Modern Slavery Act 2015

US2U Consulting Founder and CEO Rachel Blackburn participated in the Modern Slavery Intelligence Network conference at Tesco's Head Office in Welwyn Garden City on 26th March 2025.

Introduced by Claire Donovan, CEO MSIN and supported largely by the UK food industry, the aims of the conference were to drive awareness and membership of the MSIN, intelligence sharing and the power of disruption.

Key messages included:

• We need to continue to be proactive to eliminate modern slavery from our supply chains; there are still too many cases of vulnerable people being taken advantage of in the UK and overseas. New statutory guidance is available on the UK government website.

• People using foodbanks, homeless shelters and volunteering at charity shops can be targeted by people keen to exploit them, for example by offering work at less than the minimum wage requirements.

• People who have been modern slaves wish to have empathy rather than sympathy; they wish to be described as survivors rather than victims and do not wish to be described as slaves. There is a need to focus on dignity and respect.

• It is still viewed that people in the UK generally have a narrow view of modern slavery, eg an image of someone chained up, as slavery may have looked like this in the past; ignoring other forms such as coercive control, or being made to made to make payments to guarantee more work.

Rachel, pictured with Claire with whom she has worked over several years, said, "It's great to see the awareness being raised across the food supply chains, although we know that other sectors including construction and even technology can be opportunities for bad practice to creep in."

To explore more about making your people more aware of modern slavery and avoid cases being exposed against your brand and/or across your supply chain, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

US2U Consulting have officially introduced a company Anti-Slavery Policy, in line with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

This reflects the growing significance of this issue and sets out US2U Consulting's intentions regarding the Act.

Please access the policy below.

US2U Consulting - Anti-Slavery Policy

The thought of employing or encouraging modern slaves in our businesses or in our supply chains is not acceptable or desirable from a personal, moral, ethical or legal point of view. However, we can never be 100% certain that we have not done this or will not be doing this during 2020. This was one of the key messages from the recent Working Together to Prevent Modern Slavery conference that was hosted by G's Fresh in Ely, Cambridgeshire and attended by Rachel Blackburn and some US2U Consulting cients.

John Shropshire OBE, CEO of G's Group - which employs over 7000 people across multiple countries - gave an overview of some of the challenges and a variety of speakers including Dame Sara Thornton, Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Nick Dale, Superintended of West Midlands Police and Paul Willgoss, Technical Director, Marks and Spencer, all shared their experiences and frameworks for managing businesses to prevent this type of suffering and exploitation. The conference contained film of victims of Modern Slavery explaining their stories as to what had happened to them and the ongoing trauma, even after they had been rescued from most distressing iving conditions in the UK.

Priority messages to conference delegates were to focus on prevention by raising public awareness of Modern Slavery (known as Trafficking in Scotland), making sure that all staff are trained to spot any signs, and the importance of sharing information across the business community and with relevant authorities if there are suspicions that gang leaders are exploiting vulnerable people across multiple companies and sectors.