Declarations
As an NHS Trust, we are required to make certain statutory declarations which must be publicly available. You can view these here.
Modern slavery
We're committed to working towards eradicating modern slavery and human trafficking. We will actively ensure this by an ongoing review of all of our strategies and business arrangements.
Modern slavery is the recruitment, movement, harbouring or receiving of children, women or men through the use of force, coercion, abuse of vulnerability, deception or other means for the purpose of exploitation. Individuals may be trafficked into, out of or within the UK, and they may be trafficked for a number of reasons including sexual exploitation, forced labour, domestic servitude and organ harvesting.
The Modern Slavery Act 2015 introduced changes in UK law and focused on increasing transparency in supply chains, to ensure they are free from modern slavery (that is, slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking). SPFT is committed to working with local partners to improve our practice in combatting slavery and human trafficking and to raise awareness, disrupt and respond to Modern Slavery.
Arrangements to prevent slavery and human trafficking
Sussex Partnership is committed to ensuring there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or any part of our business activity. As an organisation, our commitment to social and environmental responsibility is covered by our approach to modern slavery and human trafficking, which is part of our safeguarding strategy and arrangements.
Our arrangements include the following:
Safeguarding
Our Safeguarding Adults Policy, Safeguarding Children Policy and our Prevent Policy show our commitment to the eradication of modern slavery.
Workforce
We confirm the identities of all new employees and their right to work in the United Kingdom. Our Dignity at Work Policy, Individual Collective Grievance Policy and Freedom to Speak Up Policy give a platform for our employees to raise concerns about poor working practice. Policies on recruitment also support good practice and protect workforce rights further.
Training and promotion
Our enhanced online safeguarding training courses include role relevant modern slavery awareness. We promote awareness of modern slavery e-learning via the relevant online platform and our intranet pages for staff to provide further support and resources on modern slavery and human trafficking.
Suppliers/tenders
We comply with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and we use the mandatory Crown Commercial Services (CCS) Pre-Qualification Questionnaire on procurements, which exceed the prescribed threshold. Bidders are required to confirm their compliance with the Modern Slavery Act.
Suppliers and contracts
We comply with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
We use the NHS standard contracts which require compliance with relevant legislation, including the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
We use the mandatory Crown Commercial Services (CCS) Pre-Qualification Questionnaire on procurements, which exceed the prescribed threshold. Bidders are required to confirm their compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
We've adopted central government’s Social Value Model (Procurement Policy Note 06/20), which requires a minimum 10% weighting in all procurements dedicated to Net Zero and Social Value, including the elimination of Modern Slavery.
Our procurement and contracting team is qualified and experienced in managing contracts. We use our routine contract management meetings with our providers to ensure ongoing compliance with the contract terms.
This above statement on Modern Slavery, is made pursuant to section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and therefore constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for 2019/20.
If you suspect someone could be a victim of modern slavery, contact Sussex Police on 999, 101 or through the Sussex Police website.
Alternatively, you can call the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700, Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111 or the Salvation Army confidential hotline on 0800 808 3733. All are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Emergency preparedness, resilience and response (EPRR) assurance statement 2023/24
We have been given substantial compliance in the 2023/24 EPRR assurance process and have been assessed as green in 52/58 of the NHS Core Standards. Our EPRR work plan has been updated to achieve full compliance with all these standards.
We are required to meet these core standards to ensure we are able to respond to a wide range of incidents and emergencies and to ensure we can meet requirements carried out by NHS England and regulatory organisations.