Cabinet agreed to –

1.    Note the progress made on the Ten Commitments;

2.    Approve the updated Modern Slavery Statement;

3.    Agree the new Modern Slavery Policy and overarching principles;

4.    Note the Action Plan for 2021-22.

5.    Circulate the Modern Slavery Policy to all members

Councillor Mrs Vivien Pengelly (Cabinet Member for Homes and Communities) presented the Modern Slavery Update 2021 to Cabinet –

(a)   Thankfully, we have a low prevalence of modern slavery and trafficking in the city, but we must not be complacent and need to continue our efforts to address this issue and protect those most vulnerable from becoming victims;

(b)  We have a statutory duty to publish a Modern Slavery Statement every year which sets out our progress in addressing modern slavery in our supply chains and also tackling incidents in the city, which we do alongside our partners, and in particular with the police;

(c)   The previous administration set the framework for how the Council deals with modern slavery through the development of the Ten Commitments Charter. Appendix B in the paper pack demonstrates the progress made against these commitments over the past year;

(d)  Building on the Charter, this administration was proposing a renewed approach to reporting and monitoring progress. Our commitment to addressing Modern Slavery would be held together through a new Policy which includes a set of overarching principles and our work will be supported and monitored through an annual action plan;

(e)   Training and development was a key area where we want to focus our efforts – we would continue to support our Procurement staff to undertake annual training in ethical procurement, ensure all our front line staff in high risk areas are appropriately trained, and want to reach out to all staff to increase awareness as part of our wider safeguarding training;

(f)    We would also be taking measures to ensure we were meeting the new requirements set out by the Home Office which were due to be enacted later this year, and have already made some changes to the way in which we have set out the Modern Slavery Statement to align with these.

Cabinet agreed to –

1.     Note the progress made on the Ten Commitments;

2.     Approve the updated Modern Slavery Statement;

3.     Agree the new Modern Slavery Policy and overarching principles;

4.     Note the Action Plan for 2021-22;

5.     Circulate the Modern Slavery Policy to all members.