Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration presented a report updating the Cabinet on progress made against the Modern Slavery Charter adopted in May 2018 and asking it to endorse a Modern Slavery Statement.

The Cabinet Member stated that a safeguarding review of a vulnerable resident of the Borough published in 2017 highlighted the importance of raising the Council and community’s awareness and understanding of modern slavery in tackling the issue. She felt it was important for the Council to be upfront about the prevalence of modern slavery in society, including the Borough, no matter how uncomfortable this may be and to send out a strong message that it would not be tolerated in any form. The Home Office statistics stated that there were approximately 10,000 slaves in the UK and globally there were now more slaves than ever before. The nature of modern slavery was such that it was both in plain sight and hidden, for example, it could be taking place in a local car wash business. She summarised the different categories of modern slavery, listed below, highlighting that in each, debt owed by the victim to the perpetrator could further compound the situation faced by the victim and their ability to leave:

·  Labour exploitation: people in forced labour generally working long hours for no or very low pay, and usually in poor working conditions;

·  Domestic Servitude: typically involves victims working in a private family home where they are ill-treated and made to work for little or no pay;

·  Sexual exploitation (including child sexual exploitation): victims are coerced into sex work or sexually abusive situations; and 

·  Criminal exploitation: the exploitation of a person to commit a crime for someone else’s gain. A growing phenomenon was the use of children and young people to transport drugs and money between cities and rural areas by crime gangs, known as county lines.

Members felt it was important for the community to recognise the signs that modern slavery may be taking place, such as, an overcrowded house, and that ‘slavery’ was the right term to describe the situation that victims of all the above categories of slavery found themselves in. They emphasised that whilst slavery was a concern for the whole community, certain groups may be specifically targeted by criminals and therefore it was important for agencies to engage with these groups closely. 

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)   Note the Council’s progress against the Modern Slavery Charter, the structures and responsibilities within the Council for tackling Modern Slavery and some of the priorities that were being addressed in the coming months; and

(ii)  Endorse the Modern Slavery Statement as set out in Appendix 1 to the report.