WF Education Group Limited is a responsible business that meets the highest standards of ethics and professionalism.  We are constantly working to ensure that our business activities positively affect our employees and workers, our customers and suppliers, the environment, and the wider community.  At all times we will work in an ethical manner and consider the social, economic, and environmental impacts of what we do as a business. 

Our CSR initiatives and practices are focussed around five areas:

• Our Employees and Workers
• Our Customers and Suppliers
• The Environment
• The Wider Community
• Compliance 

Focus Areas

Our Employees & Workers

We are building an ethical culture whereby CSR responsibility is recognised by all our teams.  A CSR committee made up of volunteers from across departments is active in the business.   The purpose of this team is to review CSR practices with a view to improving and maintaining best practice.   The team also helps to communicate CSR to the employee base ensuring it becomes part of our cultural norm.

WF Education Group Limited always ensures all statutory obligations are met in all aspects of employment, people management and health & safety and we aim go beyond this where possible and appropriate.

• We ensure that our employees and workers are treated equitably, with respect and that all views are listened to.
• We want our employees to thrive and develop with us and we provide our employees with regular constructive feedback and the tools to be able to achieve personal and professional development. Our preference is to promote from within where possible.
• Healthy, happy and engaged employees and workers are a key focus area and as such initiatives around employee wellbeing, benefits, communication, teambuilding, training and engagement are in place or being developed.
• We are an Equal Opportunities employer and ensure that all employees can raise any concerns and that these are dealt with timely and effectively.
• We ensure that Health and Safety practices are robust with training provided where necessary.
• We abide by all requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

 

Our Customers and Suppliers

We conduct our business relationships with integrity and courtesy. We are committed to offering our customers the highest possible standards of service. Our aim is to build long-term relationships with our clients and our suppliers.

Our dedicated customer support teams are located in the UK and France and are able to respond to customer requests internationally. Our teams are fully trained in all our products and services across all our educational brands and have standards of communication both written and verbal that are quality control checked on a regular basis. 

We have clear KPIs that enable us to respond to customer enquiries with the minimum of delay and our T&Cs are communicated at every stage of the customer journey.

Our products are sourced from reputable suppliers and regular inspections of our stock occur, with a quarantine procedure in place for non-compliant goods.

The Company is committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in its business activities in the UK and overseas. The Company has an Anti-Bribery policy which outlines the Company’s position on preventing and prohibiting bribery, in accordance with the Bribery Act 2010. The Company will not tolerate any form of bribery by, or of, its employees, agents or consultants or any person or body acting on its behalf. Senior management is committed to implementing effective measures to prevent, monitor and eliminate bribery.

Many of our existing and all new suppliers have signed our Ethical Trading agreement requiring them to meet all statutory social and environmental obligations in their country of operation. In addition, we are actively increasing the amount of product sourced from the UK where possible.

We commit to ensuring that we pay our trading partners to agreed terms, ensuring that payments are never unnecessarily delayed. We have planned, regular reviews with our Strategic and Core suppliers in order to build and maintain positive relationships.

Protecting the Environment

We continue to take all reasonable steps when managing our business operations to minimise our environmental impact and to promote good environmental practice. We will continue to promote responsible and sustainable methods of energy efficiency; and review regularly our business practices and performance to identify how we can improve our energy efficiency, minimise packaging and reduce water usage and waste disposal.

In line with our ISO14001 accreditation, waste generated on our site is segregated into waste streams and processed accordingly, eg: cardboard is baled and recycled, mixed recycling is sent off to be sorted and recycled etc. Packaging that we purchase for sending goods to our customers has a high recycled content, and the internal use of polystyrene is prohibited. In addition, we work closely with our packaging provided to trial and adopt more sustainable packaging operations where feasible. We are trialling a hybrid working model which reduces office use, which in turn helps to reduce energy used on site as well as reducing CO2 emissions from employee commuting.

We reduce water use where possible, with water boilers, non-flush urinals and dosed cold water stations. All local water courses are protected from accidental spills etc. with drainage interceptors in place as well as robust spill training.

 

The Wider Community

We believe that supporting the wider community is essential and exciting.  We believe that supporting a local charity encourages a positive culture that allows the Company and our teams the opportunity to give back through attending events, fundraising or volunteering.

Our chosen charity partner is Hope House Children’s Hospices, who support families with children have life limiting illnesses. They need to raise £7.5 million a year to cover its running costs.   Hospices are based in Oswestry, Shropshire (Hope House) and Groesynydd, Conwy (Ty Gobaith).  Further details can be found at https://www.hopehouse.org.uk/.

 

 

Measurement & Monitoring

We will regularly monitor and measure the activities / initiatives in place regarding CSR to ensure they continue to work and or remain relevant, rectifying and implementing new initiatives where necessary.