The local authority role centres around safeguarding individuals both before and after modern slavery to protect and prevent. The London Borough of Bexley, together with partners, also seeks to encourage and empower victims to pursue and give evidence against perpetrators, and to increase awareness for everyone and training for professionals to prepare a coordinated response. Many victims do not identify themselves as victims, which makes action to help them and support them very difficult, but all-the-more important.

As a local authority, we have a duty to notify the Home Office of any individual encountered who we suspect to be a victim of modern slavery or human trafficking. By referring a suspected victim into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), the Home Office can investigate crimes further and provide the necessary support to potential victims and survivors of modern slavery.

This 5-year Strategy has been developed to set out our commitment in Bexley to identify Modern Slavery, where it may exist in our borough, and work in partnership to tackle this and ensure our staff and all partner organisations are equipped to identify and support potential victims and survivors of modern slavery effectively.