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Our Strategy and Objectives

Under the 4 P Objectives,10 overarching outcomes have been identified for the 5-year Strategy.

To deliver on our commitment to identify Modern Slavery, where it may exist in Bexley, and work in partnership to understand and tackle it, the Modern Slavery Working Group will produce an Action Plan with key aims, actions and indicators to achieve them. This can be found in the Bexley Modern Slavery Toolkit and will be updated annually.

Our objectives and outcomes are:

1. Prepare: to identify victims or potential victims

To raise awareness of Modern Slavery to spot the signs and to give residents and professionals the confidence to act, even when you are not deemed a First Responder but have concerns.

  • To ensure all frontline staff are aware of the Modern Slavery and Exploitation Strategy and Toolkit
  • To ensure all staff have completed mandatory training and been encouraged to complete advanced training
  • To ensure all Safer Neighbourhood Team Officers and School Officers have attended Level 2 training sessions
  • To ensure Modern Slavery and Exploitation is understood and overseen by statutory boards

Outcome

All partners and community stakeholders will have a clear understanding of modern slavery, human trafficking, and exploitation, what risk looks like and what we can do to make a difference so that services are designed to have the most impact.

Statutory boards will ensure partners are delivering against their duties and that goals are being met.

2. Prevent: to disrupt and prevent exploitation or further exploitation

To understand our local context and build strong partnerships and a cross-sector understanding of our local profile, identify themes and work together, share information, protect vulnerable people, and prosecute perpetrators.

  • To raise awareness of the issues of modern slavery in Bexley through annual awareness campaigns
  • To ensure procurement systems and processes identify and challenge exploitation in supply chains and commissioned services
  • To engage our community and raise awareness of what modern slavery looks like and how to report concerns

Outcome

All partners and community stakeholders will have a clear understanding of disruption powers, referral and recording processes, and their roles in tackling modern slavery, to intervene as soon as risks are identified.

The Bexley community will feel confident identifying risks, and reporting them to safeguarding agencies for intervention and disruption.

3. Protect: to support victims and survivors of modern slavery

To ensure frontline staff have the tools, resources, and guidance available to them to meet our duty to notify and to make referrals to the National Referral Mechanism and to fulfil other duties we have as a local authority First Responder in interviewing potential victims and providing support, such as housing.

  • To ensure recording of modern slavery is clear on Council systems
  • To ensure referral pathways are continuously reviewed and clearly defined
  • To ensure victim’s voices are heard
  • To ensure each relevant partner is leading on the delivery of their duties

Outcome

Victim’s voices are heard, and needs are met in a trauma-informed, person-centred way. Support is efficient and consistent, following referral pathways and recording information clearly on systems, and sharing relevant information with partners.

4. Pursue: to bring exploiters to justice

To understand our role in listening, encouraging and empowering victims and survivors to provide evidence to police and the courts to prosecute perpetrators, and prevent re-exploitation.

  • To ensure data and analysis of modern slavery in Bexley is shared and understood by partners 
  • To work in partnership to carry out enforcement activities
  • To ensure all partners are trained on best practice engaging with victims and perpetrators

Outcome

Perpetrators of modern slavery, human trafficking and exploitation will be identified, their activities disrupted, and they will be held accountable for their actions. Locations of concern will be identified and strategies for improvement in the environmental and community impacts put in place.