This statement is made pursuant to Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and sets out the steps that Sefton has taken, and is continuing to take, to make sure that modern slavery or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain.
Modern slavery encompasses slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. Sefton Carers Centre has a zero-tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery. We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity and transparency in all business dealings and to putting effective systems and controls in place to safeguard against any form of modern slavery taking place within the Trust or our supply chain.
Sefton Carers Centre is aware of our responsibilities towards unpaid carers, customers, volunteers and employees and the local community and expects all suppliers to adhere to the same ethical principles of our Ethical Policy. We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in any part of our business. Our internal policies replicate our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships.
We operate a number of internal policies which ensure that we are conducting business in an ethical and transparent manner. These include:
- Recruitment - We operate a robust recruitment policy, including conducting eligibility to work in the United Kingdom checks for all directly employed staff to safeguard against human trafficking or individuals being forced to work against theirwill.
- Equal Opportunities - We have a range of controls to protect staff from poor treatment and/or exploitation, which complies with all respective laws and regulations. These include provision of fair pay rates, fair terms and conditions of employment, and fair access to training and developmentopportunities.
- Safeguarding - We adhere to the principles inherent within both our safeguarding children and adults’ policies. Our employees are clear on how to raise safeguarding concerns about how colleagues or people receiving our services are being treated, or about practices within our organisation.
- Whistleblowing - We operate a whistleblowing/raising concerns policy so that everyone in our employment knows that they can raise concerns about how colleagues or people receiving our services are being treated, or about practices within our business or supply chain, without fear of reprisals, and the various ways in which they can raise theirconcerns.
- Ethical Policy & Procedure - This code explains the manner in which we behave as an organisation and how we expect our employees and suppliers toact.
Training
Advice and training about modern slavery and human trafficking is available to staff through our mandatory safeguarding children and adults training programmes, our safeguarding policies and procedures, and our safeguarding leads. We are looking at ways to continuously increase awareness within our organisation, and to ensure a high level of understanding of the risks involved with modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and in our business.
Our Performance Indicators
We will know the effectiveness of the steps that we are taking to ensure that slavery and/or human trafficking is not taking place within our organisation if there are no reports received from our staff, the public, or law enforcement agencies to indicate that modern slavery practices have been identified.
