Modern slavery statement

Our organisation

Leonard Cheshire support individuals to live, learn and work as independently as they choose, whatever their ability. Led by people with experience of disability, we are at the heart of local life — opening doors to opportunity, choice and support in communities around the globe.

Our supply base

Leonard Cheshire has a large and complex supply chain with a variety of commercial relationships with third parties. The charity recognises the importance of its role in executing the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. We continue to work to ensure a zero-tolerance approach to slavery and human trafficking.

Our people

We have around 4000 staff and over 6500 active volunteers, most of whom are based in the United Kingdom. Our staff are largely directly employed and are generally not in any category which is seen to be vulnerable to modern slavery in this country, so our main focus is to ensure there are policies and due diligence procedures in place for our suppliers.

Our approach

We continue to work to identify and mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking in our supply chain, including:

• A risk assessment is undertaken during each procurement process, this provides assurance that our supply chains comply with LC Modern Slavery policy;
• In 2019 a new Modern Slavery Policy, internal awareness campaign and eTraining was rolled out to raise awareness across our staff and volunteers;
• Modern Slavery clauses are included in all central supplier Contracts;
• In Qtr. 1, 2020 we mobilised A ‘Speak Up’ service throughout the UK and internationally. This enables us to create a safe environment within our organisation for individuals to raise workplace concerns;
• In Qtr. 3, 2020 we will roll-out further awareness updates to colleagues and volunteers in line with the upcoming Anti-Slavery day on the 18 October 2020.