The Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) at the University of Oxford marked the 10th anniversary of the Modern Slavery Act by convening a flagship conference to discuss the current state and the future of law and policy addressing modern slavery in the UK.
With the venue packed tight with well over 200 people, this landmark event brought together lawmakers, policymakers, researchers, practitioners, businesses and lived experience experts to assess the UK’s modern slavery response and outline priorities for the next decade.
ITV News anchor Julie Etchingham hosted a Q&A session with the Minister for Safeguarding Jess Phillips MP, the UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, opened the afternoon session with a speech, alongside discussion panels chaired by the former UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Dame Sara Thornton, Chris Murray MP, Tony Vaughan MP, Sophie Otiende (Azadi Kenya, former CEO of the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery), Patricia Durr (ECPAT UK) and Jasmine O’Connor (former CEO of Anti-Slavery International). Discussions addressed pressing issues such as legal and policy reform, survivor support, exploitation in supply chains, exploitation of children, local responses and prevention strategies. The meaningful and ethical inclusion of people with lived experience of modern slavery was one of the key themes.
Here are some key takeaways we at the PEC walked away with.
Attendees: new hope and collaboration opportunities
One crucial feature of our work as a Centre is bringing together people from completely different disciplines to facilitate new connections and collaborations. Bringing together people who haven’t necessarily worked together or known each other before was one of the key objectives of the event.
So we took a lot of heart firstly from the sheer number of people who attended (nearly 250!), demonstrating just how much interest and commitment there is around this important issue. Secondly, from the diversity of the attendees, with lawmakers, policymakers, researchers, practitioners, experts by experience, and businesses all coming together from across the UK, and not only from the modern slavery sector but from other sectors too. And thirdly, from talking to a lot of participants, it was good to see and hear about a lot of you valued the connections you made, which highlighted the significance of collaboration across sectors. We hope these new connections will help keep the momentum going and spark further work that wouldn't happen otherwise. As our colleague Jane Lasonder emphasised in her opening challenge, real meaningful partnerships are a crucial pillar for driving meaningful change.
Modern Slavery Act: played its role but more needed now
There was broad recognition that the Modern Slavery Act has played an important role in raising awareness and laying the groundwork for further progress, but that ultimately it was a product of its time. There was a clear consensus that the Act is now outdated and too limited to effectively tackle modern slavery. There is a strong need for more comprehensive action, with a much more nuanced understanding of what addressing modern slavery entails, including a focus on prevention, lacking in the previous decade.
Modern slavery – still the right framework?
The framework of ‘modern slavery’, which defined the Government’s approach in the last decade, has always been questioned by some, with some evidence that it’s not helpful in increasing its understanding amongst the public. It was interesting to note the disagreement amongst the panel speakers and a fairly even split among the audience on this issue (unscientific a vote as it was!). Whilst some recognise this framework as important in mobilising action, others raised concerns that it masks the complexity of the issues included under this umbrella term and does not allow us to move away from framings survivors as ‘slaves’.
In that context, it was interesting to note a change in understanding by the Government (Minister Jess Phillips pointing to examples of the grooming scandal which has not generally been framed as modern slavery) or how it could be tackled (an example of including child criminal exploitation and cuckooing in the Crime and Policing Bill).
This language debate is not close to being settled any time soon, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing if it contributes to increasing the understanding of the complexity of what we include under the modern slavery umbrella and the wide range of approaches needed to tackle it.
Supply chains – clear area to progress
There was broad agreement that the Transparency in Supply Chains (TISC) provisions of the Modern Slavery Act have not been effective in addressing exploitation. While the path forward remains uncertain and often drowned in technical solutions, measures emerging in other jurisdictions, such as forced labour import bans and Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) laws, seem to be widely seen as key components of the long-term solution to increase that effectiveness.
But there were also strong suggestions that the current transparency framework could be strengthened in the meantime, with lessons drawn from the Australian Modern Slavery Act offering potential ways to enhance its impact. One example given by panellists was to consider mandatory reporting requirements for businesses in scope of the TISC provision of the UK Act, similar to what the Australian Act contains, as this would introduce greater consistency and prevent businesses from being able to report that they have not taken any steps to address modern slavery (as they can under the current UK legislation).
Prevention: a priority, but not everyone agrees on what it means.
Prevention is increasingly recognised as crucial in tackling modern slavery, but there are diverse opinions on what it truly entails. The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC) Eleanor Lyons emphasised the need for a whole-of-government approach, while discussions in local and regional breakout sessions highlighted the importance of tailoring prevention efforts to specific local contexts. Additionally, the opening plenary reinforced the need for a human rights-based approach that is firmly rooted in the meaningful inclusion of survivors in policymaking, ensuring that those with lived experience remain at the heart of prevention strategies.
The agreement seems to be that although the focus is shifting towards prevention, we need to do much more to understand not only what it means, but also what works – particularly for modern slavery, where a prevention approach is less developed than in other sectors. There is much to learn from sectors where it’s better established such as public health, as well as looking at other areas such as labour standards enforcement, education, homelessness, migration and many others. The need to produce good quality evidence is clear.
Survivor involvement: crucial
The meaningful and ethical inclusion of people with lived experience of modern slavery was one of the key themes of the conference. As the member of the PEC’s Lived Experience Advisory Panel, Jane Lasonder, said in her powerful opening challenge speech: "Survivors aren't stories walking on legs, they need to be embedded at every level of work against modern slavery."
A key takeaway from the survivor involvement panel was the need to embed lived experience within organisations in a way that supports long-term career development - moving beyond participation in projects or designated lived experience roles to creating pathways for survivors to grow into leadership positions, such as CEOs or CFOs. Additionally, the panel highlighted the importance of valuing lived experience not just for first hand insights but as a form of expertise. While building survivors’ capacity to engage in modern slavery work is essential, there is also a need to equip others with the skills and understanding to engage with survivors in a way that is truly inclusive and impactful.
The members of our Centre’s Lived Experience Advisory Panel and our Lived Experience Engagement Team also met with the Minister Jess Phillips in a private setting to discuss the Government plans for survivor inclusion in creating its policies addressing modern slavery.
Clearly, there was a strong feeling that meaningful inclusion of survivors is one of the most important and potentially most impactful opportunities for the sector working to address modern slavery.
Local partnerships: untapped potential
Local and regional action is crucial in tackling modern slavery, yet responses vary widely due to decentralised multi-agency partnerships working differently in each area. Many local authorities play too small a role - fewer than 3% in England and Wales have a dedicated Modern Slavery Coordinator, despite evidence showing the benefits of the role for identification and partnership working. A lack of awareness means that certain forms of exploitation, like cuckooing, often aren’t recognised as modern slavery, limiting access to specialised support.
There is potential to join up effective local responses and break down silos. Strong leadership, particularly from Mayors and Police & Crime Commissioners, drives best practices, while expanding lived experience panels requires proper oversight. Clearer leadership with defined roles, improved coordination, and the Government’s upcoming Action Plan could help establish stronger regional structures and foster more effective collaboration.
Exploitation of children: a need for dedicated space
The panel discussion on preventing modern slavery and trafficking of children and young people highlighted the critical need for a dedicated space to address issues affecting children, rather than treating them as an afterthought or grouping them under the broad category of ‘women and children.’ A particularly pressing concern is the invisibility of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in these discussions, as misconceptions persist that they are unable to engage meaningfully.
The panel emphasised the importance of creating opportunities for children to contribute to decisions that shape their lives, ensuring they have a platform to be heard, and a network of professionals working together to holistically address their needs. Recognising that survivors could not be present on the panel (despite best efforts), the discussion carved out space to include quotes from young people supported by ECPAT UK, ensuring that their voices were still represented in the conversation. But it’s clear there’s space to do more to include young people in conversations concerning them more meaningfully.
What kind of evidence?
The conference revealed two distinct perspectives on the role of evidence shaping policy. One camp advocated for the need for more specialised evidence, while the other argued that a great body of evidence already exists and that the bigger focus should be on ensuring policy effectively utilises it. Despite this divide, both sides agree on the transformative power of evidence in driving change.
There have also been conversations on the types of evidence we need and their role in addressing gaps in both knowledge and evidence. Whilst traditional research can fill some n evidence gaps, it won’t be able to address the gaps in knowledge – we can’t research what we don’t know. Lived experience expertise is best placed to provide insights that traditional data may not be able to capture.
A sense of new opportunities
Hearing Minister Jess Phillips providing a good insight into her thinking (expertly drawn out by the ITV News anchor Julie Etchingham) and the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Eleanor Lyons outlining her priorities in one place was certainly an unusual window of insight into the future of modern slavery policy. Overall, there’s a feeling of a ‘new opening’, which got people talking about the best approaches the ‘sector’ should take to respond.
Looking back, after the initial enthusiasm and a sense of progress after the passing of the Modern Slavery Act, there is a feeling that work against modern slavery gradually dissipated into the daily grind of frustration with the far from ideal support system, growing delays, and the increasing entanglement in the toxic immigration debate. There’s also a sense that modern slavery stopped being a priority on the public agenda.
However, there is now a clear hope that, with the Minister’s personal commitment to progressing this work, alongside the opportunity to reform the NRM and to increasingly embed modern slavery across the Government’s wider work, we can achieve real progress. Despite the many global challenges we currently face, there was a sense from everyone at the conference that we are faced with a new opportunity and that it is up to us to make the most of it.
