Patricia DurrSector leader

Biography

Patricia Durr has been Chief Executive Officer of ECPAT UK, the leading UK children's rights charity working to protect children from trafficking and transnational exploitation, since April 2020. She has over 25 years of public service in the social justice, safeguarding and child rights sectors, leading rights-based campaigning, advocacy and policy work. Before joining ECPAT UK she worked at the charity One Small Thing on justice-system reform, and prior to that contributed to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse's investigation into the Anglican Church. She has also managed safeguarding boards for the London Borough of Haringey and led external affairs at The Children's Society, where she contributed to coalitions that secured the Children Act 2004. She is publicly known for arguing that identifying trafficking victims is a safeguarding matter requiring a child protection response, and for holding central and local government to account — including through successful High Court proceedings — over their duties to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children under the Children Act 1989.

References

1. 1.ECPAT UK announces new Chief Executive | ECPAT UK — Confirms Patricia Durr's appointment as Chief Executive from April 2020 and her 25+ years' experience in social justice and child rights
2. 2.Patricia Durr, Chief Executive, ECPAT UK | Children England — Details her prior roles at One Small Thing, the IICSA Anglican Church investigation, Haringey safeguarding boards, METRO, and The Children's Society including her work on the Children Act 2004
3. 3.ECPAT UK | Freshfields — Documents Durr's public statements and ECPAT UK's role in the landmark High Court proceedings on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and the Children Act 1989
4. 4.Modern Slavery Victims have been Pawns in Government's Anti-Asylum Seeker Campaigns | Byline Times — Quotes Durr arguing child trafficking identification is a safeguarding matter and records the government concession on children's trafficking notices in the Nationality and Borders Act
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Expertise

Cited on

• Adult social care & reform

Stated areas of expertise

• Child trafficking and modern slavery
• Child safeguarding and protection
• Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children
• Children's rights and legal reform
• Trauma-informed practice
• Child exploitation policy

Notable achievements

• Led ECPAT UK as an intervening party in landmark High Court proceedings against the Home Secretary and Kent County Council, resulting in a judgment affirming that neither central nor local government can depart from statutory child welfare duties under the Children Act 1989 for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Source ↗
• Secured a government concession during passage of the Nationality and Borders Bill ensuring that child trafficking victims would not be penalised for missing deadlines in disclosing trauma under the Act's new 'trafficking notices'. Source ↗
• Provided a witness statement to the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry on behalf of ECPAT UK, dated August 2025, concerning the impact of the pandemic on trafficked and exploited children. Source ↗

What they’ve said

• “Once a child does go missing, the risk that they are being exploited increases significantly and they are certainly more vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking.”

  Chief Executive of Every Child Protected Against Trafficking UK · Adult social care & reform · 27 Aug 2026 · More than 50 child asylum seekers still missing after disappearing from Kent care ↗

• “This report highlights the risk trafficked and unaccompanied children face. It remains challenging to understand why these children continue to be failed. They are consistently let down by the systems meant to support them, whilst being punished by policies that exacerbate the problem and used by a political rhetoric that seeks to create division.”

  Chief Executive of ECPAT UK · Adult social care & reform · 27 Aug 2026 · More than 2,000 trafficked children and lone child asylum seekers missing from UK councils’ care ↗

Source references

1. More than 50 child asylum seekers still missing after disappearing from Kent caretheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
2. More than 2,000 trafficked children and lone child asylum seekers missing from UK councils’ caretheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Contact & links

• Websitehttps://www.ecpat.org.uk
• Staff pagehttps://www.ecpat.org.uk/our-team
• LinkedInhttps://uk.linkedin.com/in/patricia-durr-21559016published here ↗
• Press office emailinfo@ecpat.org.ukpublished here ↗

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.