Introduction from the Directors
Slavery and human trafficking remain a hidden blight on our global society. We all have a responsibly to be alert to the risks, however small, in our business and in the wider supply chain. Staff are expected to report concerns and management are expected to act upon them.
Organisation’s structure
We are a specialist management consultancy focusing on business and the digital marketplace, with particular expertise in three distinct workstreams – Digital Transformation and Infrastructure, Leadership and Development, and Procurement, especially Public Sector related where we both support Public Sector Bodies to conduct procurement and also Private Sector Business to bid on public sector tenders.
The company has an annual turnover less than the Modern Slavery Act 2015 threshold of £36m. However, we believe that morally we should support the Act and have therefore provided this statement.
Our business
Our business focusses on three main aspects – Strategic business advice including leadership development (particularly through coaching and mentoring), Digital Transformation and Infrastructure (particularly Broadband and Networks), and Procurement (especially public sector related procurement). In this latter aspect our expertise lies across Local Authorities, the Health Sector and Crown Protectorates.
Our supply chains
We do not utilise supply chains ourselves; our concern lies in the supply chains our clients utilise, especially when they are placing tenders and new contracts. We are in a position to advise and encourage them to take heed of:
Our policies on slavery and human trafficking
We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business. Our Anti-slavery Policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains.
Due diligence processes for slavery and human trafficking
As part of our initiative to identify and mitigate risk –
- Where possible we build long standing relationships with our clients and make clear our expectations of business behaviour.
- We actively encourage our clients to take positive action against Modern Slavery, and help them to do so by, for example, developing appropriate questionnaires for sub-contractor and supplier selection
- With regards to national or international supply chains, our point contact is preferably with a UK company or branch and we expect these entities to have suitable anti-slavery and human trafficking policies and processes. We expect each entity in the food chain to, at least, adopt ‘one-up’ due diligence on the next link in the chain. It is not practical for us (and every other participant in the chain) to have a direct relationship with all links in the food chain.
- We actively encourage our clients to have in place systems to encourage the reporting of concerns and the protection of whistle blowers.
Supplier adherence to our values
We have zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking. We expect all those in our client and supply chain to comply with our values.
Training
To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking, we provide training to relevant members of staff. All Directors have been briefed on the subject. We encourage our Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) qualified Procurement Consultants to seek Chartered status, which includes a pass qualification of the CIPS Ethics training module that also addresses modern slavery and human trafficking.
Our effectiveness in combating slavery and human trafficking
We use the following key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure how effective we have been to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of our business or supply chains:
- Completion of House Audits by Directors;
- Evidence of use of positive messaging; and
- Level of communication and personal contact with next link in the supply chain and their understanding of, and compliance with, our expectations.
This statement constitutes our company’s voluntary slavery and human trafficking statement.
Name: Ian Beverley
Appointment: Director, Prism Business Consulting Ltd.