Modern Slavery Act

Yvonne Lewis Group is a boutique recruitment agency with over 16 years’ experience.

This statement is made pursuant to s.54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and sets out the steps that Yvonne Lewis Group has taken and is continuing to take to ensure that modern slavery or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain.​


Modern slavery encompasses slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. Yvonne Lewis Group has a zero tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery. We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity and transparency in all business dealings and to putting effective systems and controls in place to safeguard against any form of modern slavery taking place within the business or our supply chain.


Our business

Yvonne Lewis Group is a boutique recruitment agency with over 16 years’ experience of providing quality staff to some of the largest and most reputable organisations in the Supported Housing sector.

Working with various client groups such as homelessness, mental health, substance misuse and many more, Yvonne Lewis is strategically positioned to cater to the needs of both clients and candidates.​

Our high risk areas

At Yvonne Lewis Ltd, our high risk areas would be working with young people. It is mandatory that all staff working with young people are fully vetted, including CRB and DBS checks before confirming their placement with the Service User.​


Our policies

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

  1. Anti-slavery policy. This policy sets out the organisation’s stance on modern slavery and explains how employees can identify any instances of this and where they can go for help.
  2. Recruitment policy. We operate a robust recruitment policy, including conducting eligibility to work in the UK checks for all employees to safeguard against human trafficking or individuals being forced to work against their will.
  3. Health & Safety policy. We meet our legal obligations by providing and maintaining a safe and healthy working environment so far as is reasonably practicable. This will be achieved through consultation with our employees on matters affecting their health and safety; the provision and maintenance of safe equipment; ensuring the safe handling and use of substances; taking account of any who do not have English as a first language; making sure that all workers are competent to do their work; the active management and supervision of health and safety at work issues; the provision of the necessary resource required to make this policy and our health and safety arrangements effective; aiming for a continuous improvement in our health and safety performance and management through a process of regular audit and review; and reviewing this policy and associated arrangements on a periodic basis using findings from the audit process, staff consultations and incident investigation to guide change.
  4. Code of business conduct. This code explains the manner in which we behave as an organisation and how we expect our employees and suppliers to act. These include; communication; Staff dress code; and Security.​

Our suppliers

Yvonne Lewis Group supplies temporary, substantive, contract and ad-hoc staff throughout the whole of Mainland Britain, excluding Ireland. We do not subcontract. If, at any time in the future should we wish to sub-contract, we would ensure that as part of any contract with suppliers, they would have to confirm to us that:

  1. They have taken steps to eradicate modern slavery within their business

  2. They hold their own suppliers to account over modern slavery

  3. (For UK based suppliers) They pay their employees at least the national minimum wage / national living wage (as appropriate)

  4. (For international suppliers) They pay their employees any prevailing minimum wage applicable within their country of operations

  5. We may terminate the contract at any time should any instances of modern slavery come to light.

Training

We regularly conduct training for our procurement/buying teams so that they understand the signs of modern slavery and what to do if they suspect that it is taking place within our supply chain.


​Our performance indicators

We will know the effectiveness of the steps that we are taking to ensure that slavery and/or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain if:

No reports are received from employees, the public, or law enforcement agencies to indicate that modern slavery practices have been identified.​

Approval for this statement

This statement was approved by the Board of Director(s) 11 August 2017


Irene Akpofure​


11 August 2017