This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our group's slavery and human trafficking statement for financial year end December 2025 and has been approved by the UK Senior Management Team and our Managing Director Bernard Ward.
Acorn Recruitment Ltd T/A Acorn by Synergie, part of the French based Synergie group, recognises that modern slavery and human trafficking is a violation of fundamental human rights and is contrary to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the “Act”). We are committed to continually improving our practices to combat slavery and human trafficking and to encourage the same high standards from our supply chain and other business partners.
Acorn Recruitment Ltd is a UK-based recruitment and workforce solutions provider, established in 1992, supplying permanent, temporary, and contract staff across a range of sectors.
Our operations include:
- Recruitment both temporary and permanent solutions
- Managed workforce solutions
We operate from offices across the UK (North West, South West, Wales) and engage with a wide network of candidates, clients, and third party suppliers.
The Group has an annual turnover circa £85m and our registered office is in Newport South Wales. The labour force provided to our clients all live and work in the UK, we do not use overseas agents to source workers.
Acorn Recruitment Ltd has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and human trafficking throughout our entire operation. We will conduct our business with integrity and will not knowingly deal with any business or individual involved in slavery or human trafficking. We have not reported any Modern Slavery breaches in our last financial year.
As a recruitment organisation, our supply chain includes:
- Recruitment technology and software providers
- Background checking and screening partners
- Facilities, property services and vehicle providers
- Professional services (legal, accounting, training)
- Umbrella companies – FCSA approved only
- Third-party labour providers - not used in 2025
We recognise that the recruitment sector carries inherent risks, particularly relating to the exploitation of temporary and migrant workers. We take these risks seriously and employ strict controls to ensure our supply chain is compliant, transparent, and fair. Our approved suppliers must comply and act in accordance with our Modern Slavery Policy and submit a pre-qualification document, which also covers the Act and provides us with all necessary due diligence.
Acorn has implemented a suite of policies to reinforce our commitment to ethical practice:
- Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy
- Whistleblowing Policy
- Code of Conduct
- Synergie Supplier Code of Ethics
- Right to Work Compliance Procedures
- Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy
These policies are regularly reviewed and are accessible to all employees via our intranet ‘Hub’.
Our Due Diligence:
- Maintain accreditation to ISO9001 – independent audit ensuring compliance meets international standards.
- Monitoring signs across all workers for potential signs of modern slavery (duplicate addresses, phone numbers, bank accounts, emergency contacts). The Compliance team will investigate any concerns to ensure independence.
- Verifying the identity and Right to Work of all candidates before placement.
- Worker onboarding includes identity checks as outlined, work history, bank account / address checks, references
- Monitoring for signs of worker exploitation during assignments.
- Comprehensive internal audit program conducted by the Compliance team.
- Reviewing supply chain partners for adherence to our standards.
- Conduct reference checks on all permanent employees working for the group and all staff must undertake an annual self-declaration outlining criminal convictions and undertake a ‘fit and proper’ test in line with GLAA requirements.
To fulfil our commitment, we will:
- Review of our Modern Slavery Risk Assessment annually
- Provide training to staff in modern slavery and how to identify and report potential cases – at induction to all new employees and annual refresher to all staff and Manager level training on escalation procedures
- Attend external modern slavery training such as Stronger Together and GLAA partner workshops.
- Ensure our SMT has attended Modern Slavery training with Stronger Together and place modern slavery as an agenda item at SMT meetings.
- Encourage and support the reporting of any suspected cases of modern slavery and human trafficking by promoting internally.
- Promote our dedicated confidential telephone number for workers to report concerns of exploitation/human trafficking.
- Promote internally our dedicated whistleblowing policy and our parent company’s confidential Integrity whistleblowing platform - both can be used internally to report concerns anonymously.
2025 Improvements:
We reviewed our refresher training for staff
Further engagement with local communities in which we work as part of our Acorn Impact CSR initiatives
New worker app has been launched allowing us to run campaigns to improve awareness to our workers
Quarterly newsletters to clients and candidates
Our Future 2026/2027 Plans:
- Further engagement with local communities
- Further manager training on spotting the signs of modern slavery
- Increase worker interviews and conduct worker survey
Bernard Ward
Managing Director
Acorn (Synergie UK Ltd) / Acorn Recruitment Ltd
10 Mar 2026