BBC CHILDREN IN NEED AND CHILDREN IN NEED LIMITED MODERN SLAVERY STATEMENT 

FINANCIAL YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2025 

This statement is made pursuant to section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and sets out the work undertaken during the financial year ended 30 June 2025 to further identify, prevent and address modern slavery across our organisation and supply chains, as well as detailing plans to continue to drive this work forward. 

BBC Children in Need has a moral and legal responsibility to prevent modern slavery from occurring in any form across our organisation and within our supply chains. BBC Children in Need understands modern slavery to include forced labour, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, child labour, criminal exploitation, and servitude; and acknowledges that any form of labour exploitation, if left present, can evolve into modern slavery. We are committed to ensuring that our organisational practices and risk-management approach support our responsibility to ensure BBC Children in Need is proactively preventing modern slavery and addressing it should a case occur. 

OUR ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE AND SUPPLY CHAINS 

BBC Children in Need’s ambition is that: 

Every child and young person deserves the opportunity to thrive and be the best they can be. 

At BBC Children in Need, we act where the need is greatest. Our ambition is to create positive and lasting change across the UK for the children and young people who need us most. 

Together with the BBC and our partners, we aim to inspire the nation and unite communities to support us in our work 

BBC Children in Need has one wholly owned trading subsidiary, Children in Need Limited, and together we have 172 employees based across the UK. We are committed to ensuring that everyone who works for and with us is treated fairly, is able to work in a safe environment and has their human rights respected and protected. We have a responsibility to work to ensure modern slavery is not present in any form across the charity and within our supply chains and we are committed to ensuring our practices support this. 

As the BBC’s corporate charity, BBC Children in Need is supported by, and seeks to align itself to the policies of the BBC in several ways, including our approach to modern slavery.  You can read the BBC Group’s Modern Slavery Statement here.  

We have a varied supply chain covering services which are provided within the UK, and a range of products, including goods not for resale, a small range of branded merchandise (including those manufactured overseas), and UK based licensees.   

APPROACH TO IDENTIFYING AND ASSESSING MODERN SLAVERY RISK 

We continue to adopt a risk-based approach to managing modern slavery. This is informed through a risk assessment to identify and target ethical issues, including modern slavery, in our organisation and supply chains. 

The risk assessment utilises publicly available reports on modern slavery and human rights, industry knowledge, as well as in-house expertise, both within BBC Children in Need and the BBC, to identify where the priority areas are based on inherent risk. It assesses the likelihood and impact of modern slavery occurring. The results of the assessment inform the approach taken to manage the risk of modern slavery and other ethical issues. 

We continue to determine that our risk is greatest in our supply chain categories of official merchandise, branded product for promotional use and licensed product. Our due diligence measures described in this statement therefore continue to predominantly focus on these areas. 

OUR DUE DILIGENCE APPROACH 

We acknowledge that due diligence is a multi-layered approach that identifies, assesses, prevents and addresses any adverse impacts, as well as assessing where BBC Children in Need, whether solely or jointly, could be potentially contributing to an adverse impact. 

1. POLICIES AND PROCESSES 

Our policies and guidelines across BBC Children in Need set out our expectations of our people, stakeholders and suppliers on our standards, conduct and processes. They are issued at the point of engagement with the individual or supplier and are reviewed periodically. Key policies that strengthen our approach to preventing modern slavery include: 

• Ethical Trading Policy: Our Ethical Trading Policy sets out our expectations of our suppliers. It is in line with the Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code and reflects the International Labour Organisations Conventions and Recommendations including clauses covering forced labour. This policy forms part of our standard Supplier Terms of Trade, Freelance Terms and our agreements with corporate partners and licensees, except in cases where licensees’ own policies are deemed to set a higher standard than or equivalent to ours.  The policy sets out our requirements on labour standards and is prefaced by a list of minimum standards that partners must meet before we are able to work with them.  It is issued at the point of engagement with the individual or supplier and is reviewed periodically.  A copy of our Ethical Policy is available on request.  Our Ethical Trading Policy was reviewed in 2024/2025. 

• BBC Code of Conduct: We continue to communicate the BBC’s Code of Conduct internally to all members of the organisation. The BBC’s Code of Conduct brings together BBC standards, policies and processes for all staff and is in line with the BBC Value For All strategy. The Code sets our expectations of ethical conduct, fair, respectful treatment, and also highlights how our employees and others engaged on BBC Children in Need business may raise concerns. 

• Our Safeguarding Policy (CYP) and our Safeguarding Policy (Adults at risk) outlines the measures that need to be taken to safeguard children and vulnerable adults who engage with BBC Children in Need. 

• Launched in November 2024, the BBC’s Sustainable Supply Chain Code of Conduct sets out the BBC’s commitment to integrating environmental and ethical considerations into the supply chain of the goods and services that the BBC procures, by communicating the minimum and advanced expectations with our suppliers. BBC Children in Need aligns with this policy in our large scale procurements.  

• Our Whistleblowing Policy confirms our and the BBC’s commitment to maintaining the highest standards of ethics, honesty, openness and accountability and set out procedures for raising concerns in relation to, amongst other things, acts of abuse or exploitation. 

Our on-boarding and tender processes for new suppliers of core products also apply focus to our ethical trade requirements to ensure consistency in evaluating potential partners’ ethical trade processes and controls prior to the start of any relationship.  We require that all suppliers and factories producing our own label merchandise are members of SEDEX and have up to date SMETA audits in place and we cross reference our factories with open-source databases of known compliance issues to ensure they have not been highlighted as known areas of concern. 

2. GOVERNANCE 

Responsibility for managing BBC Children in Need’s approach to modern slavery and oversight of ethical compliance sits with our Director of Finance and Operations. Our work to tackle modern slavery is led by our Head of Operations, who engages key internal stakeholders with responsibility for areas of the business where modern slavery risk has been identified.   

Our Ethical Trading Policy and programme are overseen by our Executive Team and our Trustees also receive an annual update on our activities in relation to tackling modern slavery. 

3. REPORTING MECHANISMS  

At BBC Children in Need, there are well established mechanisms available for those working directly and indirectly for the organisation to report any concerns about exploitation and modern slavery. This includes via our well-publicised, public-facing Supporter Care and grant management channels, as well as a variety of bespoke routes, including utilising the Safeguarding Policy to raise concerns about a child or vulnerable adult.  

The BBC also has an independent third-party reporting line that is available in 37 languages via phone or online and a Corporate Investigations team. The Safeguarding and Corporate Investigations teams within the BBC can support in investigating and remediating any suspected or actual cases of modern slavery.  

In 2024/25, there were two whistleblowing cases received through various channels across BBC Children in Need. None of the cases were categorised as Modern Slavery disclosures. 

4.COLLABORATION 

In 24/25 BBC Children in Need formed part of, and contributed to, the BBC Group’s Ethical Trading Working Group, which consists of stakeholders from key business areas across the BBC, including those who manage ethical trading and modern slavery risks on a day-to-day basis. The Working Group is supported by subject matter experts from within the BBC Group, and external specialists where necessary. It is chaired by the BBC Sustainability team, with key involvement from BBC Procurement. 

In the next financial year, we plan to explore further collaborative opportunities with external partners, to enhance our work in this area as we expand our programme. 

5. TRAINING AT BBC CHILDREN IN NEED 

Training is an important tool for ensuring that everyone within the organisation is upskilled and has the knowledge to know what modern slavery is, how to spot the indicators, and has the knowledge to know how to report any suspected or actual cases. 

• ‘Our BBC and You’ training, which is mandatory for all new starters and then completed every 2 years for existing employees, includes guidance on complying with our Code of Conduct.  Completion rates are monitored, and non-completion is followed up. 

• The BBC’s ‘Ethical Trading Training’ is available for all BBC Children in Need staff. 

• The BBC has a dedicated Modern Slavery area on its intranet available to all our staff where it publishes awareness materials. 

• BBC Children in Need provides guidance documentation to product manufacturers on how to follow our ethical trading programme, underlining that minimum standards on forced labour and other serious issues must be met before a factory can be approved for production. 

2024/25 PROGRESS UPDATE 

During the financial year 2024/25, our focus has been on ensuring our internal awareness, policies and practices are continuing to strengthen BBC Children in Need’s approach to tackling modern slavery. We have: 

• revisited our approach to our supply chain risk assessment to ensure our areas of focus and associated mitigations are fit for purpose; 

• reviewed our governance and accountability structure with regards to our approach to tackling modern slavery; 

• attended a variety of external education events to bring our organisation up to date with developing issues relevant to our industry and forms of risk mitigation;  

• reviewed our approach to procuring, assessing and managing our supply chain for our core branded merchandise; 

• reviewed and updated our Ethical Trading Policy which will then be implemented in our 2025/2026 financial year. 

FUTURE PLANS AND PRIORITIES 

We appreciate the significance of our role in helping to identify, prevent and mitigate modern slavery. We aim to continuously improve and evolve our practices in relation to operating as a responsible organisation, sourcing products and services ethically, as well as helping to raise standards across the industry.  

Our priorities for next year will support in developing the programme to strengthen and expand our approach across BBC Children in Need through the following: 

• Strengthened Accountability and Governance: reviewing the governance of BBC Children in Need’s compliance with the Modern Slavery Act internally including establishing a dedicated internal working group focused on raising awareness of ethical trade and modern slavery, to include enhancing the risk assessment for the year and conducting due diligence. 

• Enhanced Supplier Due Diligence: With the support of the BBC’s sustainability department, implementing enhanced operational processes for due diligence with our supply chain for core product and large volume licensees. 

• Risk Assessment Update: reviewing methodology and mitigations annually, ensuring supply chain owners are clear on the risks and their responsibilities when it comes to ethical trade within their business areas. 

• External Collaboration: continuing to attend externally hosted industry events to increase CIN’s knowledge in this area and enhance our internal delivery. 

• Awareness & Training: continuing to work with the BBC Lead for Modern Slavery and continuing to be a key member of the BBC’s Ethical Trade and Modern Slavery Working Group. We will work with the group to reimagine internal training in the area and roll out to relevant CIN staff once complete. We will increase internal communications on risk areas and restart internal staff education on the subject. 

This Statement was approved by the Board on 11 December 2025 

Signed by James Fairclough, Chair

Further information

• Previous BBC Children in Need Modern Slavery Statements can be found by clicking the link at the bottom of this webpage
• BBC Group Modern Slavery Statement ( https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/reports/pdf/bbcmsa2023.pdf
• The Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code (https://ethicaltrade.org/eti-base-code)