Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement (2022)

Download a copy of our modern slavery statement

Achieve together is one of the UK’s leading providers of support for people with learning disabilities, autism, PMLD, deafness, hearing loss and associated complex needs. Our organisation has over 25 years of expertise and our ethos has always been to have people we support and their families at the heart of our organisation and at the centre of everything we do. Together we are focused on providing a strong foundation to offer the best possible support.

Our team of expert practitioners are proud to deliver high-quality support to over 2,300 people in over 420 care homes and services across England and Wales. We endeavour to be a continuing leader in best practice across the country and ensure that people we support have every opportunity to fulfil their potential. Our goal is to drive quality across the sector and lead by example.

The purpose of this statement is to set out our commitment to the steps already taken, and steps we will continue to take, to ensure that modern slavery or human trafficking is not taking place within our organisation or supply chain.

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires commercial organisations such as us operating in the UK, with an annual turnover in excess of £36 million, to produce a slavery and human trafficking statement at the end of each financial year that will be published within six months in accordance with the Act.

Achieve together has zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking across its entire business operations. We are also committed to the prevention of slavery and human trafficking, in all its forms. We will not tolerate or condone it within any part of our organisation or supply chain. This statement sets out our commitment to ensuring a non-discriminatory and respectful working environment for all our team members and sets out our associated policies for our supply chain.

Our recruitment and people management processes are designed to ensure that all prospective employees are legally entitled to work in the UK and to safeguard employees from any abuse or coercion.

We do not enter business with any organisation, in the UK or abroad, which knowingly supports or is found to be involved in slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour.

Organisational structure and supply chains

This policy applies to Galaxy Group Bidco Limited and all its subsidiaries including Achieve together Limited which is the principal trading entity of the Group. Achieve together have appropriate governance in place to effectively support this statement.

Our Procurement Policy sets out the process and procedures for effectively managing our supply chain. We have nominated senior professionals responsible for the oversight of our arrangements and associated policies which are sponsored by a member of the Executive Board.

Due to the nature of our business, we assess ourselves to have a low risk of modern slavery in our organisation and supply chains. However, despite this low risk, we are committed to undertaking regular audits and risk assessments, both internally and within our supply chain, to ensure that we promptly mitigate any identified risks or concerns.

Policies and Procedures

We have the following policies and associated processes to ensure they include reference to the duties of the organisation and individual team members and, where applicable, information on the Modern Slavery Act.

These policies include:

• Procurement – Modern Slavery Policy (Functional Owner: Estates)
• Speak Up (Functional Owner: Quality)
• Bullying and harassment (Functional Owner: Quality)
• Whistleblowing (Functional Owner: Quality)
• Safeguarding Adults (Functional Owner: Quality)
• HR ways of working (Functional Owner: People)
• HR compliance & governance (Functional Owner: People)
• Diversity and inclusion policy (Functional Owner: People)
• Recruitment and selection policy (Functional Owner: People)

Embedding our principles

We will continue to embed the principles of this statement and associated policies.

We will also undertake an annual review of this statement with the Executive Team in line with our annual financial reporting timetable.

This statement will be published on our website via a prominent link on the homepage and published on the government Modern Slavery Statement Registry.

Executive approval

Approved by the Board of Galaxy BidCo Limited on 20 March 2024.