Meeting documents

An overview of the issue of Modern Slavery, the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s Strategic Plan and the Council’s statutory responsibilities in this area.

Contributors:

Mr Martin Phillips, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health

Mrs Martha Edwards, Community Safety Co-ordinator, BCC

Ms Victoria Butler, Intelligence Development Officer – Modern Slavery, Thames Valley Police

The Chairman welcomed Mr Martin Phillips, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health, Mrs Martha Edwards, Community Safety Co-ordinator and Ms Victoria Butler, Intelligence Development Officer- Modern Slavery, Thames Valley Police to the meeting.  Mrs Edwards gave Members an overview of the issue of Modern Slavery and BCC’s duties in this area.

During the presentation and in answer to subsequent questions from Members, the following main points were noted:

·         Modern slavery was a hidden crime. In 2013, there were an estimated 10-13,000 cases in the UK.

·         The 2015 Modern Slavery Act introduced an Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner and placed a duty on local authorities to inform the Secretary of State of any possible victims of modern slavery.

·         The modern slavery issue linked with BCC’s commitment to protect the vulnerable, as set out in the Strategic Plan and with Safeguarding and the Health and Wellbeing Strategy. It was also a priority in the Safer Bucks Plan (the Community Safety Agreement for Buckinghamshire.)

·         During 2015, a Joint Protocol was developed between the Safer and Stronger Bucks Partnership Board (SSBPB), the Health and Wellbeing Board, Safeguarding Boards, the Adult and Children JET panels and the Corporate Parenting Panel.  This set out how the boards would work together and defined governance arrangements for crossover issues, such as modern slavery. It was agreed that SSBPB would take responsibility for strategic oversight of modern slavery in Buckinghamshire.  It was agreed that a copy of the joint protocol would be shared with the Committee.

Action: Community Safety Co-ordinator

·         The SSBPB had commissioned research to identify the potential number of victims in Bucks, consider what was known about offenders, victims and places, and consider multi-agency responses to the subject.

·         This would help to inform a Delivery Plan which was currently being drafted and would be presented to the SSBPB in October 2016.

·         There was a need to raise public awareness and to train frontline staff to identify possible signs of modern slavery, in order to help identify victims.  Sometimes individuals did not view themselves as victims.  A Member suggested briefing County Councillors and attending Local Area Forum meetings to highlight the issue.

·         A Member asked how the Police could protect victims if they decided to support the prosecution process.  Ms Butler explained that the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) was a way of identifying victims and removing them from the situation. It was entirely focussed on protecting and supporting victims by offering safe accommodation, counselling, access to education and benefits and advice on immigration if relevant.  Only then would the Police commence an investigation. In a recent case in Bedfordshire, 28 men were removed from a site and 15 supported the prosecution.

·         The Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner had commissioned two pilot services to support victims of Modern Slavery in Reading and Oxford.

·         Members expressed concerns that victims could suffer more if modern slavery was investigated in a piecemeal way, rather than tackling the root cause strategically at a higher level.  Mrs Edwards agreed that some forms of exploitation needed to be looked at more widely particularly in relation to Serious Organised Crime, and work was already being initiated in this area.

·         The Cabinet Member commented that it was very hard to know how prevalent modern slavery could be locally and although BCC now had a duty to identify victims, there was no funding from Government to support this.  Partnership working was vitally important.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member, Mrs Edwards and Ms Butler for attending the meeting and requested a further update in six months’ time.

ACTION: Committee and Governance Adviser