{"id":189,"date":"2025-03-20T09:54:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T09:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/?p=189"},"modified":"2025-03-20T09:59:05","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T09:59:05","slug":"modern-slavery-creative-industries-and-the-cardiff-capital-region-a-new-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/modern-slavery-creative-industries-and-the-cardiff-capital-region-a-new-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"Modern Slavery, Creative Industries and the Cardiff Capital Region: A New Collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/research\/explore\/research-units\/modern-slavery-and-social-sustainability-research-group\">Modern Slavery and Social Sustainability Research Group<\/a> (MSSS RG) was established and is co-hosted by Cardiff University\u2019s Business School and the Social Science Research Park (SPARK).<\/p>\n<p>One of our commitments as the Research Group is to work with key partners across academia, industry, business, the public and voluntary sectors to build shared expertise and reputation \u2013 and to provide evidence-based solutions to challenges in \u2013 this field.<\/p>\n<p>Today, this collaboration and commitment was mirrored by a new research project bringing together the modern slavery risk management expertise from within the Business School with the responsible investment approach of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardiffcapitalregion.wales\/\">Cardiff Capital Region (CCR)<\/a> and the Fair Agenda of <a href=\"https:\/\/media.cymru\/\">Media Cymru<\/a>, part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/creative-economy\">Centre for the Creative Economy<\/a> based in SPARK.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"post-191 media-191\" class=\"image align-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/597\/2025\/03\/MS-Event-blog-image-2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Cardiff Capital Region is a partnership of 10 local councils working together to transform the economy, business landscape and potential for inclusive prosperity across Southeast Wales. They aim to make a difference through nurturing an inclusive economy where no one gets left behind, fostering and inspiring innovation in businesses, public services and foundational economies and matching economic ambitions with progressive social policies.\u00a0 Media Cymru is a Consortium with a shared aim \u2013 to turn Cardiff Capital Region into a global hub for media innovation with a focus on green and fair economic growth.\u00a0 Both are key partners with much to offer to the challenge of tackling modern slavery in Wales.<\/p>\n<p>The collaborative research initiative is led by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/profiles.cardiff.ac.uk\/staff\/lotfim\">Dr. Maryam Lotfi<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/profiles.cardiff.ac.uk\/staff\/skeelsa1\">Dr. Anna Skeels<\/a>, Co-Directors of the\u00a0MSSS RG, in partnership with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pure.southwales.ac.uk\/en\/persons\/marian-buhociu\">Dr. Marian Buhociu\u00a0<\/a>from the\u00a0University of South Wales and has been generously funded by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.medr.cymru\/en\/\">Medr<\/a>, the Welsh Commission for Tertiary Education and Research.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s event brought together a diverse range of\u00a0stakeholders from industry, academia, and policy, fostering an open and solution-driven discussion on the challenges and opportunities Creative Industries SMEs face in mitigating modern slavery risks.<\/p>\n<p>An initial awareness raising and training session on modern slavery prevention, detection, response and remedy in relation to business supply chains from Dr Maryam Lotfi equipped participants with knowledge on the nature and extent of forced labour, conceptual models such as the \u2018exploitation spectrum\u2019 with modern slavery at its extreme and key components for a risk management approach including training, policies, risk assessment and due diligence.\u00a0 Research Assistant on the project, Amy Boote, then presented a high-level analysis of Modern Slavery Statements from big industry in the Creative Economy as well as on some of the modern slavery risks associated with the sector.\u00a0 These include high levels of freelancers and contractors, complex and global supply chains and informal employment structures.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"post-190 media-190\" class=\"image align-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/597\/2025\/03\/MS-Event-blog-image.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Key highlights of the day included insightful discussions on the\u00a0ethical and legal responsibilities of Creative Industries SMEs; exploration of\u00a0practical strategies\u00a0to strengthen ethical business practices and engagement with key partners committed to\u00a0tackling exploitation and improving social sustainability\u00a0in the sector.<\/p>\n<p>As the project moves forward, Cardiff University and its partners remain dedicated to translating these discussions into tangible impact, reinforcing the university\u2019s role as a leader in\u00a0social sustainability and anti-slavery initiatives.\u00a0 There was a great energy in the room, potential for collaboration across multiple policy and practice levels and enthusiasm for leading the way in Wales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Modern Slavery and Social Sustainability Research Group (MSSS RG) was established and is co-hosted by Cardiff University\u2019s Business School and the Social Science Research Park (SPARK). One of our [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,53],"tags":[63,65],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sbarc-spark","category-spark","tag-modernslavery","tag-spark"],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":189,"cy":193},"meta_box":[],"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/spark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}