MODERN SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING STATEMENT

Introduction

This Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement is a response to section 54(1), Part 6 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and relates to actions and activities for the financial year ending 31 March 2024.

Crigglestone Dental (we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’) is committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking violations in its own operations, its supply chain, and its products. We have zero-tolerance towards slavery and require our supply chain to comply with our values.

Organisational structure

We operate in the dental sector. The nature of our supply chains is as follows: ‘We work with a number of key direct supplies, who provides us with goods such as equipment for our premises, and services, such as outsourced business processes, IT software and marketing services’.

Policies

We operate a number of internal policies to ensure that we are conducting business in an ethical and transparent manner.

These include the following:

·       Recruitment and selection policy- We ensure eligibility checks are done on employment as well as enhanced DBS checks and ensure the minimum wage is paid and working hours are 9-5pm with 1 hr for lunch.

·       Whistleblowing policy – We encourage all employees to report anything of concern to them and this will be treated in the strictest confidence

·       Staff code of conduct – Ensure all staff adhere to the bullying and harassment policy and follow the principle of mutual respect towards other colleagues

·       Safeguarding policy – For anyone identified as at risk of harm is a safeguarding lead within the organisation and also external safeguarding leads within the wider NHS we can contact.

We make sure our suppliers are aware of our policies and adhere to the same standards.

Due Diligence

As part of our efforts to monitor and reduce the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chains, we have adopted the following due diligence procedures:

·       Wellbeing at work

Caldicott Guardian

Our due diligence procedure aim to:

·       Identify and action potential risks in our business and supply chains.

·       Monitor potential risks in our business and supply chains

·       Reduce the risks of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our business and supply chains

·       Provide protection for whistle-blowers.

Risk and compliance

We have evaluated the nature and extent of our exposure to the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our UK supply chain through:

·       Freedom from all colleagues

We do not consider that we operate in a high-risk environment because a very small organisation providing healthcare from one facility mainly employing dentists and hygienists from within the UK.

We do not tolerate slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains. Where there is evidence of failure to comply with our policies and procedures by any of our suppliers, we will seek to terminate our relationship with that supplier immediately.

Effectiveness

We use key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure our effectiveness and ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in our business and supply chains. These KPIs are as follows:

·       We will contact suppliers to enquire about their modern slavery practices every 12 months.

Next steps

In the next financial year, we intent to take the following steps to tackle slavery and human trafficking by:

·       Keep up to date with all relevant legislation and amend training/policies as required.