Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT) is one of the largest NHS community health providers in England, serving a population of about 3.6 million across Kent, East Sussex and London. We employ more than 5000 staff, including doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, dietitians, psychologists, housekeeping staff, analysts and many other healthcare professionals. These staff provide a wide-range of care for people in the community, in a number of settings including people’s own homes; care homes; health clinics; community hospitals; urgent treatment centres and mobile units. The Trust was awarded its Foundation Status on 1 March 2015 and was rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission in July 2019.
Our Budget is £300.5 million; we procure goods and services from a range of providers. Contracts vary from small one-off purchases to large service contracts.
Our commitment
Modern slavery can take place in a wide range of employment sectors, including health and social care. As a large health provider we recognise our role in identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery and human trafficking who may come to us for care or treatment. This is part of our safeguarding strategy and arrangements.
We are committed to ensuring there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or any part of our business activity. KCHFT’s values of compassion, aspiration, responsiveness and excellence dovetail with the government’s aim to eradicate modern slavery in the UK. As a large provider of community healthcare, KCHFT has a duty to uphold the principles of the Human Rights Act (1998), specifically article 4 which holds that people have the right to live free from slavery or forced labour.
Due diligence
KCHFT has policies and procedures in place to equip staff with the skills to identify and support victims of modern slavery and to ensure modern slavery is not taking place in our business activities and supply chains. Our safeguarding training includes role relevant awareness and understanding of modern slavery and helps staff identify, respond to and support victims of modern slavery and recognise the important role of the NHS in protecting these individuals.
Equality and diversity
The trust is committed to ensuring equality of access to employment and training opportunities. This policy aims to eliminate unlawful and unfair discrimination and ensure that all groups and individuals within the community benefit through having equal access to employment opportunities provided.
Freedom to Speak Up
The trust’s Freedom to speak up: Raising Concerns (Whistleblowing) Policy for the NHS ensures that staff have the right to and are supported in raising concerns for example about poor working practices.
Recruitment
KCHFT has recruitment processes in place to ensure that we do not employ anyone without the correct right to work documentation. All external candidates are requested to produce documents confirming their right to work in the UK. The Trust will also verify an applicant’s identity to ensure it is genuine and that the individual has the right to use that identity. Where we engage employees or workers who require a work permit or visa to work in the UK, we carry out regular audits to ensure these documents remain valid. When using employment agencies, we only use specific reputable companies to source workers and always undertake compliance checks prior to their use.
Contracts and procurement
KCHFT’s Procurement and Contract teams are qualified and experienced in managing healthcare contracts and have received appropriate briefings and in some cases formal training on the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. As a result, contract templates used by the teams contain appropriate clauses that require the supplier of such goods and services to comply with the Act.
- Due diligence may also include written confirmation from the supplier that their business complies with the Act.
- Service Managers contract manage their key suppliers and should there be concerns or indications of non-compliance to the Act, then this would be immediately addressed.
The Trust complies with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and, where appropriate, uses the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) Pre-Qualification Questionnaire on procurements. Where the procurement is full open market the tender is advertised on the Find a Tender service and bidders as part of the process have to confirm their compliance with the Modern Slavery Act. When Framework Agreements are used then due diligence is undertaken by that third party procurement specialist, who holds the evidence.
This statement is made in line with section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes the Trust’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31 March 2025.
Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires organisations in all sectors with turnover in excess of £36 million to prepare a slavery and human trafficking statement for each financial year. The statement must set out the steps that the organisation will take during the financial year to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any of its supply chains, and in any part of its own operations. If the organisation has not taken any such steps, it must publish a statement to that effect.
Sive Cavanagh
Interim Chief Nursing Officer