This statement is made on behalf of Cool Milk pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the ‘Act’) and constitutes our group’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31 August 2023.
Our business and structure
Cool Milk is a for-profit organisation working in partnership with local authorities and early years groups. We assist pre-schools, nurseries and primary schools to access free and subsidised milk through the government milk scheme. We are registered in England and Wales (part of the business employing people) and Caledonia for the purposes of operations. Across our group, we have around 65 employees – United Kingdom only.
Purpose and voice
As an organisation whose purpose is to assist the access to free and subsidised milk for children across educational establishments, we wholeheartedly endorse the legislation in relation to the Act as a crucially important development in tackling slavery and human trafficking. We will not trade or partner with any business or organisation which is involved in this shocking practice, whether remotely or indirectly.
Our supply chains.
Our supply chains include facilitating the delivery of the free and subsidised milk from dairies to the educational establishments. On their behalf, we submit the claims to the government for the milk received/delivered. We achieve this through being a very well-established agent within the market operating fully remotely from the product, yet fully involved in ensuring the quality and standards are upheld. We have reviewed the risks that these supply chains can present and whilst we consider our exposure to modern slavery to be limited, we expect our suppliers and contractors to demonstrate a zero-tolerance approach to exploitation.
To this end, all new contracts, and those renewing, now include a clause requiring that our suppliers, and their subcontractors, comply with the Act.
Taking action
As part of our procurement process, we will only engage with suppliers and contractors who confirm their compliance with the Act. This financial year, we will again contact all suppliers where our spend is in excess of £5,000 to raise awareness and seek assurance of compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Our people
We have adapted and re-promoted our existing policies to address modern slavery and human trafficking where relevant, including our whistleblowing policy which allows employees to report any concerns confidentially.
All staff have been made aware of the updated policies to increase their awareness of modern slavery and human trafficking so that they can understand, identify and be able to report on these risks if there was ever the case. The information which is being kept up to date on modern slavery is published on our intranet and colleagues receive the necessary training to engage with the information/training material.
The policies are reviewed regularly to ensure that they are up to date and incorporate any legislative amendments.
Mike Ferrand
Managing Director