Modern Slavery Act 2015 Transparency Statement 2025

Staff Training

Home Office First Responder Training is completed by Community Safety Officers and the Safeguarding Officer on an annual basis, for next year this will be expanded to include First Call Officers (FCOs) as they are able to support victims outside of normal working hours. This training will be delivered by Migrant Help UK.

The CAMS modern slavery and human trafficking training will be delivered to staff across the organisation on an ongoing basis focusing on service areas where staff have an increased chance of encountering modern slavery. Colleagues in Colchester Borough Homes (CBH) the council’s arm’s length management organisation (ALMO) will also receive CAMs training in May 2025..

The new packages for mandatory safeguarding training on Learning Pool are being further developed, with additional training opportunities being identified for wider learning surrounding a variety of topics including modern slavery. In addition to this, and in order to meet the needs of colleagues, operational requirements and access in some council services, an ‘Introduction to Safeguarding’ video course has been created. The delivery of this course is ongoing.

Designated Safeguarding Officers are to receive refresher training in 2025/26 which includes the topic of modern slavery. This year they will be undertaking an Ofqual regulated award via Nuco Ltd.

Safeguarding Training includes links to Modern Slavery resources such as GLAA videos on spotting the signs of modern slavery.  We will review these throughout the year to ensure they remain up to date and add any new resources as they become available.

An e-learning course for Procurement Team and Staff who commission goods/services was launched in May 2021 ‘Protecting Human Rights in the Supply Chain (Modern Slavery)’. 46 staff members who work in procurement/hold budgets have since passed this training. This course has been reviewed and included in our suite of learning on our Learning Management System.

In October 2025 a staff survey will be conducted to assess the awareness of staff around modern slavery. The results of this will be published in next year’s modern slavery statement.

Awareness Raising

Internal and External Comms activitities prepared for United Nation's World Day Against Trafficking– 30^th July 2025, and Anti-Slavery Day – 18^th October 2025. The Council supports ongoing awareness raising and education opportunities in the wider community via the CAMS partnership. A conference is being organised for the16th October ‘The impact of Modern Slavery on Women and Girls’ to raise awareness. The Council registered with the Modern Slavery Statement Registry in 2020.  We will submit the Transparency Statement for 2025 to this site.

Partnership Work

Priorities for CAMS were co-developed by participants towards a slavery-free community. These priorities continue to be investigated and developed by the multi-agency partnership providing opportunities for knowledge sharing and the development of resilience to modern slavery in Colchester. The following areas continue to be highlighted for further discussion and investigation:

‘Governance and Structure’, ‘Awareness Raising’, ‘Training’, ‘Survivor Care, Safeguarding and Referral Pathways’, ‘Data & intelligence gathering / sharing across partners’, and ‘Disruption’.

The CAMS Annual Partnership Plan for 2025 identifies four key objectives for 2025.

1. Survivor Support and Care

2. Funding and Sustainability

3. Multi-agency approach to intelligence and disruption

4. Partnership profile/awareness

Progress of Plan to be reviewed at each Steering Group meeting and fed into quarterly CAMS Partnership meetings.

Policies and Plans

Colchester City Council will continue to strengthen the reporting pathway for First Responders within the organisation especially for when supporting victims who have been identified outside of office hours. Further guidance will be developed and implemented for First Call Officers (FCOs) to support victims who are identified outside of office hours. The organisation will also look to name a Single Point of Contact to liaise on behalf of the organisation and who will co-ordinate referrals, record keeping and support.

Supply Chain

The Procurement Team and Staff who commission goods/services should continue to complete the additional training provided ‘Protecting Human Rights in the Supply Chain (Modern Slavery)’. New starters should complete their training upon joining the Council, and existing council officers should retrain every 3 years. Procurement continues to monitor and review their policies and procedures to further strengthen their anti-slavery commitment.

Contractors

Training and resources are being reviewed and developed for contractors.

Charter against Modern Slavery

In July 2018 Colchester City Council agreed unanimously to adopt and apply the Co-operative Party’s Charter Against Modern Slavery (as far as is legally possible).

All Suppliers to the Council will be asked to confirm that they/their organisation has, and will, take action to address risks to human rights identified within itself and its supply chain.  During tender processes, this action is to include the adoption of a whistleblowing policy that enables staff to blow the whistle on any suspected examples of modern slavery.