Modern Slavery Statement

Thomas’s London Day Schools was founded in 1971 and educates over 2000 pupils and employs over 650 staff.

We own, manage and support the five independent schools:

• Thomas’s Battersea - a day school for boys and girls aged 4-13
• Thomas’s Clapham - a day school for boys and girls aged 4-13
• Thomas’s Fulham - a day school for boys and girls aged 4-11
• Thomas’s Kensington - a day school for boys and girls aged 4-11
• Thomas's Putney Vale - a day school for boys and girls aged 13-16

and Thomas’s Kindergarten, a nursery for boys and girls aged 2-4

To ensure the provision of educational services to our pupils, we use third party service providers for some discrete aspects of our operations (e.g. outsourced transport, building contractors) and for the provision of office supplies, catering supplies, laboratory supplies, IT equipment and other consumables.

TLDS acknowledges its responsibilities in relation to tackling modern slavery and commits to complying with the provisions in the Modern Slavery Act 2015. 

TLDS does not enter into business with any other organisation, in the United Kingdom or abroad, which knowingly supports or is found to involve itself in slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour. No labour provided to TLDS in the pursuit of the provision of its own services is obtained by means of slavery or human trafficking and we strictly adhere to the minimum standards required in relation to its responsibilities under the relevant employment legislation.

This policy sits alongside our existing Whistleblowing, Equity Diversity and Inclusion, Safer Recruitment, Sustainable and Ethical Procurement, Health & Safety and Anti-Corruption and Safeguarding and Child Protection Policies.

We have not, to our knowledge, conducted any business with another organisation, which has been found to have involved itself with modern slavery. In accordance with section 54(4) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, we have taken the following steps to ensure that modern slavery is not taking place:

• With regards to national or international supply chains, we expect these entities to have suitable anti-slavery and human trafficking policies and processes.
• We have systems in place to encourage the reporting of concerns and the protection of whistleblowers

We use the following measures to check how effective we have been to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of our business or supply chains:

• Complete right to work checks at recruitment stage and validate salary payment details to ensure they reflect the employee.
• Ensure minimum employment age adhered to, in line with the relevant legislation.
• Always apply national minimum wage thresholds, in line with the relevant legislation.
• Regular contact with material suppliers including their understanding of, and compliance with, our expectations.

TLDS is committed to continually improving its practices to ensure that its business and supply chains are free from slavery and human trafficking. Some of the additional steps that we would like to progress towards implementing in the future are:

• Adopting enhanced risk assessments on supply chains identified in practice as being at higher risk of modern slavery officens in the education sector
• Embedding effective sustainable and ethical procurement practices (as outlined in the Sustainable and Ethical Procurement Policy)
• Proactive engagement with high-risk suppliers to obtain more detail on the entire supply chain
• Updating agreements when they come up for re-tender to include contractual clauses requiring compliance with anti-slavery laws specifically
• Work in schools to consider how the considerations of anti-slavery can be further embedded into their education provision

This statement is made in pursuance of Section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2010 and will be reviewed for each financial year. 

This statement has been approved by Ben Thomas and Tobyn Thomas (on behalf of the Shareholders).

Approved: 10 September 2024

Next Review: September 2025