In accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust makes the following statement:
We are committed to having effective practices to combat slavery and human trafficking. Our procedures demonstrate our commitment to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in any part of our business, including services from third party suppliers.
We provide health care services to Wirral residents. Our services are local and community-based, provided from around 60 sites across Wirral, including our main clinical bases, St Catherine’s Health Centre in Birkenhead and Victoria Central Health Centre in Wallasey. We are also commissioned to deliver some community services in West Cheshire.
We also provide children and young adults services in Cheshire East, Knowsley and St Helens comprising health visiting, school nursing, family nurse partnership and breastfeeding support services.
We have inpatient beds in our Community Integrated Care Centre, providing a rehabilitation pathway to patients discharged from hospital. We also provide in-reach support into the local acute trust, residential and nursing homes across Wirral.
The Trust’s guidance on modern slavery is to:
- Comply with legislation and regulatory requirements
- Make suppliers and service providers aware that we promote the requirements of the legislation
- Consider human trafficking and modern slavery issues when making procurement decisions
- Develop an awareness of human trafficking and modern slavery within our workforce
The Trust has robust recruitment policies and procedures in place which are compliant with national NHS Employment checks and CQC standards and has controls in place to ensure compliance with employment legislation.
Modern slavery is incorporated within safeguarding policies and included within mandatory training programmes for all staff employed by the Trust. Training in relation to Modern Day Slavery has been delivered to all staff through our mandatory e-learning training as part of Safeguarding Adults Training level 1 and further training is provided to staff working with children and vulnerable adults.
The Trust adheres to NHS Terms and Conditions relating to Supply of Goods & Services. This requires suppliers to (i) comply with all relevant Law and Guidance and use Good Industry Practice to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in its supply chains; and (ii) notify the Authority immediately if it becomes aware of any actual or suspected incidents of slavery or human trafficking in its supply chains.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31 March 2023.
Professor Michael Brown, CBE, DL
Chair
Karen Howell OBE
Chief Executive
Friday 29 September 2023
