Meeting documents

BCC Cabinet
Monday, 23rd April, 2018 10.30 am

  • Meeting of Cabinet, Monday 23rd April 2018 10.30 am (Item 9.)

For Cabinet to consider report and recommendations

Minutes:

Mr S Lambert, Member of the Transport, Economy and Environment Select Committee, Chairman of the inquiry attended the meeting to present the report.  During discussion key points were highlighted as follows:

  • The inquiry examined the implications of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 ("the Act") for local authorities and the steps the Council should take in order to comply with its duties under the Act.
  • The report had been discussed at length at the Cabinet meeting in March and the report set out eight recommendations for Cabinet to consider
  • The key role of tackling modern slavery were how to identify and support victims
  • A new pilot victim support service delivered by RAHAB had been set up and was being funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner
  • 2,500 cases currently identified in the Thames Valley area, but there was still difficulty in identifying the true number of victims

 

Members raised and discussed the following points:

  • Thanks was given to the Chairman of the Select Committee Mr D Carroll, Members of the Committee and Ms K Wager, Committee and Governance Advisor for their hard work on such a significant and important inquiry
  • Concerns were raised about funding of the over the two year strategy and what would happen once this funding was withdrawn and if there would then be a financial pressure on the County Council.  Mr Lambert confirmed that the funding was from the Police and Crime Commissioner and that the County Councils role was to signpost to support available.  Mr Lambert also confirmed that Buckinghamshire County Council were leading the way in their response to the duties put upon them by the Modern Slavery Act 2015
  • Concerns were discussed in relation to the number of victims identified rising over the coming years and the need for this to monitored closely and reviewed as part of the six month update coming back to Cabinet
  • Members discussed the areas the pilot scheme covered and Mr Lambert confirmed that Buckinghamshire and Berkshire will share the victim service with Oxfordshire deciding not to commission the service
  • Mr Lambert confirmed that the service delivered by RAHAB would help to identify the true impact of Modern Slavery in Bucks.

 

Mr N Brown Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health made reference to the Cabinet responses to the recommendations and are appended to these minutes.  Mr Brown also put on record his thanks to Mrs C Marriot who had initiated the project before leaving the organisation.

 

RESOLVED: Cabinet AGREED the recommendations as follows:

 

Recommendation

Agreed

Yes/No

1.    That the Council prepares a statement on anti-slavery and human trafficking which should be published on the Council’s website and reviewed annually.

 

Yes

2.    That Business Unit Plans should explicitly identify any potential risk of slavery and human trafficking and the steps that will be taken to manage that risk.

 

Partially

3.    That the Council should develop a training strategy for modern slavery and roll out training across the organisation. The strategy should:

 

•      Identify who should be trained, for whom training should be mandatory and what the training needs are (e.g. first responder, frontline staff)

•      Prioritise training for frontline staff in safeguarding teams and first responders.

•      Identify the best approach to training (e.g. face to face, online, e-learning, awareness campaigns).

•      Identify other key stakeholders/partners who should receive the training (the Committee’s further inquiry work may inform this).

 

Partially

4.    That an internal awareness raising campaign for all Members and Council staff be initiated imminently, using resources available to local authorities on the government website.

 

Yes

5.    That the Council should introduce a clear process and guidance for completing the national referral mechanism form and notification of potential victims of modern slavery form MS1. This guidance and links to the referral forms should be accessible on the Council’s website.

 

Yes

6.    We recommend that the Council should agree an appropriate approach to designated single points of contact for modern slavery and first responders across the whole of the Council. First responders should receive mandatory training on their role and the process for completing the NRM referral process.

 

Yes

7.    We recommend that an agreed data collection process should be introduced to record internally, the referrals made to and by the Council. Dedicated lead officers/first responders should be responsible for collecting this data, which should be collated centrally by adults safeguarding.

 

Yes

8.    We recommend that the pilot Victim Support service should be evaluated at 6 and 12 months and a report presented to the TEC Select Committee on the progress and outcomes of the pilot service as part of the recommendation monitoring.

Yes

 

Supporting documents: