The UoN Modern Slavery Working Group continues to take action following its published and nationally recognised Blueprint to become a slavery-free campus.

The Slavery-Free Campus Blueprint

The University launched a pioneering 38-step Blueprint to achieving a slavery-free campus in July 2021, at an event chaired by our Chancellor, Baroness Lola Young. This ambitious, transformational approach was the first of its kind globally and is aligned with the principles of the Modern Slavery Act (MSA) 2015. Founded on research led by the University’s Rights Lab, the Blueprint acts as a guide for all universities to take action towards becoming slavery-free.

Our latest statement is now live

You can find our new annual Modern Slavery Statement with 2021/22 progress and our commitments for 2022/23.

The statement includes examples of activity during 2021/22 such as:

• Monitoring of whistle blowing and confirmation of no modern slavery issues being reported.
• Running multiple training sessions for front-line staff on campus, delivered by the national Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA).
• The inclusion of modern slavery training and education in the curriculum of front-line/professional degree programmes led by the School of Health Sciences.
• The launch of a modern slavery risk tool for Procurement to standardise how modern slavery mitigation is incorporated into how we award contracts and the application of this tool to the large-scale refurbishment of Florence Boot Hall to make it a slavery-free building project.
• Being approached by local UK Councils and multiple universities to seek support on adapting our slavery-free process for other contexts.

During the 2022/23 year we are underway with (amongst other commitments):

• Expanding our membership to extend our reach with a focus on the SU and student-facing roles at the University.
• Continuing to identify training and awareness opportunities, including supporting professional degree programmes to enhance student education and training on modern slavery.
• Investigating how to incorporate requirements into the development of our new Digital Core (HR, Finance and Procurement system) that will support our anti-slavery work.
• Continuing to engage with our strategically important suppliers (categorised as Tier 1) on modern slavery mitigation work as they are onboarded onto our Supplier Relationship Management programme.
• Continuing our involvement and support via our Rights Lab for the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Modern Slavery Partnership, including work to share learnings between local and campus approaches to becoming slavery-free communities.
• Inputting to a new national report on university action to tackle modern slavery, produced by the Cabinet Office-hosted UK Modern Slavery Training Delivery Group, that will integrate our University Blueprint and Slavery-Free Campus report findings.

Prof David Park, recently appointed chair of the working group, commented: ‘We are continuing with our ambitious work to lead the HE Sector on modern slavery risk mitigation, guided by our Blueprint and actively disseminating findings to accelerate action towards becoming a slavery-free campus. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our previous Chair, Prof Lisa Carroll, who led the University’s Modern Slavery Act Working Group from 2019. She expanded the group’s membership, developed its first action plan and tracker, and led the group’s work to develop a great ambition and vision for the University: becoming the world’s first slavery-free campus. She led on the development of a multi-part Slavery-Free Campus blueprint to structure this progress, embraced this work as an area where the University could really lead in our sector, and empowered and included a wide range of people to lead and participate in our whole-campus effort. An inspiring colleague who deserves our collective gratitude.’

If you have any comments or questions on this work, please contact MSA@nottingham.ac.uk.