Whilst it is not a legal requirement for us to make and publicise a statement relating to Modern Slavery, as a company we oppose modern slavery and human trafficking in all its forms and therefore make this statement as a matter of good practice and our belief in upholding the highest ethical standards. The statement is made pursuant to section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Potens provides specialist support to children and adults with learning disabilities, Autism, Complex needs and Mental Health issues. The company has over 30 years’ experience; operating nationally, it currently supports in the region of 750 service users and employs around 1500 staff.
Our staff are largely directly employed and are generally not in any category which is seen to be vulnerable to modern slavery, so our main focus currently is to ensure there are policies and due diligence procedures in place relating to our suppliers.
Whilst we recognise that it is a challenging issue to address, we remain committed to having policies and procedures that aid the detection and prevention of all forms of slavery in our business and supply chain.
All our employees are required to act in accordance with company policies and the highest ethical standards. We have in place a robust whistleblowing process where staff who have concerns about breaches in our company policies and/or codes of conduct, may report concerns including on an anonymous basis.
Potens have a comprehensive and constantly developing education and training programme for it’s employees. An awareness of modern slavery and human trafficking is mentioned in several of our policies and current training courses;
- – Safer recruitment including Right to work processes
- – Whistleblowing
- – Safeguarding Children and Adults.
- – Working with Sub-Contractors and Suppliers processes.
We have established a Companywide Safeguarding board that meets regularly to review and ensure safeguarding training and practices are effective and fit for the purpose intended.
The Next Steps:
New for January 2020, will be phase 1 roll out of formal Modern Slavery Training – this will be completed by staff responsible for recruitment practices and those with purchasing / contract management responsibilities.
Planned for April 2020, is the formalisation of policies and toolkits relating to;
- – Responsible procurement
- – Working with Suppliers
- – Modern Slavery Act
- – Development of an annually required due diligence questionnaire which covers the governance, policies, training and supply chain management processes for suppliers which we believe present high modern slavery risks in our supply chain particularly where those goods and materials are acquired from suppliers in high risk countries.
End of Statement
