Our Work to Date

The Council has been committed to tackling modern slavery in line with our 2023 to 2028 Modern Slavery and Exploitation Strategy. This included:

We have developed public communications, tools, and resources to raise awareness of modern slavery, human trafficking, and child exploitation. The London Borough of Bexley ran and attended several community outreach programmes to promote awareness of Modern Slavery, including an Anti-Slavery Conference Day with the Salvation Army. A total of 200 individuals attended these events throughout the year, enabling Bexley to promote awareness of Modern Slavery to a widespread audience. 

We have expanded our Modern Slavery Working Group with partnership to include partners outside of the Local Authority, including statutory and voluntary partners, to ensure a holistic approach to tackling modern slavery in Bexley. Here, we share and develop information, tools, and resources. Through this partnership, we have put modern slavery on the agenda for many other agencies and organisations, and this is being more widely recognised.  

The London Borough of Bexley has joined Human Trafficking Foundation’s Buddy System pilot. The pilot was created in response to similar challenges that local authorities often face when it comes to tackling modern slavery. The aim of the pilot is to strengthen inter-borough collaboration, to share best practices, develop strategies and identify common challenges to work on collectively. We created our third Transparency-in-Supply Chains Statement (below); while not a legal requirement, we seek to embed steps into our procurement practices to deter exploitation in our supply chains and address risks where they might arise. We have HR policies and practices, such as recruitment, whistleblowing, and grievance procedures, to ensure we have responsible recruitment practices, and that no Council employee is exploited. We have developed a Risk Matrix for our commissioned care contracts, to ensure we are aware of marketplace risks based on national concerns around exploitation in the care sector. We are developing a wider risk assessment of our Council supply chain and advising staff on how to identify and mitigate risk in contracts they manage.

We require all local authority staff to undertake modern slavery training and offer more intensive training for frontline professionals in Bexley, including those who are not First Responders, to ensure a cross-sector understanding of modern slavery and confidence in all our roles and duties in tackling it. 93% have completed and passed this training. We delivered our Continuous Practical Development (CPD) accredited Adult Modern Slavery and Child Exploitation Workshops local partners to improve our understanding and actions responding to modern slavery of children and young people. In 2024 there were 25 Modern Slavery training sessions ran, with an attendance of 486 people over the year. The trainings provided were on Adult Modern Slavery; Child Exploitation; and Sexual Exploitation. 100% of participants felt that the sessions adequately covered the objectives set in the session, enabling professionals to get a better understanding of what Modern Slavery is, the signs and how to support potential victims.  

We keep updated of changing laws, policies and guidance and update our own policies and practices accordingly. We do this by participating in local, regional, and national networks and learning from best practice of other local authorities and partnerships. We report to the Bexley Community Safety Partnership quarterly on our modern slavery work to ensure oversight of delivery against the Modern Slavery and Exploitation Strategy

We are entering our third year as a pilot site for the Child National Referral Mechanism Devolved Decision-Making Panel Pilot, in which we coordinate a local panel of local authority, police and health professionals to make decisions about whether children referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) are victims of modern slavery or not. The Bexley panel has been recognised for its efficient and effective work, which in turn has informed participating professional’s understanding of the realities of modern slavery.

In 2024, we developed a free multi-agency, confidential Modern Slavery drop-in service for anyone who has concerns around exploitation or trafficking. This service runs on the third Thursday of each month, with no appointment required, allowing potential victims, professionals and concerned residents to access support and information with translators available on request. The aim of the service is to provide accessible and anonymous reporting of modern slavery, trafficking, and related concerns. The service is held at the Salvation Army on Lion’s Road in Bexleyheath, with the following core agencies represented:

• Adult Social Care
• Community Safety Team
• Department of Work and Pensions
• Housing
• Immigration
• Metropolitan Police
• The Salvation Army  

As a result of strong partnership working with the Salvation Army and Metropolitan Police, there was an effective and timely response to two multi-victim cases of Modern Slavery in 2024. Multi agency working across the two agencies with the London Borough of Bexley meant that multiple potential victims were identified, interviewed, and supported under the NRM process. Many of the potential victims were referred to the NRM and received their Positive Reasonable and Conclusive Ground Decisions. 

Through these various efforts, the London Borough of Bexley has been able to promote awareness of the signs of Modern Slavery, as well as provide crucial training to not only frontline professionals, but residents too. As a result of this work, the number of referrals for Modern Slavery victims by the London Borough of Bexley increased from 51 in 2023 to 90 referrals in 2024 (Bexley’s NRM and DtN Spreadsheet.) Whilst an increase in referrals of Modern Slavery cases may be seen as a concern, this is a positive outcome; the increase in referrals means first that we are more effective at identifying victims, and second, that that professionals are better engaging with potential victims and referring them to the right support mechanisms. We need to identify victims in order to support them. 

Areas of Focus in 2025 to 2026

Looking forward into 2025 to 2026 many of the objectives and actions are ongoing in nature and priority, but we must also adapt to new legislative changes and local developments. We will continue to deliver against the four overarching goals of Prevent, Protect, Prepare and Pursue, but will adapt our actions to reflect progress and new needs.

Our main actions this year are to:

For our five-year Strategy and Toolkit and a longer-term perspective, please refer to our Modern Slavery and Exploitation Strategy.