This statement is published pursuant to section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes the EDUCATE Ventures Research Ltd. Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement. It sets out the steps taken to ensure that modern slavery is not present in our business and its supply chains.

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EDUCATE Ventures Research is committed to ensuring modern slavery does not exist in its supply chains.

We constantly strive to develop policy and procedures to manage the way we obtain our goods and services to keep our supply chains robust. 

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For the purposes of this statement, the term ‘modern slavery’ encapsulates slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour, and human trafficking.

 

Our Business, Structure and Supply Chains

We issued all retail suppliers with contracts referencing the Trusts retail sourcing standards and the requirements we expect them to meet on modern slavery. We then followed this up with a questionnaire to better understand their environmental and ethical credentials of both their supply chain and manufacturing facilities. The responses to these questions are enabling us to identify any supplier who falls short of meeting our requirements and work with them so they can achieve our benchmark.

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We remain focussed on assessing our high risk spend areas and on raising awareness across all staff, to ensure all products and services are sourced and supplied responsibly and ethically.

 

Our Policies on Modern Slavery

We will not tolerate modern slavery in our supply chains or in any part of our business. We are committed to ensuring that there is transparency in our own business and to tackling any modern slavery in our supply chains. We expect the same standards from our suppliers and contractors. A Code of Ethics as part of the Employee Handbook will be issued, reflecting our commitment to ethical business practice and corporate citizenship. We are reviewing the Code of Ethics and other existing policies and procedures relevant to modern slavery, and will develop and update these as necessary to reflect our policy commitments. We will ensure consistent messaging from these policies gets distributed throughout our business and management at all levels, as well as in our supply chains.

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Due diligence and steps taken to eliminate risks

We have rigorous employment policies and practices which have been designed to limit the risks of modern day slavery within our supply chain. Our procurement process requires suppliers to provide information on modern slavery risks.

 

EDUCATE Ventures Research has a clear framework of rules and behaviours and encourages the reporting of any concerns or breaches so that they can be dealt with appropriately in accordance with our policies and procedures. We will provide a Whistleblowing avenue for staff (and volunteers working with the company) to raise concerns confidentially and anonymously if they wish.

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Our Employee Handbook will also provide staff with a secure way of seeking advice about any modern slavery or human trafficking issues personally affecting them or their families.

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We also check that staff can demonstrate their eligibility to work in the UK and require all contractors and agency staff to undergo an eligibility check before commencing work with us. We also seek confirmation from volunteers that they have eligibility to work in the UK. 

 

Training

Employees are trained on an ongoing basis on topics relating to ethics and compliance. We will continue to identify ways to improve employee and supplier awareness to eliminate modern slavery from our business and supply chain, and will continue to keep abreast of information on global risks in modern slavery.

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Our Effectiveness in Eliminating Modern Slavery

We will periodically review the effectiveness of these measures above, and we will use this review to inform the ongoing development of our procedures and best practices.