Modern slavery
From Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect in the 18th century, and the enduring work of church organisations like The Salvation Army, through to modern charities like Hope for Justice, CARE and International Justice Mission, believers in Jesus are often at the epicentre of efforts to end oppression and injustice throughout the world.
The UK Church and Christian community have pioneered to end slavery, forced and compulsory labour, and human trafficking in its various forms.
Our annual operating income (those funds freely available for Stewardship to use in pursuance of our charitable objectives) is well below the threshold of £36m set by the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
We are therefore not legally required to have a policy on modern slavery; however the Modern Slavery Act 2015 is a positive piece of legislation aiming to safeguard workers from exploitation and we support the aims of this legislation.
Stewardship has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and human trafficking.
As far as is possible Stewardship ensures that the organisations we provide grants to do not use the funds in ways that are contrary to this Act.
With the vast majority of our activities centred on this charitable-gift processing and services to charities and churches, our supply chain is low value by comparison and, as such, we have assessed it as low risk.
That being said, we believe that policies and processes in place within our organisation demonstrate our commitment to take these matters seriously, to promote good practice with all whom we work, in line with Stewardship’s values.
- We are committed to ensuring our staff and those of our regular contractors are paid at or above the London Living Wage for their work for Stewardship, including our contracted cleaning company and other non-voluntary temporary workers.
- We are an equal opportunities employer and have a rigorous recruitment process, which includes formal interview assessment process, personal and work references and other background checks (including ‘right to work’ verification) on staff, as required.
- We provide excellent working conditions and have relevant safeguards in place for all staff, including Whistleblowing, Safeguarding and Grievance Policies and Procedures.
In addition to this we are pleased to see that within the amounts given out from our Donor Advised Funds we find a growing number of gifts made to support Anti-Slavery charities. We give on behalf of our Giving Account holders to fund organisations on the frontline of slavery investigations and rescues, delivering education programmes to raise awareness in schools, churches and other institutions, as well as those working to influence policy makers.
The board of trustees and staff team at Stewardship are committed to continually improving our practices to help identify and combat modern slavery and human trafficking.
April 2021