Modern Slavery Policy & Statement

 

Company Name: Teachers Together Ltd (“the Company”) 

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Use: Internal Policy

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Model Policy No.  MS01

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Model Policy Name: Modern Slavery Policy & Statement

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Date: April 2025

 

Version: 1.0

 

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1. Statement of intent

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This statement is made as part of Teachers Together’s commitment to eliminating the exploitation of people under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the Act).  It summarises how Teachers Together operates, the policies and processes in place to minimise the possibility of any problems, any risks we have identified and how we monitor them, and how we train our staff. 

Oliver Gosden

Company Director

 

2. Overview

 

Teachers Together is committed to eliminating modern slavery, human trafficking, forced labour, and similar human rights abuses. 

 

We are committed to ensuring that its staff and any workers it supplies (directly or indirectly) are not subject to behaviour or threats that may amount t modern slavery, human trafficking, forced labour, and similar human rights abuses. 

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3. Definition of Modern Slavery

 

A number of crimes are covered under the definition of modern slavery, to include:

 

• Bonded labour – individuals who are forced into debt by paying to get a job or mandatory equipment or have their passports taken to restrict their movements. 

• Forced labour – individuals who are forced to work long hours for little or no pay in poor conditions, under verbal or physical threats to themselves or their families. 

• Trafficking – individuals or groups moved from one area to another for forced or bonded practices. 

• Criminal exploitation – where a victim is exploited to commit a crime, for example, pickpocketing, shoplifting, drug trafficking, and cannabis cultivation. 

• Sexual exploitation – including sexual abuse, forced prostitution, and abuse of children for the production of images or videos. 

• Domestic servitude – where an individual is forced to work in private households with restricted freedom and work long hours for little or no pay.

• Organ removal.

• Forced marriage.

• Illegal adoption.  

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4. Aims and Expectations

 

We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships, and to ensuring modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our own business or our supply chain.

 

In our supply chain, we ask our suppliers to implement due diligence for their own suppliers and subcontractors to ensure there is no slavery or human trafficking in their supply chain.

 

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to creating and ensuring a non-discriminatory and respectful working environment for our staff. We want all staff to feel confident that they can expose wrongdoing without any risk to themselves.

 

Our recruitment and people management processes are designed to ensure that all prospective and current staff are legally entitled to work in the UK and to safeguard staff from any abuse or coercion.

 

We take a strict approach to acts, actions, and behaviours deemed to be in breach of this policy statement, and any such incidents will be dealt with in accordance with the applicable disciplinary procedure.Breaches of this policy statement may amount to gross misconduct resulting in summary dismissal.

 

We will not knowingly trade or partner with any organisation which is involved in modern slavery or human trafficking and we may terminate its relationships with other individuals and organisations if they are believed to have breached this policy.  

 

 

1. Training

 

The Company provides appropriate training and awareness information for all staff regarding modern slavery issues and human trafficking to enable understanding. Any concerns or suspicions are to be reported to the Company Director. All staff will receive role appropriate support.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All investigations shall be prompt and effective, and we are committed to take any necessary and appropriate action. We will:

 

• Work with the appropriate organisations to improve standards.

• Remove inappropriate organisation from our preferred supplier list.

• Pass details to appropriate law enforcement bodies.

 

 

6.      Implementation and Policy Monitoring

 

The company will ensure all staff have the right to work in the UK and ensure their employment is undertaken with compliance to UK employment laws and at a fair rate of pay.The right to work of perspective staff will be undertaken at interview stage.

 

The directors are responsible for investigations and due diligence and in relation to known or suspected instances of slavery and human trafficking, and recommendations and actions are carried out in accordance with UK law.

 

Staff should read our other policies, including our Anti-bribery and Corruption Policy.

 

 

7.      Whistleblowing Policy  

 

We encourage an honest and ethical culture and encourage all our staff and other business partners to report any concerns related to the direct activities, or the supply chains of, our organisation. This includes any circumstances that may give rise to an enhanced risk of slavery, human trafficking or to any form of bribery or corruption.

 

Our whistleblowing procedure (confidential reporting) is designed to make it easy for workers to make disclosures, without fear of retaliation.

 

 

8.      Code of Conduct

 

Our employment policy makes clear to employees the actions and behaviour expected of them when representing our organisation. We strive to maintain the highest standards of employee conduct and ethical behaviour when operating and managing its supply chain.

 

We are committed to ensuring that our suppliers adhere to the highest standards of ethics.Suppliers are required to demonstrate that they provide safe working conditions where necessary, treat workers with dignity and respect, and act ethically and within the law in their use of labour.

 

 

9.        Due Diligence 

 

We work with the following organisations:

 

• Teachers Trade Unions

• Teaching Agency (previously the General Teaching Council)

 

 

 

• the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (www.rec.uk.com) & the Institute of Recruitment Professionals (www.rec-irp.uk.com)

 

We undertake due diligence when considering taking on new suppliers and our reviews include: 

 

• mapping the supply chain broadly to assess particular product or geographical risks of modern slavery and human trafficking.

• evaluating the modern slavery and human trafficking risks of each new supplier.

• using the ethical supplier database, where suppliers can be checked for their labour standards, compliance in general, and modern slavery and human trafficking.

• invoking sanctions against suppliers that fail to improve their performance in line with an action plan or seriously violate our supplier code of conduct.

• We ensure that all our suppliers are members of appropriate industry bodies and working groups.

 

When engaging with suppliers, we ask for evidence of their processes and policies, including commitments around modern slavery, human trafficking, forced labour, human rights, and whistleblowing.

 

Additionally, we have taken the following steps to minimise the possibility of any problems:

 

• We reserve the right to conduct spot-checks of the businesses who supply us, to investigate any complaints.

• We collaborate with our suppliers to improve standards and transparency across our supply chain.