Anti-slavery policy

Modern Slavery Act 2015: Voluntary Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement

North Bristol Advice Centre is making a voluntary modern slavery and human trafficking statement relating to section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. We oppose slavery and human trafficking in all its forms and make this statement to set out the steps we have taken to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our business or in our supply chains.

About us

NBAC is a charity registered in England which exists to provide advice, information, support and advocacy will help empower individuals to secure their rights and gain access to the services and entitlements that are available to them.
We are a charity providing:

• Face to face at a drop in advice venue.
• Face to face advice by way of appointment.
• Appointments for form filling assistance.
• Telephone advice appointments.
• Digital advice (e.g. email, live online chat).
• Home visit appointments.
• Hospital visit appointments.
• Tribunal representation.

Our annual turnover is under £36 million. Although we are not required to make a modern slavery statement under section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, we are making this voluntary statement to show our commitment to ethical trading principles and to set out the steps we are taking to tackle modern slavery and human trafficking in our business and in our supply chains.

NBAC is committed to improving our practices to identify and eliminate modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains, and to act ethically and with integrity in all of our business relationships. NBAC and our subsidiaries use the products and services we purchase from these suppliers to support our charitable activity and operations.

Our supply chains are mainly made up of the following:

• Telecommunication service providers: Ontel, O2, EE Limited, Vodafone, TextAnywhere Ltd.
• Utilities and rates: Water2Business, Scottish Power, Suez R&R UK Ltd., Cannon Security Limited, Chubb Fire Ltd, Bristol City Council, Gazprom Energy.
• Training providers: Open Mind, ACFA, EEASE Training, Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust, Southmead Development Trust, Bristol City Council, Advice UK, Nuco Training Ltd, Centre for Sustainable Energy, Institute of Money Advisers, Be More Digital, The Institute of Fundraising, City of Bristol College, Voscur, CPAG.
• Office Products, Services and Equipment: StoneHill, Unicorn Office Products, PEAC Limited, Konica Minolta, Pitney Bowes Limited, Bristol Law Centre (AdvicePro).
• IT services and equipment: 3rd Sector Systems Ltd, Byteback IT Solutions Ltd, The IASME Consortium Ltd.
• We employ a cleaner part time.

Our commitment to ethical trading

NBAC’s Anti-slavery Policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains.

Due diligence and risk assessment

NBAC aims to work with only those suppliers that demonstrate high levels of commitment to monitoring and reducing the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking taking place within their organisations or supply chains. As a pre-condition to supplying NBAC, suppliers must confirm their compliance with the Act. If a supplier fails to provide the information requested or meet NBAC’s expectations, NBAC will take appropriate action, which may include not entering into a relationship or terminating the relationship.

To help identify and monitor the risk of slavery and human trafficking in our supply chain we:

• Check business registrations and public documents (Companies House website, VIES website).
• Verify trade accreditations if there are any.
• Get in touch with the supplier to get confirmation their compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and committed to ethical labour practises.
• Include anti-slavery and human tracking provisions in all our contracts with suppliers.

Effectiveness in combating slavery and human trafficking

We use the following key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure how effective we have been at ensuring that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of our business or supply chains:

• The percentage of suppliers and sub-contractors vetted for ethical labour practices.
• The number of inspections of direct suppliers and sub-contractors in our supply chains in the past year.
• The number of reported breaches in the past year.
• Percentage of staff receiving training on identifying and addressing the risk of slavery and human trafficking in our business and supply chains.

Training

To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we provide training to our staff. We also require our business partners to provide training to their staff and suppliers and providers.

Progress and plans for 2020-21

In the 2020/21 financial year NBAC has taken steps to provide additional assurance of our supply chain’s compliance with the Act and following a review of the effectiveness of the steps we have taken in 2020 to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains we intend to take the following further steps to combat slavery and human trafficking:

• New contractors or suppliers that trade on NBAC’s terms and conditions have been asked to provide confirmation of their compliance with the Act by agreeing to NBAC’s terms and conditions for the supply of goods and services, which includes a modern slavery and human trafficking clause.
• Using key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure how effective we have been at ensuring that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of our business or supply chains.
• Improving staff awareness and understanding of modern slavery and human trafficking by introducing mandatory training.
• Requiring new and renewing suppliers to complete a new risk self-assessment to understand the measures they have in place to comply with the Act and to assure compliance.
• Introducing a modern slavery risk assessment register and, where high risk situations are identified, responding to those risks.

This voluntary slavery and human trafficking statement is made in connection with section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, for the financial year ending 31/03/2021. It was approved by the board on 10th September 2020.