New Audit Checklist and Updated Certification Methodology live from 1st November 2018

The ICTI Ethical Toy Program’s new audit checklist and updated certification methodology, developed in response to industry consultation and feedback, are launching this week.These updates follow the launch of Progress Visits which replaced Progress Audits in the IETP from 1st October 2018. Over the last 6 months, the IETP team have run an extensive series of factory training sessions, as well as seminars for brands, retailers and other stakeholders in preparation for the new checklist and updated certification methodology.From the 1st November 2018 onwards, all audits will be conducted using the new audit checklist and factories will now be assessed using our updated factory certification methodology. Any audits pending in an audit cycle which started prior to 1st November 2018 will use the old checklist (e.g. factory has completed IAA and awaiting FU, or factory in Probation awaiting SA). The new IETP Audit Checklist adds risk criticality gradings to all non-compliances, making it easier for factories and buyers to understand the severity of issues. The new checklist also introduces a total of 33 new checkpoints to the IETP Audit Checklist, along with new checklist sections and areas of focus. Updates to IETP’s methodology for factory certification will also launch this week. From 1st November 2018 we will introduce two new pre-certification statuses ‘Assessed’ and ‘Progressing’ to recognize those factories which are working towards full IETP Certification. These new statuses show where a factory is at in its progression towards full compliance.As with the previous IETP Certification, in our updated factory certification methodology a ‘Certified’ factory is fully compliant with our Checklist and has, therefore, met the criteria required to become IETP Certified. Further information on IETP’s new audit checklist, updated certification methodology and progress visits is available in this overview document.Taken together, these updates provide a more comprehensive assessment of factory performance and offer a new model of engagement to support factories. The updates are delivered to meet the evolving needs of the toy industry, address new responsible sourcing and ethical manufacturing issues and challenges, reflect changes in new regulation and legislation, and incorporate good practice. Download the 2018 ICTI Ethical Toy Program Audit Checklist here. This is version 2.0 which contains a number of minor updates from Version 1.0 released in June, you can read a summary of these modifications here.Download the 2018 Audit Checklist:Download the program changes overview: