Corporate responsibility

We are committed to reducing the environmental impact of Brain in Hand Ltd and to continually reviewing and improving our environmental performance; this should form an integral part of our business strategy and operating methods.

We endeavour to maintain a high standard of awareness among all employees, to incorporate environmental factors into business decisions, and to exceed all relevant regulatory requirements. We will minimise the use of paper, reduce the amount of energy used as much as possible, and promote recycling and the use of more environmentally friendly and efficient products where possible.

This policy can be downloaded by clicking here or from the list of downloads at the bottom of this page.

Brain in Hand Ltd will ensure that none of the following forms of discrimination take place to its employees, customers, suppliers, visitors, partners, or members of the wider community:

• Direct discrimination (where someone is treated less favourably than another person because of a protected characteristic);
• Indirect discrimination (where a rule which applies to everyone can disadvantage people with a particular protected characteristic);
• Associative discrimination (where someone is discriminated against because they associate with someone who has a protected characteristic);
• Discrimination by perception (where someone is discriminated against because others think that they possess a protected characteristic, whether they do or not).

Protected characteristics are as defined in the Equality Act 2010. All employees have personal responsibility for the practical application of Brain in Hand’s equal opportunities policy, with special responsibility falling upon senior managers, those involved in recruitment and staffing, and those who deal directly with external organisations and people who use the Brain in Hand system.

This policy can be downloaded by clicking here or from the list of downloads at the bottom of this page.

We operate several formal policies relating to specific areas such as access to confidential information, data protection, records management, and security risk management. The purpose of each of these is to ensure that we are acting in accordance with all relevant guidance and legislation and in such a way that we can deliver the best possible service to our users and organisational customers.

In order to deliver our service, we are likely in the course of our business to hold sensitive and confidential data about individuals. We take our duty of care to our users, clients, staff, suppliers, and others extremely seriously, ensuring that data is accessed only by those with a legitimate business requirement and protected against loss or unauthorised access. We only collect and process personal data as is necessary to provide Brain in Hand. We aim to handle information fairly and transparently: everyone whose data we hold is entitled to request information about what we do with their information and a copy of the information we have about them.

We undertake regular assessments of our compliance with legal requirements and our internal policies relating to how we keep and manage information, especially information about people who use the Brain in Hand system.

A webpage version of our privacy policy can be viewed here

Brain in Hand Ltd maintains an in-depth policy relating to our obligations to protect people who may be vulnerable or at risk.

We recognise the right of every individual to stay safe and comfortable at all times. In the course of our work, employees of Brain in Hand are likely to come into contact with children and adults at risk, and we take our responsibility to protect people extremely seriously. As such, we have set out a thorough document including relevant legislation, guidance, procedures, and responsibilities; this document is available in full on request.

Our safeguarding practices are embedded within a range of policies and procedures, including whistleblowing, grievance and disciplinary processes, health and safety, data protection, confidentiality, equal opportunities, and the recruitment, induction, and training of staff. We also ensure that (for example) our procedure for obtaining consent from an individual to use their information in marketing material is significantly more robust than is required in general legislation, because we recognise that we have a duty to exercise greater care and responsibility where an individual may be vulnerable or have a reduced capacity to consent.

We have a designated safeguarding lead who can be reached at safeguarding@braininhand.co.uk.

If you need someone to talk to, or are concerned that someone is in a potential crisis situation, Brain in Hand is not able to provide a crisis or counselling service and would suggest that the Samaritans would be a more appropriate contact. They can be called for free in the UK on 116 123.

This policy can be viewed by clicking here or from the list of downloads at the bottom of this page.

Brain in Hand Ltd does not have a full Modern Slavery statement because we do not meet all of the criteria of Section 54 (Transparency in Supply Chains) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/publish-an-annual-modern-slavery-statement#who-needs-to-publish-a-statement which, if all met, require an organisation to publish a full statement.

However, we do wish to affirm that Brain in Hand Ltd is strongly opposed to slavery and human trafficking. We are committed to upholding the rights of all people; we will continue to act ethically and with integrity to ensure that no abuses can occur anywhere within the organisation or in our dealings with our clients, partners, and suppliers. We will operate a zero-tolerance approach to any form of slavery, human trafficking, or human rights abuse of which we become aware in any part of our commercial operations.

We are committed to recognising the preferences of autistic people and those with lived experience of neurodivergence or mental health. For example, our website uses the identity-first phrase ‘autistic person’ rather than ‘person with autism’, as we understand this to be the expressed preference of most autistic people. Should the wishes of the communities to which we provide support change, or should we become aware that we are using outdated or disliked terminology, we will adapt our language accordingly.

This said, we support the right of each person to decide the language in which they wish to be described; should a specific Brain in Hand user make us aware that they would like to be referred to as a ‘person with autism’, for example, then we believe we have a responsibility to respect their preference in all communication with or relating to them.