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Corporate & Social Responsibility Policy

At the Dolls House Emporium we take our social, economic and environmental responsibilities seriously. Our commitment to CSR is underpinned by a number of policies and operational activity guidelines, and is reflected in the areas of business ethics, environment, customers, employment, health, safety and security and community and charity.

Business ethics

We are committed to professional and ethical standards, embracing or exceeding where possible the legislation and regulations applicable to our activities. Our key values are:

• Customer focus - we are nothing without our customers.
• Honesty and integrity - we do not promise more than we can reasonably deliver or make commitments we cannot or do not intend to keep.
• Product excellence - everything we make and do is exceptional.
• Creative solutions - we are constantly looking to break new ground.

Business integrity

• We ensure that our business is run ethically by maintaining internal checks and balances.

Personal conduct

• Employees are expected to act respectfully and honestly in the course of their employment.
• Employees are required to comply with the corporate social responsibility policy in their day-to-day activities. Non-compliance will be treated seriously under the company's disciplinary policy.

Bribery

• Employees must not accept or give a bribe, or other improper payment for any reason.

Gifts, entertainment and improper payments

• Accepting, offering, giving or seeking any gift or entertainment that is designed to, or that may be seen to have influenced a business decision, for either business or financial gain is unacceptable.

Conflicts of interest

• Employees must not seek gain for themselves or others through misuse of their position.

Confidentiality

• Information received in the course of employment must not be used for personal gain or any purpose other than that for which it was given, and confidentiality must be respected.

Health and safety

• We are committed to creating and maintaining a safe, secure and healthy environment for employees and customers, as set out in our health and safety policy.

Suppliers

• We aim to purchase from sources that do not jeopardise human rights, safety or the environment.

Community involvement

• We are committed to fostering good community relationships.

Environment

We endorse the need to help protect and sustain the local, national and global environment, and comply with and, where practical, exceed environmental legislation and regulations. Although our business is low on carbon usage, we aim to reduce our carbon footprint by using environmentally friendly energy, waste management systems and alternative products, and monitor usage to ensure cost and environmental efficiency.

• Waste is disposed of in a responsible manner via registered waste disposal contractors.
• We recycle paper and card, printer cartridges, waste materials and other items.
• Employees are encouraged to reduce energy consumption and minimise waste.
• Employees are encouraged to reduce their carbon footprint by using public transport when practical or sharing transport when on business, and we participate in the cycle to work initiative.
• We continually review the potential for and work towards improvement.

Customers

We are committed to providing the very highest standard of service, for which we have won many awards during our 30 years of business. We strive to deliver on our promise to customers.

• We are committed to providing safe, value for money and high quality products.
• We act in accordance with fair business, marketing and advertising practices and do not make misrepresentations or omissions, or engage in misleading, fraudulent or unfair practices.
• We ensure the privacy and confidentiality of customers' personal information is respected, in line with data protection principles.
• Employees are expected to act respectfully and honestly to customers at all times.
• We provide an effective complaints process with a fair and timely resolution.

Employment

We are committed to ensuring equality of opportunity in employment and operational policies and practices by complying with, and where practical exceeding employment legislation and regulations.

• We aim to create an environment of mutual trust and respect, free from bullying and harassment.
• We support the principles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organisation Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
• We recruit and promote on the basis of objective criteria in line with our equal opportunities policy.
• We recognise the value of diversity within the workplace and those with a disability are treated with dignity and no less favourably than others, in line with our disability policy.
• We respect the privacy and confidentiality of employees' personal information, in line with data protection principles.
• We aim to introduce progressive family friendly policies.
• We are committed to informing employees about events and developments within the company.

Health, safety and security

The company places high importance on health and safety and complying with and where possible exceeding health and safety legislation and regulations. We work towards eliminating all accidents within our premises.

• We provide a safe working environment, facilities and personal protective equipment for employees and safe premises for our customers.
• We provide appropriate training and development in health and safety, and specialised training where relevant for specific roles.
• Employees are required to comply with injury prevention principles, which are eliminating injury to themselves and others by maintaining awareness of potential hazards, following health and safety procedures, guidelines, information and training, wearing appropriate protective clothing, and reporting accidents and near miss incidents.
• Working safely is the responsibility of every employee, in line with our health and safety policy.
• We are committed to operating in a safe and secure way. However emergency situations can occur and our business continuity plan aims to minimize the effect on our operations in the event of a major occurrence caused by an external event.
• We continually look to improve on health and safety by analysing statistics, undertaking risk assessments and reviews and making changes to the premises, environment and practices.

Community and charity

We try to be a good corporate citizen and engage with the community at a range of levels.

• We provide regular financial donations in support of the NSPCC and RNLI.
• We support the local and wider community by making donations to charitable, voluntary and community groups, or other good causes.
• We offer employment opportunities to all through non-discriminatory policies.
• From time to time as resources permit we offer a limited number of work experience opportunities.

Compliance, monitoring and reporting

If it is reasonably suspected that there has been a breach of a provision of this policy, it may be raised with a Director or the Personnel Manager. A concern may be raised anonymously to the Personnel Manager. We recognise that employees may be reluctant to report a concern and we will take disciplinary action in the case of threatening behaviour, retaliation, retribution or harassment towards any individual who has reported or is considering reporting a concern.

Amy Purser,
Sales and Marketing Manager