Despite generating £50 billion and hiring 1.54 million people in 2020/2021, the care sector is a large industry relied upon by the UK for the care of its population. However, the GLAA (Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority) and other NGOs have identified rampant labour exploitation within the sector, such as:
Structural and Demographical Risk Drivers
One major reason for exploitation in the care industry is a trend toward a more decentralized market that is made up of many small organisations, rather than being more centralised and local-authority-led. This means that most providers within the sector do not fall under the income threshold obligating them to the UK Modern Slavery Act (MSA) 2015. This puts millions of pounds of local authority procurement expenditure into businesses that potentially have no modern slavery mitigation measures and do not fall under the MSA.
The workforce that fuels the care sector mainly comes from agencies. This means that there is less oversight over labour standards and transparency over worker checks, even as far as full DBS checks waived during the pandemic to make up for staff shortages. Agency-dominated staff provision also means less unionization of workers and less rights for workers because they’re not permanently hired. These workers are roughly 80% women, some of whom may need the income to support children or elderly parents, which makes it more difficult to stand up to employer malpractice.
Recommendations
– Provide training and awareness for modern slavery that addresses the way someone might encounter it through their role (e.g: role-specific training)
– Require and maintain best practice for employment and working conditions from agencies
– Continue information sharing with relevant authorities like the GLAA
– Perform actual risk mapping to identify which suppliers in the care sector are high risk for modern slavery and policy reviews to assess the robustness of your organisation’s modern slavery mitigation
STOP THE TRAFFIK has extensive experience in performing risk mapping and policy reviews to provide actionable steps for improving mitigation efforts. This knowledge has been applied across many FTSE 100 companies and across over £15 billion in procurement spend. Please contact [email protected] for more information.