Minutes:
The Chair introduced the report which outlined the Local Government Associations (LGA’s) recent activity in relation to tackling modern slavery, accompanied by an update to the Board from the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Dame Sara Thornton DBE QPM.
The Chair invited Dame Sara to give some opening remarks. The Commissioner highlighted the following key points:
o Councils and other public authorities are under a duty to cooperate with the Commissioner, whose statutory role is to encourage good practice in – the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of slavery and human trafficking offences;
o the identification of victims of those offences.
· Her strategic plan for 2019-21 sets out the following priorities
o Improve victim care and support
o Supporting law enforcement and prosecutions
o Focusing on prevention
o Getting value from research and innovation
· There had been several developments since the Commissioner last attended the Board in September 2019. These included:
· A significant increase in council NRM referrals of child victims of modern slavery. Identification of victims by local authorities had increased over the last few years.
o In 2018, 19% of National Referral Mechanism (NRM) referrals were made by councils but by 2020, 28% of NRM referrals were made by councils - 25% of referrals for children, 2% for adults and 1% where the ages were unknown.
o For Q1-Q3 of 2021, 26% of National Referral Mechanism NRM referrals were made by councils - 23% of referrals for children, 2% for adults and 1% where the ages were unknown.
o The increase in numbers had largely come from local authorities identifying children who were victims of criminal exploitation.
· NRM decision making for children
o The Commissioner recognised it would be a new burden but had previously argued that decision making for children would be made better at local level. She was pleased that in 2021 the Home Office had commenced a year long pilot running in ten local authority areas. Early feedback shows much faster decision making.
· The Commissioner also highlighted some of the difficult issues for councils around modern slavery, specifically around support for adult victims. She noted tensions between councils and the Home Office support provider over who should provide support and emphasised that support through the national contract should not prevent anyone from receiving support they are entitled to receive locally. She noted particular issues with housing and adult social care and gave an example of where a victim had been left without support as different councils looked at whether they were required to provide this or not.
· Dame Sara noted that the Care Quality Commission is to begin looking at how councils are fulfilling their Care Act responsibilities, and encouraged authorities to look at Sheffield City Council’s trusted assessor model in housing support, local connection policies, links with The Salvation Army national support provider and Multi-Agency Case Conferences to strengthen their response.
· The Commissioner encouraged councillors individually to look at 3 issues:
o How engaged their authority is in multi-agency working.
o The level of support the authority provides at pre-, post- or non-consenting to NRM level.
o Ensuring their authorities are prepared for the extension of supply chain requirements to councils.
Following the discussion, members made the following comments:
· The importance of taking a public health approach to the issue – the Commissioner noted that she is meeting with the domestic abuse and victims commissioners to try to promulgate this approach across the public sector.
· Members commented if enough progress had been made on addressing slavery in supply chains and if there were examples of best practice. Dame Sara replied that the issue around supply chains was highly problematic both in public and private sector, which needed to be looked at much more seriously. Councils should look at high risk sectors in particular.
· Members highlighted that there were difficulties around housing as there was a lack of temporary and permanent accommodation available to local authorities due to funding ,with more needing to be done to provide specific resources. Dame Sara agreed that there was a shortage of accommodation but argued that resources were often found eventually - the system needed to make quicker decisions so that it is less damaging to victims who were often passed around different departments and agencies.
· The Chair outlined the extensive work on modern slavery within her authority and raised that youth violence, county lines and drugs were linked to modern slavery. Dame Sara replied that she agreed that county lines was a form of modern slavery as it was child criminal exploitation, which was largely linked to the high child referral numbers.
· Members expressed that in some areas it was hard to get engagement and acceptance around the issue, particularly in more rural areas. As well as highlighting that public health support was a key component in the issue but faced cuts due to pressures of the pandemic. Dame Sara responded that modern slavery was often more hidden in rural areas as there were issues around scarcity and sparsity of support. Other members provided ideas of how they had tried to raise awareness in their areas.
· More needed to be done to discourage perpetrators from taking risks. Dame Sara explained the reason why prosecution rates were low (despite there being lots of investigations) was partly due to victims being more vulnerable and not wanting to give evidence. Cases were often far more complex as they were carried out over several years, making it harder to investigate and gather evidence to convict. There was also a lack of expertise within forces across the UK, and sometimes in the degree of priority given to this.
The Chair thanked Dame Sara for joining the Board meeting and sharing her insightful presentation.
Decision:
The Board agreed the LGA’s ongoing work on modern slavery, and to support completion of the modern slavery survey with as many councils as possible.
Action:
· Officers to progress the LGA’s work on modern slavery as directed.
Supporting documents: