Statement for the year ended 31 March 2024

CIH’s mission is “to support housing professionals to create a future in which everyone has a place to call home”.

This statement is published in accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and outlines the organisation’s commitment to ensuring that our activities and supply chain are free from modern slavery and human trafficking.

Modern slavery

Modern slavery describes a range of exploitative practices including slavery, forced or compulsory labour, debt bondage and human trafficking. It refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave often due to threats, violence, coercion, deception, or abuse of power and vulnerability.

Our organisation and supply chain

CIH is a registered charity. We operate across the United Kingdom.

We are committed to respecting human rights and ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business.

We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships, in line with our core values.

We do not procure any goods and services directly from any countries which are at high risk of modern slavery or human trafficking, our suppliers being almost entirely UK-based.

Our supply chains considered most at risk of modern slavery are providers of agency staff and contractors in relation to our property maintenance activity.

Steps taken to date

To reduce the risk of modern slavery in our organisation, we have a robust and transparent recruitment process which includes confirming candidates’ right to work in the UK and obtaining employment references.

Our employees are employed on terms that are in accordance with applicable UK legislation.

We aim to provide a secure and safe working environment, provide development and career opportunities, treat employees with respect, help employees achieve their maximum potential and compensate them fairly, with salaries paid directly into individual bank accounts.

We have systems in place to support staff to whistle blow any concerns and to deal with these promptly and effectively.

For our supply chain, we ensure that we engage only with reputable contractors and suppliers who adhere to the relevant regulations and legislation in the provision of their goods and services.

Providers of agency staff must adhere to the same high standard of recruitment practices that we do.

Our procurement strategy and processes are designed to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements and adopt best procurement practice. Suppliers must comply with all relevant legislation and related regulations, industry codes of practice, be registered with the appropriate governing/regulatory body, and supply/employ only appropriately trained and qualified staff.

Policies

We have a number of policies which, through their implementation, enable us to mitigate the potential risk of modern slavery within the course of our activities. These include our Recruitment and selection policy, Dignity at Work policy, and Whistleblowing policy.

Ongoing commitment

We remain vigilant to the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking activities and are committed to continuous improvement of our processes. We shall continue to review our policies and procedures over the next financial year, seeking advice from appropriate sources and take such further appropriate steps to ensure slavery and trafficking are not present in our supply chain or in any part of our own activities.