p.3/4 The company uses independent audits

"In order to implement these policies, we review and approve independent factory audits which have been carried out against our Code or against the ETI Base Code. We require this for all factories which produce Mothercare or ELC branded products, regardless of production country or product type. An approved independent audit is a pre-requisite of becoming a Mothercare supplier/factory.

The audits must be no older than one year and carried out by a firm from a shortlist of reputed auditing firms. Our internal teams assess these audits based on a ‘red’, ‘orange’, ‘yellow’ and ‘green’ scale and reject any new factory requests with ‘red’ findings. Any of the offenses relating to modern slavery would be graded ‘red’ according to our risk management procedures.

If an existing factory already producing for us is graded ‘red’ in an annual audit, we work closely with the supplier and factory to help them improve the findings at pace via a corrective action plan. In severe cases, if we believe no progress can be made, if progress is not forthcoming or is based on falsified records, we will end commercial relationships."

p.4 They also have responsible sourcing teams that visits factories

"Firstly, we have a team of Responsible Sourcing professionals, based in country who work closely with factories and workers to understand the daily working conditions. These teams are experts in their fields and local contexts, they take a practical, solutions-based approach, spend time understanding workers’ situations and are aware of the risks around modern slavery. This approach allows to develop a more in-depth understanding of the risks in our supply chain."