Modern slavery and human trafficking statement
INTRODUCTION
This Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement is a response to Section 54(1), Part 6 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and relates to actions and activities for the financial year ending 17 January 2022.
Welford Healthcare Limited (‘the Company’, ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’) is committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking violations in its own operations, its supply chain, and its products. We have zero-tolerance towards slavery and require our supply chain to comply with our values.
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
Welford Healthcare Limited and has business operations in the United Kingdom. We operate in the care sector.
We are committed to ensuring our supply chains and business activities are free from abuses.
POLICIES
We operate a number of internal policies to ensure that we are conducting business in an ethical and transparent manner.
These include the following:
- Induction and Onboarding Policy and Procedure – We conduct checks on all prospective employees to verify that they are eligible to work in the UK. Certain roles require a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check where employees may be working with vulnerable people.
- Raising Concerns, Freedom to Speak Up and Whistleblowing Policy and Procedure – We operate this policy so that employees are able to raise concerns about how staff are being treated or practices within our business or our supply chains without fear of reprisal.
- Staff code of conduct – We are committed to the fair treatment of all staff. Our staff code of conduct reflects our core values and expected behaviours. The code of conduct makes it clear that we have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery.
- Safeguarding Adults Policy and Procedure – This policy highlights the potential risks of modern slavery and human trafficking, including how to identify signs of exploitation and how to report concerns.
DUE DILIGENCE
As part of our efforts to monitor and reduce the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our recruitment supply chains, we have adopted the following due diligence procedures:
- Internal supplier audits.
Our due diligence procedures aim to:
- Identify and action potential risks in our business and supply chains.
- Monitor potential risks in our business and supply chains.
- Reduce the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our business and supply chains.
- Provide protection for whistle-blowers.
RISK AND COMPLIANCE
The Company has evaluated the nature and extent of its exposure to the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in its UK supply chain through:
- Reviewing on a regular basis all aspects of the supply chain based on supply chain mapping.
We do not tolerate slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains. Where there is evidence of failure to comply with our policies and procedures by any of our suppliers, we will require that supplier to remedy the non-compliance.
EFFECTIVENESS
We have base of key suppliers that we’ve been engaging with and we operate based on trust and transparency. Our colleagues are encouraged to discuss any concerns around modern slavery with their line manager or HR team.
TRAINING OUR STAFF
We invest in appropriate training to ensure staff are aware of and able to address and respond to incidents of Modern Slavery within healthcare settings which includes annual mandatory training where required.
NEXT STEPS
In the next financial year, we intend to take the following steps to tackle slavery and human trafficking by:
- Organising wider training for the internal team working on modern slavery and human trafficking issues.
The statement was approved by the board of directors.
Peter Madden, Director
Welford Healthcare Limited
