Modern Slavery Statement – March 2023
Modern Slavery Statement
Introduction
Belong is committed to continuously improving its high standards to combat slavery and human trafficking in its business and supply chain. Belong takes a zero tolerance approach to modern day slavery and human trafficking both within our organisation and within our supply chains. This statement is made pursuant to section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. It constitutes Belong’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ended 31 March 2023. It covers the activities of Belong Limited and its wholly-owned subsidiaries; Borough Care Services Limited, Belong (Construction) Limited, Belong Villages Limited, Belong at Home Limited and CLS (Wigan) Limited.
Our Organisation
Belong is a charitable care provider that creates village communities enabling older people to live the lives they choose. In particular, Belong enables people living with dementia to retain choice and independence over as many areas of their lives as possible. It was established in 1991 with the aim of providing a range of charitable care and support services to older people. Since then its role has evolved and today it is an awardwinning provider of high quality, person-centred care, accommodation and ancillary services to older people.
Our Supply Chain
We recognise that our organisation is exposed to greater risk when dealing with its suppliers. The following measures to review and manage this risk are:
• an examination of our supply chains. We have analysed our supply chains and have identified over 500 suppliers for the financial year 2022/23.
• for those suppliers whom we pay £100,000 per annum and above and/or we have evaluated as operating in high risk sectors, we have assessed in terms of their compliance to Modern Slavery legislation.
All suppliers who we investigated must either have:
• issued a Modern Slavery statement; or
• separately confirmed their approach to compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Our Policies
Belong has a number of policies which aim to minimise the risk of modern slavery in our supply chain. These include:
• a Responsible Purchasing Policy, which reflects our commitment to and focus on suppliers’ ethical supply chain(s).
• a Supplier Code of Conduct, used for all new major suppliers of goods or in re-tendering, which outlines what Belong regard as the minimum standards for doing business with us.
Our People
We have updated our ‘Speaking Out at Work’ (Whistleblowing) policy to enable our staff to confidentially report any genuine concerns relating to modern day slavery, human trafficking or human rights violations and to give assurance that these concerns will be dealt with appropriately. Training was provided to those people who have direct responsibility for relevant supply chain management.
We have signposted our people to modernslavery.co.uk to provide them with useful information on how to recognise different types of slavery, how to spot the signs and details of a telephone helpline.
Effectiveness
There have been no reported incidents of modern slavery or human trafficking during the financial year to date. If any concerns were raised then a full investigation would be carried out and appropriate action taken.
Chris Hughes
Chief Finance Officer and Secretary