PILAS Y ACUMULADORES

The performance and impact of partnerships, as with the other aspects of the national response, remains a grey area. A government commissioned independent review into the effectiveness of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 by barrister Caroline Haughey does however shed some light on the effectiveness of the Act’s implementation. The resulting report, timed roughly a year after the Modern Slavery Act 2015 came into force, cited the potential significance of partnerships’ contribution at a local level, and provided a number of associated recommendations towards improving their impact.

From a partnerships perspective specifically, Haughey’s report (discussed in detail in section 4.1) drew attention to inconsistences in the collection and synthesis of data and intelligence from different partners, and called for improvements that built upon pre-existing relationships that were evident in some geographic regions between police, local authorities and other partners, including the voluntary sector, in relation to CSE.96. _{Despite being a criminal justice focused evaluation, the}

report also cited the specific need for enhanced cooperation between police and other statutory agencies, as well improved levels of NGO coordination in order to increase the quantity and quality of victim referrals.

Since 2014, modern slavery has been identified nationally as a significant adult social care risk, placing the issue firmly within the remit of Safeguarding Adult Boards.97 _{The active participation of Local Adult Safeguarding Boards (LSABs) in}

anti-slavery partnerships has been cited as a key vector through which these agencies can work alongside others, such as the police. Across some areas of the UK partnerships have played a key role in the establishment of local processes and action plans, and the roll-out training and awareness campaigns, ensuring that

96 _{Caroline Haughey, “The Modern Slavery Act Review: One Year On,” Home Office, 2016,}

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/542047/2016_ 07_31_Haughey_Review_of_Modern_Slavery_Act_-_final_1.0.pdf.

97 _{Legislation.gov.uk, “Care Act 2014” (2014),}

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frontline professionals are sufficiently aware of the indicators of issues such as forced and child labour, and domestic servitude.98

The need for collaboration between partners is further necessitated by the role played by organisations such as the Salvation Army, the NGO organisation that holds the central UK government contract for housing modern slavery victims within the NRM. In social care settings, partnerships have been cited as beneficial in helping to identify improvements in joint-working, practice and in the development of local policy, procedure, guidance and training. This reinforces the notion that safeguarding is “everyone’s business” and highlights a number of benefits potentially attributable to anti-slavery partnerships.99

Despite the aforementioned positives, existing work has also identified serious deficiencies in the evidence and tools being used to monitor the effectiveness of partnerships.100 _{Many of the means currently used to evaluate partnerships are}

often anecdotal, and, in some cases entirely non-existent. Consequently, the requirement for significant improvements to data collection and analysis has been identified in order to ensure there is a more complete, evidence-based picture to attribute, tangibly, the successes and impacts of partnership working in response to modern slavery. This is reinforced by findings from the UK’s National Audit Office which posited that without effective oversight of anti-slavery efforts, the government stands no chance of achieving its goal of significantly reducing the prevalence of modern slavery in the UK.101

The Home Office’s Strategic Centre for Organised Crime has also expressed the need to understand the emerging picture of serious and organised crime

98 _{Craig et al., “Contemporary Slavery in the UK.”}

99 _{Department of Health and Social Care, “Statutory Guidance to Support Local Authorities}

Implement the Care Act 2014,” 2016, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/care-and-support-statutory- guidance; Adi Cooper and Claire Bruin, “Adult Safeguarding and the Care Act (2014) – the Impacts on Partnerships and Practice,” The Journal of Adult Protection 19, no. 4 (2017): 209–19,

https://doi.org/10.1108/JAP-03-2017-0009.

100 _{Ruth van Dyke, “Monitoring and Evaluation of Partnerships in England and Wales,” Anti-}

Trafficking Review, no. 8 (2017): 131–46, https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.20121788.

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partnerships more generally. The notion that the police cannot effectively counter modern slavery in isolation is a fairly widely accepted notion. After all, the primary function of police is law-enforcement, with victim protection falling under the remit of local authorities and NGOs, reinforcing the need to “establish effective partnership arrangements with a range of agencies to co-ordinate local activity and build up intelligence”.102 _{Despite the fact this work is clearly ongoing around}

the UK, not all forces whose practices were reviewed during the 2017 Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) inspection showed evidence of formalised partnership working. While in those that did show evidence, it was often considered patchy, and did not effectively facilitate efforts to understand local threats and risks. 103

The Haughey report identified that, at a regional level specifically, some forces have established “excellent working partnerships” with partner stakeholders, fulfilling roles that encourage information and intelligence sharing from frontline workers, such as those who inspect manufacturing, or other establishments, that use low-skill labour.104 _{The report also cites “immeasurable” benefit in the value}

of these stakeholders when it comes to working directly with victims, particularly in instances where they may be reluctant to talk to police directly, and in situations where local authorities are able to provide remedial safeguarding. 105 _However,

other work has established that while in some regions partnerships are mature, this is not a ubiquitous trend, and across the majority of regions, partnership working on the whole was still in its infancy.106

102 _{Haughey, “The Modern Slavery Act Review: One Year On,” 10.} 103 _{Haughey, 10.}

104 _{Haughey, 17.} 105 _{Haughey, 17.}

106 _{Gardner, “An Idea Whose Time Has Come? Modern Slavery, Multiple Streams Approach and}

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