Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement
- Report + Support - for reporting any form of bullying, harassment, discrimination, or abuse. Reports can be made as a named person or anonymously.
- Harassment contacts - trained to provide confidential support to staff who feel bullied or harassed.
- Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) - support to cope with life's difficulties and challenges available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
- Occupational Health - provide advice above an individual's health to better support them during their employment.
- Equality Staff Networks - to represent, support and engage members who share a similar background, characteristic or common cause.
- Faith and Reflection Centre - the chaplains offer an independent listening service to people of all faiths and none.
- Ethics Policy
- Inclusion and Respectful Behavior Policy
- Whistleblowing Policy
- Anti-corruption, Fraud & Bribery Policy
- Conflict of Interest Policy
- Health and Safety Policy
Procurement and the supply chain
We are committed to ensuring that our supply chains impose the same high standards and are aware of our policies and practices.
The University procures works, goods, and services in excess of ?200m each year. We work with more than 5,500 suppliers based in the UK and internationally.
We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in our business dealings, combatting modern slavery and human trafficking within our supply chain. Understanding our diverse and complex supply chain is key to identifying and mitigating risk at various points in the procurement lifecycle; we aim to maintain this risk oversight to enforce effective controls.
Actions to embed our principles fall under the headings set out below.
Understanding our supply chains
We have categorised our supply chain using a category commodity code approach and through strategic review. 天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网|下载 category plans identify high risk areas, enabling a focused approach to tendering and contract management activity in these areas. Scrutiny is applied through tendering and contract management processes, applying due diligence at key points.
天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网|下载 supply chain includes:
- estates goods, services and construction works
- laboratory equipment and consumables
- IT equipment and services
- professional services
- student services
Due diligence
天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网|下载 tender documents include modern slavery checks ensuring their compliance with the Act. This includes grounds for rejection where there have been convictions under the Act. Where appropriate, and in high-risk areas, our tenders include additional questions and evaluation criteria relating to identifying and mitigating modern slavery risks. For example, tenderers have been asked to:
- Describe measures taken to ensure compliance with labour standards, human rights and responsible sourcing practices,
- Describe how their sourcing and supply chain strategy will ensure that appropriate and comprehensive systems are in place to minimise or avoid potential ethical and social risks on behalf of the University,
- Provide examples of any policies, certification or initiatives they have in place to address these concerns. and
- Demonstrate how these policies are effectively communicated and enforced throughout the various tiers of their supply chain, including subcontractors and sub-tier suppliers.
天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网|下载 standard terms and conditions for the supply of goods and services, and purchase order terms, require all suppliers to comply with relevant legislation and provide termination in the event of a breach for non-compliance.
We have introduced an internal responsible procurement framework which facilitates the tracking of procurement activity and contract management.
天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网|下载 contract management review monitoring ensures strategic suppliers have anti-Modern Slavery policies in place. Regular supplier review meetings are undertaken for critical contracts where discussions relating to the prevention of Modern Slavery in supply chains take place. Supplier management information is sent at regular intervals for these critical contracts for scrutiny by the allocated Contract Manager.
ICT hardware such as desktops, laptops and peripherals are purchased through the London University Purchasing Consortia (LUPC) framework agreement which provides reassurance that high risk supply chains are monitored by Electronics Watch.
Electronics Watch are an independent monitoring organisation which monitors working conditions in factories producing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) goods bought by public sector members. Suppliers provide details of the factories in which the ICT equipment bought by the University are produced, and Electronics Watch works with civil society organisations in the countries where the factories are located to monitor working conditions. When issues are detected, our Contract Management Team and LUPC raise them with suppliers during contract management meetings.
Through our Southern Universities Procurement Consortia (SUPC) membership, we are an affiliate member of Electronics Watch. We select and utilise sector and other national framework agreements, where we have assurance that modern slavery considerations have been incorporated into award criteria.
Training and raising awareness
Procurement and contract management team members undertake relevant Modern Slavery training, including sector-specific online modules and regular internal development sessions on responsible procurement.
We participate in the UK Universities Purchasing Consortia (UKUPC) and other sector Responsible Procurement groups, deepening our understanding and sharing best practice across the sector.
Active Bystander workshops support staff to challenge poor behaviours.
Future plans: 2025 and beyond
Additional plans to combat modern slavery include:
- Continue to evolve our understanding of our complex and often-changing supply chains by refining our categorisation and scanning for potential high-risk areas.
- Expand the coverage of our responsible procurement framework to capture and track activity through the tendering and contract management phases of key supplier relationships.
- Continue to engage with the UKUPC and other Responsible Procurement groups, to keep abreast of best practice and work collaboratively as a sector to drive change.
- Increase awareness of the risks of modern slavery in supply chains with a wider University audience, via procurement internal webpages and communication channels.
- Deploy a Supplier Code of Conduct which sets out our expectations for suppliers working with the University.
- Develop and deploy a bank of Responsible Procurement Questions and Key Performance Indicators to be included in relevant tenders.
- Explore new opportunities for action with our newly established Sustainability and Resilience Institute.
- Delivery of a strategic major project called Reducing Casualisation to reduce the reliance on casual contracts and promote fair employment practices in the University. For this project, casual contracts are any contract which is not permanent, including fixed-term contracts, hourly-paid lecturers, and other casual workers engaged via UniWorkforce.
- Raising awareness of the Act through our 'Super Recruiter' network, and our recruitment and selection training.
- Strengthening the message within the whistleblowing policy, such that it provides a mechanism for reporting potential concerns about modern day slavery and human trafficking.
This statement was approved by the University's Council on 19 November 2024
Signed by : Professor Mark E. Smith
President and Vice-Chancellor, University of 天发娱乐棋牌_天发娱乐APP-官网|下载