Multi-agency partnership working is often highlighted as an essential aspect of the UK public policy response to modern slavery. The Home Office’s (2014) Modern Slavery Strategy emphasises that effective partnership work is ‘crucial’ and must include ‘greater awareness among frontline professionals, coordinated international activity, close working with the private sector and support from communities, including civil society and faith groups’.

However, despite the priority placed on partnerships by the UK Government, there has been little guidance to date on the form they should take, or how they might best identify and deliver shared goals and responsibilities. In the majority of cases there has also been no dedicated funding to facilitate partnership activity, and no means of monitoring what activity is in place. This means that until now, relatively little has been understood about the different partnership responses to Modern Slavery that are emerging across the UK.

This research report is part of a collaborative project between the Office of the Independent AntiSlavery Commissioner (IASC) and the University of Nottingham. The aim of the work was to map multi-agency anti-slavery partnerships across the UK, identify potential examples of ‘good practice’ among them and understand the conditions that helped to facilitate success.