Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking Statement

This statement comprises the modern slavery statement of the md healthcare Ltd, Optimum Nurse and Optimum Care’s (hereafter, referred to as ‘The Company’) in accordance with Section 54, Part 6 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Modern slavery covers slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking. It is often intertwined with organised crime and victims are treated as commodities and exploited for criminal gain.

The Modern Slavery Act, (the “Act”), was published in 2015 and builds upon existing legislation, consolidating a number of different offences into a single act. These offences are set out and defined below: 

• Slavery – where a person exercises ownership over another;
• Servitude – where a person is coerced into providing services and is unable to effect a change in his/her circumstances ;
• Forced Labour – where a person is forced to work or provide a service, fearing reprisal if he/she does not comply ;
• Human Trafficking – where a person arranges or facilitates the travel of another person with the knowledge or intention to exploit that person.

Organisational Structure

The Company provides a broad range of services, from provision of nursing and domiciliary care, provided under the name Optimum Care, practical support, through to high-quality nursing and residential care provided in comfortable, attractive, purpose-built care homes by our sister company MD Healthcare.

Across the group, the Company employs approximately 800 staff members.

Protecting Our Staff

The Company is committed to treating all its staff in a fair and consistent manner and in accordance with our values: Teamwork & Partnership, Openness & Honesty, Kindness, Understanding & Respect and Quality & Best Practice. The measures we have in place to prevent modern slavery from occurring in our operations and supply chain are summarised below.

Recruitment

We take a robust approach to recruiting both our permanent and bank staff. We communicate directly with people to discuss any work opportunities and to confirm details of any offer made. We have rigorous procedures in place for the vetting of new team members and flexible workers and ensure that we are able to confirm their identities and their right to work in the UK. We pay Real Living Wage directly into a personal bank account.

All new staff are required to complete an induction, which includes information and training on the Company’s policies through our E-learning platform Optimum Inspire.  

When using employment agencies, we only use specific reputable companies to source workers and always verify their practices before we engage them.

Policies

The Company is committed to achieving and maintaining high standards of professional and ethical conduct amongst all team members. Our expectations are made clear through a number of policies including, but not limited to, the following:

• Recruitment Policy, to ensure that our recruitment practices are robust and that checks are undertaken prior to employment commencing;
• Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy, to ensure that the Group and its workforce cannot be bribed or otherwise coerced into unfair and unethical practices;
• Safeguarding Adults Policy, to ensure that there are consistent mechanisms in place or people to report concerns about vulnerable adults;
• Safeguarding Children Policy, to ensure that there are consistent mechanisms in place for people to report concerns about children;
• Whistleblowing Policy, to provide a mechanism for team members to raise concerns about alleged wrongdoing without fear of reprisal;
• Grievance Policy, to give team members a mechanism for raising concerns about their treatment at work; and
• E-learning Platform Optimum Inspire, which provides information to all team members on their statutory rights, including, but not limited to, sick pay, holiday pay etc.

The Company’s supply chain

Our approach to procurement and our supply chain includes:

• ensuring that our suppliers are carefully selected through robust supplier selection criteria/processes;
• requiring that the main contractor provides details of its sub-contractor(s) to enable the Company to check their credentials;
• randomly requesting that the main contractor provide details of its supply chain;
• ensuring that our contract documents contain a clause on human rights issues;
• ensuring that our contract documents contain clauses permitting us to access a supplier’s premises, personnel, systems, books and records as required to verify the supplier’s compliance with modern slavery clauses;
• ensuring that our contract documents contain clauses giving The Company the right to terminate a contract for failure to comply with labour laws;
• supplier adherence to our values – we have a zero tolerance approach to modern slavery and expect all of our direct/indirect suppliers to have the same standpoint.

Training

Advice and training about modern slavery is available to staff through our mandatory safeguarding children and adults training courses.

Review

This policy will be reviewed by the Senior Management Team annually and in accordance with changes in legislation.