Modern slavery statement

OUR COMMITMENT

Teach First is committed to continuously improving our practices to ensure that modern slavery and human trafficking are not present within our own organisation or our supply chains. We strive to act ethically and with integrity in all our activities.

This Statement is made in accordance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes Teach First’s Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Transparency Statement for the financial year 01 September 2024 to 31 August 2025.

Our Statement explains the steps we have taken to date and how we plan to continue developing and implementing a proactive approach to the prevention of modern slavery.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE AND SUPPLY CHAINS

Teach First is a national charity that operates within the education sector, recruiting, training and developing brilliant teachers and school leaders to carry our vision forward of ensuring that ‘No child’s educational success should be limited by their socio-economic background’.

Contractual governance and operational delivery of all our programmes is maintained through teams based at our headquarters in London and offices across England. All teams report to the Charity’s Executive Committee, headed by the CEO. The Executive Committee is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Charity and ensuring it complies with all relevant legislation. The Executive Committee reports to the Board of Trustees, which is legally responsible for the Charity’s activities.

Teach First predominantly buys services rather than goods. Our suppliers are principally UK-based providing us with services relating to: marketing; recruitment; venues; events; IT delivery and support; offices; agency workers; consultants; training; travel; professional services; office supplies and furniture; IT hardware; and other materials used in our day-to-day operations.

Suppliers that the Charity uses that could be considered high-risk from a modern slavery perspective are:

• Temporary staff recruitment agencies
• Office cleaning agencies
• Branded clothing manufacturers – e.g. for Teach First branded goods

We have controls in place to manage supplier risk, including an annual review process, as outlined in the Due Diligence section below.

POLICIES IN RELATION TO SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Teach First is committed to ensuring its policies are up to date with all changes in legislation. We have the following policies that support us in compliance with the Modern Slavery Act:

• Anti-Fraud, Bribery and Corruption
• Child Safeguarding
• Data Protection
• Discrimination, Harassment and Bullying
• Donations Acceptance and Refusal
• Ethical Conduct
• Grievance
• Incident Management Framework
• Pay
• Procurement and Contracts
• Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblowing)
• Recruitment and Selection

DUE DILIGENCE PROCESSES

The nature of our work means we are predominantly a consumer of services. Therefore, the risks of modern slavery in our supply chain are relatively low. However, we have implemented measures to proactively manage this risk:

• All our key sub-contractors are required to demonstrate adherence to employment legislation to ensure the welfare and well-being of programme participants are protected.
• Our contracts include a clause requiring suppliers to comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and we reserve the right to audit their compliance as part of our ongoing assurance processes.
• We are an accredited Living Wage employer and are committed to ensuring that the current living wage is paid to all directly employed staff and, through our contractual arrangements and supplier assurance processes, to third party contracted staff where applicable.
• When recruiting temporary workers, we utilise the services of reputable agencies with whom we have agreed Terms and Conditions for each appointment, which are reviewed annually.

RISK ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT

We manage risks in accordance with our risk-management policy. Key strategic and operational risks are  recorded on a risk register that includes an assessment of their likelihood and impact; tracks the internal controls in place and actions taken to reduce, eliminate or mitigate against them; and sets future mitigating actions that would further reduce the likelihood and impact of the risk materialising.

The Executive Committee has accountability and responsibility for the strategic risk register. The Board of Trustees holds overall accountability for ensuring that effective risk management arrangements are in  place. It is supported in this role by its Finance, Risk and Audit Committee which reviews the strategic risk register on a quarterly basis. A professional internal audit team is employed to undertake an annual programme of work intended to test the effectiveness of Teach First’s internal control and risk management systems.

The procurement function assesses and reviews areas of operations where the Act could be contravened through ongoing supply chain management. Risk is evaluated against criteria including country of origin, sector, transaction type and contractual relationship. Any suppliers identified as being from high-risk industries or locations will be reviewed and where risks are identified, they are escalated to the Executive Director of Finance and Performance and the Executive Director of People & Governance. If required, a supplier time-bound action and improvement plan is agreed, implemented and monitored.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS TO MEASURE EFFECTIVENESS OF STEPS BEING TAKEN

As an organisation with predominantly UK-based service suppliers, Teach First’s current key performance indicators focus on incident reporting and the effectiveness of contractual and governance controls. We recognise that, over time, there is scope to develop more mature effectiveness measures as our supplier monitoring arrangements continue to evolve.

There were no reported incidents of modern slavery by Teach First or suppliers to Teach First in 2024/25.

To date, there have been no reported incidents of modern slavery by Teach First or suppliers to Teach First in 2025/26.

TRAINING ON MODERN SLAVERY AND TRAFFICKING

Planned activities

Over the next 12 months we will develop resources to support our monitoring of modern slavery issues.

Planned activities include:

• Implementation of a supplier/relationship management framework to clarify roles and responsibilities and provide guidance on effectively managing key supplier contracts across the 
  organisation.
• Providing specific Modern Slavery Act guidance to key individuals and teams across the organisation who are responsible for managing significant contractual relationships.