STRONGER TOGETHER PUBLISHES INDEPENDENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT FINDINGS

Stronger Together has today published the findings of an independent impact assessment undertaken in late 2021. The assessment was carried out to assess the impact of the Stronger Together UK Consumer Goods Programme which supports businesses to mitigate modern slavery within their own operations and global supply chains.

The assessment was conducted by an independent consultant using the OECD DAC Evaluation framework and the key findings will provide an evidence base to guide future programme development.

Key findings for the UK Consumer Goods programme include:
• The primary motivator for engaging with the programme to gain deeper understanding of how to address modern slavery in their own operations. Secondary motivations include: compliance with the Modern Slavery Act (48%) and encouragement from peers (43%).
• 84% of respondents felt the programme had either fulfilled or significantly fulfilled their needs
• 94% of respondents either strongly agreed or agreed that engagement with the programme had led to the business taking steps to reduce risks of modern slavery.
• Survey respondents report the main benefits to be:
o Support to ensure compliance
o Advice on safeguarding workers
o Support for managing risks in the supply chain.
• As a result of engaging in the programme:
o 73% of respondents reported that they had senior management commitment to tackling modern slavery
o 65% reported that they have implemented a relevant policy
o Businesses reported developing stronger relationships with:
 Customers (48%)
 Labour providers (45%)
 Temporary and/or seasonal workers (40%)
Stronger Together will be taking forward the findings and recommendations from the impact assessment, in particular to explore conducting focussed research directly with workers to provide bottom-up validation of the findings.

The independent impact assessment of the Stronger Together Consumer Goods Programme was undertaken in parallel with an assessment of the Responsible Recruitment Toolkit Sponsor Programme (RRT) – a sister initiative to Stronger Together.

Both summary reports are available to download from the Stronger Together website .

About Stronger Together
Established in 2013, Stronger Together is a not for profit, business-led collaborative initiative whose purpose is to support organisations to tackle modern slavery within their operations and supply chains by providing guidance, training, resources and support services, and a network for employers, labour providers, workers and their representatives.

To date, Stronger Together has trained over 10,000 individuals, from more than 3,500 businesses, who have committed to take the tackling slavery message back to over 1 million workers. Over 15,000 industry representatives have registered with www.stronger2gether.org to access the resources for use within their organisations.

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