What we will do
The Council will continue to seek to increase the number of Modern Slavery referrals through the National Referral Mechanism. This is also a priority for the Safer Rotherham Partnership (statutory multi-agency Community Safety Partnership for Rotherham under the Crime & Disorder Act 1998)
The Council will continue to offer both generic and specialist training and will continue to support this with regular efforts to raise awareness both online, through social media and within its teams. The Council and its partners will also seek to raise awareness within communities, both about how to spot the signs and hoe and where to report.
The Council will continue to combat modern slavery by working in partnership and providing mutual support between departments and agencies.
The Council will continue to ensure that sound processes and procedures are in place to help identify and support potential victims of modern slavery, including staff having sufficient knowledge to be able to effectively deal with reports, incidents and issues raised.
The Council will work to further improve the gathering and sharing of modern slavery intelligence and information with its partners that may help to disrupt perpetrators and assist with bringing them to justice. This will be monitored through the Councils Modern Slavery Steering Group and the wider SRP, Community Safety Partnership.
The Council will work with its partner agencies to map the local modern slavery landscape to identify high risk industries and ‘hot spots’.
The Council will work with its partner agencies to review and improve how young adults at risk of experiencing modern slavery are safeguarded during the transition from children to adult services and are age assessed appropriately.
The Council will continue to support its contract managers, procurement officers and commissioning staff to develop their awareness and understanding in relation to modern slavery and human trafficking. We will also continue to ensure active scrutiny of tenders that appear to be abnormally low in price and in particular will focus on contracts within high-risk industries.
The Council will continue to monitor contractual spend through the Transparency in Supply Chains organization, (https://tiscreport.org/) and work with suppliers who have not yet demonstrated compliance to encourage greater engagement with Modern Slavery issues and responses.
This statement should be read in conjunction with the Modern Slavery Act 20151 and the National Referral Mechanism2.