Modern slavery

We are committed to improving practices to combat slavery and human trafficking. It is important to us that we employ ethical practices that are aligned with our ethos of a business for social purpose to deliver our vision.

We are committed to ensuring that we comply with our legal and regulatory responsibilities, including the Modern Slavery Act 2015. We take care to ensure that slavery and human trafficking does not exist in any part of Selwood Housing's business or supply chain and will act in partnership with other agencies where there are suspicions that one of our homes is being used for this purpose.

As an employer we are committed to paying the Real Living Wage to all our staff and we regularly review our terms of employment to ensure that they comply with all relevant legislation. All new employees are required to complete Right to Work checks as specified by the Home Office.

We have systems in place to identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains, mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chain, and to protect whistle-blowers.

We manage projects and procurements where services and products are sourced from suppliers. Most of these products are not sourced by us directly but are sourced by our contracted suppliers of services, goods and works. As an organisation that does not wish to work with any business knowingly involved in slavery or human trafficking in any part of its operations, we are taking the following steps:

• Requiring new suppliers appointed by tender to declare that they are not involved in slavery or human trafficking and have not been subject to any investigation in connection with any offence involving slavery or human trafficking.
• Including provisions in our template contract documentation requiring our suppliers to take appropriate steps to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in their supply chains.

We have zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking. To ensure all those in our supply chain and contractors comply with our values, we have in place a rigorous supply chain compliance programme. This consists of:

• Asking tenderers to declare that they and all their suppliers are compliant with the Modern Slavery Act 2015
• Asking our suppliers to declare whether they or any of their suppliers have been subject to prosecution under the Modern Slavery Act 2015
• Ensuring all contractual agreements refer to adherence to the Modern Slavery Act 2015

We will assess any evidence of non-compliance and will take appropriate remedial action. We will only trade with those who fully comply with this statement and the terms of our contracts for those who are taking verifiable steps towards compliance. Policies relating to slavery and human trafficking

This statement is made under section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. It constitutes our Group's slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31 March 2022. The turnover of the Selwood Housing Group exceeds £36 million for that period.

This statement applies to all entities within the Group and is approved by Selwood Housing's group board. It will be reviewed and updated on an annual basis.

Modern slavery statement August 2023, 151.1KB PDF