The Shaw Trust Limited (“Shaw Trust”) is a registered charity in England, Wales and Scotland helping to transform the lives of young people and adults across the UK. It is governed by its Articles of Association.
Shaw Trust’s specialist services help people gain an education, enter work, develop their career, rehabilitate them back into the mainstream and improve their wellbeing. Our aim is to improve and rebuild lives through removing barriers and providing opportunities for all to reach their potential.
Shaw Trust is one of the largest 50 charities in the UK, comprising Shaw Trust, Prospects, Ixion and Shaw Education Trust, we use our 75 years’ combined experience and skills to deliver our goal of supporting those that need help.
Shaw Trust owns:
Careers Development Group
CDG Wiseability
Disabled Living Foundation
Essex Business Support Ltd
Forth Sector
Forth Sector Development Limited
Ixion Business Ltd
Ixion CG Ltd
Ixion Holdings (Contracts) Limited
Ixion Social Enterprise Limited
Optimus Education Ltd
Prospects Distribution Ltd
Prospects Distribution Services Ltd
Prospects Education Services Ltd
Prospects Group 2011 Ltd
Prospects Services
Prospects Services Midco Ltd
Shaw Education Trust
Shaw Trust Enterprises Ltd
Shaw Trust International Partnerships Ltd
Shaw Trust Services Ltd
Star Skills
The Shaw Education Trust
Shaw Trust uses a number of suppliers across all of its functions, to enable it to carry out its charitable and business purposes.
Shaw Trust welcomes the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the duty it places on large organisations, including Shaw Trust, to disclose publicly the steps they are taking to prevent modern slavery organisationally and in their supply chains. This statement is made on behalf of Shaw Trust and all its wholly owned subsidiaries.
We are committed to improving our practices to combat slavery and human trafficking. Our commitment is expressed through corporate and strategic aims and in formal policies, processes and procedures. We will act ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships, implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere across our business or in our supply chains. This statement sets out the steps we have taken over the last financial year to ensure there is no modern slavery in our business or supply chains.
The Shaw Trust has its head office in England and our staff are mainly directly employed and are not in any category which is generally seen to be vulnerable to modern slavery in the UK. We work with a range of Employers nationally to provide opportunities for people engaged on our programmes and we are alert to any possibility of potential abuse by slavery and human trafficking at the point of referral. We also have an extensive volunteering programme and work with corporate partners to support our transformation work and demonstrate their commitment to social responsibility. We recruit all our volunteers carefully to ensure their and our beneficiaries’ safety at all times. In addition we have a robust framework for supply chain management.
We provide services in the education, training, and social care sectors, delivering advice and guidance, learning, employability, recruitment, education and childcare provision across the UK to and for individuals, families, schools, central and local government, prisons and corporate bodies. The trustees and executive of Shaw Trust routinely examine the potential for modern slavery within its business operations and supply chains. We predominantly contract for our business with UK public bodies and, given the nature of our business, we have assessed our risk of exposure to slavery and trafficking as generally low; however, we are aware of people, sectors and geographic areas posing a greater risk and work to mitigate this wherever we deliver our services through the vigilance of our Designated Safeguarding Leads, the High Risk Safeguarding Management group and contract management.
Additionally we expect the highest standards of conduct and probity throughout our supply chain, requiring all staff engaged and all of our people to act with integrity and honesty. The majority of our supply-chain providers are pre-approved by public sector commissioning bodies. In addition, our procurement processes include due diligence checks about modern slavery and trafficking and we scrutinise our supply chain using our audit, supply chain management, legal and risk specialists. We will also support smaller organisations in our supply chain to develop their own policies and arrangements where appropriate.
We seek to procure quality products and services while maintaining the highest ethical standards. Our suppliers and contractors are subject to a formal process of approval and review; our robust supplier selection process means that all prospective preferred suppliers and contractors complete a preferred supplier questionnaire which is evaluated prior to their inclusion on the Supplier and Contractor List and before the procurement of goods or services are made. As well as ongoing supplier management reviews, all organisations on our preferred supplier and contractor List are formally re-evaluated every three years as a minimum, subject to initial contract length. Our procurement policies allow for supplier and contractor visits to be made, if necessary, to enable us to understand more about our suppliers’ sourcing arrangements and methods.
If a potential or existing supplier fails to meet our expectations or is unable to provide information to assure us of their approach, we may not enter into partnership with them, or may terminate an existing relationship.
We support awareness among our staff of potential risks in our business and our supply chain. We will make sure that all our funders, employees, subcontractors, delivery partners, service users and any other stakeholders have a clear and effective platform for asking questions, airing concerns including confidential disclosure or whistleblowing, and will ensure reporting processes are clear.
During the coronavirus pandemic we continue to prioritise the risk of human trafficking and slavery as well as focusing on the health and well-being of staff, partners, suppliers and contractors. We have retained our vigilance and have assessed all safeguarding risks where we have made changes to operating models to maintain services and support people.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, is approved by the Board and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31st August 2020.
Signed:
Chris Luck CB MBE
Chief Executive
Signed:
Chris Luck CB MBE MA MPhil
Chief Executive