Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment.

Recommendations:

That Cabinet:

1. Note the progress made to date.

2. Approve the Modern Slavery Transparency Statement 2025/26 and its publication on the Council’s website.

Consideration was given to the report which provided the annual update in relation to activities of the Council and its partners in seeking to both address and prevent modern slavery. The refreshed draft Modern Slavery Transparency Statement 2025/26, attached at Appendix 1 to the report, was also presented for consideration and approval prior to publication.

On 1 November 2022, the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Management

Board (OSMB) held a ‘Spotlight Review’ into the Council’s and partners responses to tackling Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Rotherham. This was supported by a wide range of partners. The findings and recommendations from the review were considered, approved, and incorporated into the current Modern Slavery Action Plan, attached to the report at Appendix 2.

The changes to the 2025/26 Modern Slavery Transparency Statement compared to the 2024/25 statement were detailed in paragraph 1.3 of the report. A range of activities had been delivered in accordance with the established action plan and these included:

·       Staff within the procurement team undertook the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPs) ethical procurement and supply training as required in the Co-op Parties Charter for modern slavery in 2018 when the charter was adopted.

·       Rotherham Safeguarding Adults Board had commissioned four ‘Trafficking and Modern Slavery’ training courses that were delivered to 48 professionals from across the partnership.

·       As part of Safeguarding Awareness Week, 18 – 22 November 2024, bespoke modern slavery training was delivered to 54 professionals from a cross section of agencies.

·       Training was also delivered to 450 members of the health service, including General Practitioners, Nurses and other medical professionals at an open learning event held on 14 November 2024 at the Magna Science Adventure Centre.

·       During October 2024, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking awareness raising information has been distributed to social landlords within the Councils Selective Licensing Scheme.

·       As a result of work with the South Yorkshire Police Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Team, reporting pathways had been further improved with the introduction of an electronic reporting template available to partners.

·       The Rotherham Safeguarding Children Partnership Manual was updated in December 2024 and now explicitly identified modern slavery and human trafficking and presented a pathway response when the risk was identified within children’s services.

·       The Council had 8 employees from across directorates who had received the necessary training to be successful in becoming modern slavery Single Point of Contact Officers (SPOCs).

Between April 2022 and December 2024, a total of 126 referrals from Rotherham were made by the Council and other First Responder Organisations to the National Referral Mechanism. All referrals were reported to the Safer Rotherham Partnership Board via the Performance Management framework.

Good progress had been made in respect of the actions within the existing action plan, with the majority of actions now fully completed. Work would now

progress through the Modern Slavery Steering Group on the development

of a revised action plan, including new, appropriate actions to enable further

progression and improvements throughout 2025/26.

The report was considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management

Board (OSMB), who advised that the recommendations be supported. OSMB had requested confirmation in relation to action 1C ‘to the public and targeted businesses such as letting agencies’ in the Modern Slavery Steering Group Action Plan, as to whether the training for taxi drivers had taken place and if not when it was scheduled for.

Resolved:

That Cabinet:

1.    Note the progress made to date.

2.    Approve the Modern Slavery Transparency Statement 2025/26 and its publication on the Council’s website.