Brief history and services
The organisation Victim Support developed out of a project begun by members of the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO) in Bristol in 1972. It found that victims faced serious emotional, practical and financial problems and that no statutory agency was responsible for helping them – so the group decided to do something about it and set up the first local Victim Support group in 1974.
Other local groups were soon set up around the UK and from 1979 worked together under the umbrella of a national association. This changed in 2008 after the member charities voted to create a single charity covering the whole of England & Wales. A six-month merger programme brought together around 1,650 employees and 6,500 volunteers into Victim Support, the new national charity.
We have always been a world leader in the development of victim services, and have inspired the setting up and growth of similar organisations worldwide. We are still independent but work closely with many criminal justice agencies. We get core funding from the government, but we also have to raise funds like any other charity.
Our vision, purpose and values
Our vision is to be the world’s best charity for victims and witnesses.
Our purpose is to help people find the strength to move on after crime.
Our values are:
- Strong: helping victims and witnesses to find their inner strength
- Diverse: understanding that everyone is different and deserves to be valued for who they
are
- Welcoming: friendly and easy to approach
- Straightforward: doing what we say
- Excellent: achieving the best results and continuously improving
- Ambitious: aiming high and looking to the future
You can find out much more about our vision, purpose and values in our Corporate strategy document for 2011-15.
Our objectives
Our corporate strategy also sets out six clear objectives for the period 2011-15. Full details are in the booklet. But they are:
- Victims and witnesses will know they can always turn to us for help.
- We will work with others to help victims and witnesses.
- Victim and witnesses will value the excellence of our volunteers and staff.
- We will make every penny count as we strengthen our funding base.
- Our services will meet local need, drawing on national strength.
- We will speak up strongly for victims and witnesses.
Our services
Our services for victims and witnesses are free and confidential. We give information, practical help and emotional support to anyone who has experienced crime, and to their families and friends.
We provide this service to well over a million people every year, whether or not the crime has been reported, working in partnership with criminal justice and other voluntary agencies.
We have a network of local offices across England and Wales that run and co-ordinate our local services. Both employees and trained volunteers are involved in giving support – with volunteers outnumbering staff by over four to one, operating within 4 ‘localities’.
We also run the Witness Service to help people who have to give evidence in a criminal court, as well as their families. This operates in every criminal court in England and Wales, as well as the Courts Martial. We help around 375,000 in this way each year, before during and after a trial.
Our national telephone service, the Victim Supportline, gives support and information, as well as referring callers to our local teams and to other agencies. It deals with around 12,000 calls a year.
Our office in central London is the administrative, management and leadership hub of Victim Support. A number of the charity’s functions are based here, including national policy development, fundraising, campaigning and liaison with the national media.
As well as providing services, we are a national voice for victims and witnesses. We campaign for greater awareness of the effects of crime and to increase their rights.
We have also pioneered services for victims and witnesses across the country, for example enhanced and more responsive front-line services, new specifications for helping young victims of crime, and enhanced guidelines for domestic violence. In 2010 we set up the world’s first dedicated support service for people bereaved through homicide.
Our Chief Executive is Mark Castle, who joined the organisation in 2014. He reports to a 12-strong, independent Board of Trustees. Our President is HRH the Princess Royal.
Find out more about us and our work on our website at