Modern Slavery Act 2015 Transparency Statement 2025

Colchester City Council works in partnership with a wide range of agencies to prevent abuse and neglect, to detect and report occurrences and to support victims. This includes Essex County Council and the Local Safeguarding Boards. It also It also co-ordinates and chairs the Colchester Community Safety Partnership and plays a significant role in the Colchester Against Modern Slavery (CAMS) partnership. Audits are carried out for the Essex Safeguarding Children Board and Essex Safeguarding Adults Board on alternate years. This includes appropriate reference to Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.

Colchester Against Modern Slavery (CAMS)

The CAMS Partnership is taking a proactive approach to combat this issue and develop resilience against modern slavery. The Colchester Community Safety Partnership, with the support of Together Free, launched the Colchester Against Modern Slavery (CAMS) Partnership in June 2023 following a conference attended by over 45 delegates in April 2023. Priorities for CAMS were co-developed by participants towards a slavery-free community. CAMS meetings are attended by community leaders from a variety of charities, community groups, Colchester City Council, Essex Police and the University of Essex. Partnership meetings are held quarterly, along with task and finish groups working on various priorities: Steering Group, Awareness Raising, Training, Victim Safeguarding and Referral Pathways and Intelligence and Disruption.

This year Community Safety and Safeguarding Officers from the council took part in awareness raising at a large local college talking about modern slavery and human trafficking on a one-to-one and small groups basis with students. In addition, a training workshop for modern slavery and human trafficking has been developed by the CAMS partnership – this has been created by the Council’s Anti-slavery Co-ordinator and the Essex Police MSHT Officer with input from partners.

The training includes the following:

• How to identify the signs of slavery and human trafficking and action to be taken to report concerns and/or suspicions.
• The initial steps to be taken if slavery or human trafficking is suspected.

• How to escalate potential slavery or human trafficking issues to relevant parties within the Council
• The external help that is available, including the Modern Slavery Helpline, the National Referral Mechanism and Contextualised Victim Support.

Between April 2024 to March 2025 CAMS training was delivered 38 times to a variety of audiences across local government, education, social care, health, housing and community organisations in Essex.