Modern slavery – guidance from CIW

There have been recent news reports about alleged modern slavery taking place in care homes in North Wales.

In December last year, North Wales Police and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) conducted raids in Colwyn Bay and Abergele, following reports of suspected modern slavery in care homes in the area. Nine Indian students were identified as potential victims of modern slavery. Further raids in Gwynedd took place in May this year. You can find more information about the initial arrests here.

It is believed care homes took on agency staff from a new agency which was previously unknown to them, due to staffing shortages in their services, and proper checks were not done by the agency. The providers concerned had not taken any steps to assure themselves the recruitment checks carried out by the unknown agency were complete and accurate.

Since then, there has been cross-organisation partnership work to raise awareness of modern slavery, including partners such as Care Inspectorate Wales, Social Care Wales and the Welsh Government.

Please read the guidance about modern day slavery and the checks CIW expect providers to make for agency workers.