Introduction
Anthony Nolan is a registered charity in England and Wales and Scotland that helps save the lives of people with blood cancer or blood disorders who need a blood stem cell or bone marrow transplant. We use our register to match remarkable individuals willing to donate their blood stem cells to people who desperately need lifesaving transplants.
This statement is designed to comply with the requirements of Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and outlines the steps that Anthony Nolan has taken to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not present in our business operations or any part of our supply chain. Anthony Nolan has a zero-tolerance approach to slavery and human trafficking. We will not offer contracts to suppliers that do not take all reasonable steps to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not present within their own activities and supply chain. We will also ensure our approach and stance is clear with our partner organisations.
This statement has been approved by Anthony Nolan’s Board of Trustees and Strategic Leadership Team who recognise the importance of the Modern Slavery Act. The Chief Financial Officer takes the lead to ensure that processes to comply with the Modern Slavery Act continue to be implemented across Anthony Nolan.
Our business operations
Anthony Nolan is committed to ensuring that its own operations are free from slavery and human trafficking.
We are governed by a Board of Trustees who volunteer their time to help direct our work. They oversee our Strategic Leadership Team who manage our 439 employees and 1109 volunteers across the whole charity. We have one wholly owned trading subsidiary undertaking.
When recruiting new employees, we ensure that they have the right to work in the UK. As a Living Wage Foundation accredited employer, we are proud to pay the London Living Wage or UK Living Wage to all employees and contractors; this is a voluntary commitment above the National Living Wage set by the government, which is the minimum wage for over-21s. In October 2023, we awarded all employees a cost of living base salary increase of 2%. This increase was in addition to our annual review of salaries that occurs at the start of each financial year.
We work with recruitment agencies and self-employed contractors to cover permanent and temporary assignments. We only use reputable employment agencies, which have been appraised in line with our supplier appraisal procedure, to source labour and we always verify the practices of any new agency we use before accepting workers from that agency.
Our supply chain
The supply chain for Anthony Nolan can be divided into the following top-level categories:
- Human Tissue, goods and services for our Operations & Patient Services division and our Cell & Gene Therapies division (including recruitment of stem cell donors);
- Laboratory equipment, consumables and services;
- Fundraising materials and services;
- Communications and marketing goods and services;
- IT equipment and services;
- Travel and accommodation;
- Facilities, utilities and property related goods and services;
- Recruitment agencies; and
- All other professional services.
As the supply chain is large and complex, we are unable to guarantee that the whole supply chain is completely free from forms of modern slavery. However, we take steps, based on our supplier appraisal process and ongoing collaboration with those suppliers, to ensure that our suppliers are free of all aspects of modern slavery occurring in their direct operations. Our anti-slavery statements reflect our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure that there is no modern slavery in our supply chains or in any part of our business.
We share these statements with our suppliers and employees and will treat any breach of these statements very seriously. We are committed to continually reviewing and updating relevant policies and have processes in place to monitor and maintain our policies and statements at regular intervals.
These principals have been further enhanced by our Procurement Policy which acknowledges that Anthony Nolan has a duty to maintain the trust of our beneficiaries, supporters and staff by ensuring we are carrying out our work responsibly and minimising any adverse financial or reputational impact. Where appropriate, these principals should be considered as criteria for the evaluation process for potential suppliers. This includes ensuring that suppliers are compliant with paying their employees a Real Living Wage.
Anthony Nolan always seeks to work with suppliers who share our values and commitment to these principals.
Supplier appraisal and risk assessment
To ensure that Anthony Nolan’s suppliers comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, suppliers are appraised by our Procurement Team. We include a Modern Slavery compliance section in our appraisal process alongside sections on corporate social responsibility, ethical policies, and Real Living Wage compliance for any personnel who are contracted to work on any of our sites. This is completed as part of our due diligence checks which are carried out on all potential new suppliers.
Our contracts management process includes a review stage to ensure that current suppliers maintain all standards and procedures disclosed by them during the supplier appraisal. Suppliers are required to provide statements, and any professional accreditations available, to satisfy compliance with the Modern Slavery Act.
Anthony Nolan's continued commitment
We recognise the importance of maintaining constant vigilance to identify and address any issues associated with modern slavery at Anthony Nolan and throughout our supply chains. We are committed to continuing to enhance our ability to identify, prevent and mitigate any actual or potential risks. For this reason, a supplier risk report and mitigation plan are produced periodically. The plan includes communications through various channels to internal employees and training session awareness training programmes for key employees, aimed at educating employees on the risk factors and warning signs of modern slavery.
The Procurement Team provides updates which are included into the Charity’s Annual Report.
This statement will be reviewed in 2025 and published in line with the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Nicola Horlick, Chair
Date: 31st July 2024
Henny Braund, Chief Executive
Date: 31st July 2024