular the training and equipping of healthcare workers in victim identification, support, and referral. His work as strategy and operations lead involves oversight of VITA's training, advocacy, and research arms; public facing leadership; and future strategic development of the organisation.
VITA Survivor Consultant
Lead for London's Survivor Alliance
Juliet is a regional leader within Survivor Alliance; a global organisation whose mission is to unite and empower survivors of human trafficking around the world to become leaders of the anti-slavery movement. Her London-based group provides an opportunity for those with lived experience to come together, support each other and share their concerns. Juliet advocates for them with the Home Office, working to action the changes that they want to see in support services delivery and national policy. Juliet is passionate about supporting other survivors and being a leading voice in the anti-trafficking sector. She plans to study Social Care at university. In July 2020, Juliet joined the VITA team as a Survivor Consultant, advising on VITA training materials for frontline healthcare professionals. She is a core member of the VITA Network committee.
Training Lead
Naomi is a learning and development specialist with 20 years’ experience designing experiential and immersive training. She has worked across the public and private sectors enabling organisations to ensure their learning provision is always practice-based and that new skills will be applied immediately. She is an expert in using a drama-based approach and the integration of actors as coaches. Naomi has worked with many Trusts and in primary healthcare settings where research into staff day-to-day experience has been key to designing simulations that reflect real life and the culture of the workplace.
Trainer
Sarah is a Paediatric Registrar currently working within a public health team in a deprived inner London borough. She has worked in various voluntary sector organisations in the UK and abroad, particularly with vulnerable migrant groups, such as detained migrants, trafficked populations, and migrants struggling to access healthcare. Sarah is currently doing a Masters in Advanced Paediatrics at UCL, researching trauma-informed care in practice for trafficked children and young people. She has and continues to research topics such as access to healthcare for migrant children in the UK. Alongside this, Sarah is a VITA Trainer, delivering training across London and the South East.
Trainer
Jill is a GP with a special interest in refugee health based in London. She qualified as GP in 2018 and since then has been working with homeless populations, asylum seekers and refugees across London. She has extensive experience working abroad in refugee camps in Jordan and Greece. In 2020, she became the lead doctor for the medical advisory service at the Helen Bamber Foundation where she helps to provide a model of integrated care to survivors of extreme human cruelty. She joined VITA as a trainer in 2019, delivering training across London and the South East.
Trainer
Hester is a psychiatry trainee currently working within a mental health trust in London. Prior to training as a doctor, Hester worked in London and Oxford as a teacher and worked closely with charitable organisations to support homeless and vulnerably housed groups in the capital. Her work in psychiatric services has brought her in to close contact with a varied UK and international client group, many of whom have survived traumatic experiences. Hester is a VITA Trainer, delivering training across London and the South East.
VITA training is evidence-based and prepares candidates for real-life encounters with victims (often by using simulated consultations). Not only will this training improve performance in appropriately managing the complex human trafficking cases who present to our services, it significantly improves communication skills overall and forces providers to reflect on how they are interacting with all of their patients.
— Specialty Registrar, Emergency Medicine
This training should be mandatory
— Consultant, Acute General Medicine
I’ve never had a session like this in 15 years. Incredibly valuable session
— Specialty Registrar, Emergency Medicine
I felt more confident dealing with (a case of a patient being identified as trafficked) following the training because I had greater understanding of the situations people who have been trafficked have to deal with; previous life situations, reasons for coming to UK and the reality of the situations they find themselves in compared to hopes and dreams they may have had, how frightened and vulnerable they must feel.
— Practice nurse, General Practice
That was absolutely the first useful session I have been to on safeguarding. I thought it was incredible. I loved the way that you used practical questions and reiterated them again and again so they stick. I feel so much more confident and I hope everyone gets the chance to do this.
— Junior Doctor, General Medicine
I have experienced plenty of compulsory online training as part of the induction process for each new hospital. Safeguarding training is always one of the tickboxes, and often fairly far back in the queue. This is completely unacceptable as an undeniably crucial skill set for frontliners is being buried under a mountain of paperwork and bureaucracy. It is wonderful to see Dr. Riley and her team tackling this issue head on by providing evidence-based and engaging training for all providers that encounter human trafficking - an issue that we should be far more aware of in the healthcare community.
— Specialty Registrar, Emergency Medicine
Taking part in VITA training changed my everyday approach to patient interaction. Dr Riley’s presentation highlighted the necessity of including safeguarding awareness in our daily work and provided tools of how to assess a patient’s situation in a safe and helpful way. More than any other safeguarding training I’ve had beforehand, VITA training enabled me to include this utterly important aspect into my patient assessment. I highly recommend it.
— Junior Doctor, Emergency Medicine
This was really great teaching. Great examples of words/phrases/tactics to use. I feel more confident in navigating situations like this. Great emphasis on empowering the patient and creating a safe space.
— Junior Doctor, General Medicine
Royal College of General Practice Annual Primary Care conference and exhibition 2017
NHS England Clinical Entrepreneur
Ross C, Dimitrova S, Howard LM, et al, 2015
International Labour Office and Walk Free Foundation in partnership with International Organization for Migration, 2017
International Organization for Migration, Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 2009
National Crime Agency, End of Year Summary 2017
For more information or to see how you can get involved, contact the VITA team.
Our new VITA Network is launching. Born from our passion to see a health and public health approach at the heart of any response to modern slavery and human trafficking. We welcome a diversity and a breadth of voices from all sectors and we’d love you to join us.
Visit VITA Network