The Council has legal duties as set out in the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and this Strategy provides clarity regarding those responsibilities and sets clear advice and guidance on how to meet them. The obligations on the local authority have not changed. The Strategy has been updated to reflect the enhanced response processes and partnership work that has evolved over time. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 and accompanying statutory guidance were used to understand the duties and responsibilities of different agencies in responding to modern slavery.

Different agencies and partners provided insights and intelligence to build the Strategy, including the Metropolitan Police Data Tool and Stop the Traffik Pan-London Dashboard, and consultation with the Modern Slavery Working Group members.

The Bexley Safeguarding Adults Board, Children’s Safeguarding Partnership and Bexley Community Safety Partnership have been consulted on the updated Strategy to ensure it reflects all statutory partner commitments and obligations. This is to ensure that the Strategy and its profile are adopted as widely as possible so that professionals from across statutory and voluntary agencies in Bexley, are consistent in their knowledge and robust in their ability to respond and support potential victims of Modern Slavery.