Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director for Regeneration and Environment.

Recommendations:

1.    Cabinet notes the progress made to date.

2.    Cabinet agrees for the current Transparency Statement 2022/23 to remain in place in 2023/24.

Consideration was given to the report which provided the annual update in relation to the activities of the Council and its partners, in seeking to both address and prevent modern slavery. The report focussed on actions following the resolution passed by Council to adopt the Co-operative Party Charter against Modern Slavery on the 25thJuly 2018 and in-particular on actions since the last annual report presented to Cabinet on 24th January 2022.

A scrutiny spotlight review had been carried on the Council and partners response to modern slavery in Rotherham.  The review generated several recommendations which would be considered and once approved incorporated into the action plan. The Chair and members of OSMB were thanked for their work in this area.

The Safer Rotherham Partnership measured progress throughout the year.

A large part of the work associated with this was around the procurement arrangements and how the Council worked with its contractors and suppliers to ensure that modern slavery did not exist within it supply chains.  There was more work to be done going forwards, around expertise for staff, to ensure they could investigate those supply chains and understand what the information may mean in terms of the risks of modern slavery. There was also a need to educate officers and the wider public about what might constitute risk in terms of modern slavery and where to report those issues to including the support available to those victims.

Resolved: that:

1.    Cabinet noted the progress made to date.

2.    Cabinet agreed for the current Transparency Statement 2022/23 to remain in place in 2023/24.