Our Approach to Community Investment
We have established a common set of objectives for community activities which is shared across the Group. The objectives build on our strengths and align our community investment with our business values.
The core elements of our community programme are:
- support for partnerships which support local causes and address local community issues;
- national charity partnerships in the UK and North America which give our employees the opportunity to get involved in charitable causes;
- a Charity and Sponsorship Committee which manages internal and external funding requests in the UK.
We measure the impact of our community contributions using the London Benchmarking Group (LBG) model.
We support programmes which benefit both the community and our business by addressing social issues affecting the communities in which we operate. To date these include schemes which have successfully reduced anti-social behaviour, improved community safety, tackled social exclusion, addressed skills shortages or reduced environmental impact.
As a major employer we also want to play a role in increasing employment opportunities across all sectors of society. In the UK we partner Jobcentre Plus to provide work experience via a pre-employment course which supports the Government's 'Get Britain Working' campaign. In North America we support initiatives to support older adults and ex service personnel find work.
Measuring the impact of our community investment
We measure our contribution to community investment using the London Benchmarking Group (LBG) model. This year our total contribution totalled £1,648,591. A detailed breakdown of this figure, along with previous years' data, can be found on the data page.
For the first time this year we have used participant feedback and the LBG model to measure the benefits of our community investment as delivered via our long-term partnerships. We can now record the tangible impacts of our contributions.
Working with Save the Children, we funded the Families and Schools Together (FAST) project in a deprived area of Glasgow which supports children from disadvantaged backgrounds during their early years of education.
- 32 families took part in the early intervention programme.
- Of the 133 beneficiaries on the programme, 55 reported that they had developed new skills or experienced an increase in their personal effectiveness.
- All 133 beneficiaries acknowledged a direct positive impact on their quality of life as a result of our support.
Our support for the Outward Bound Trust enabled 24 children with learning difficulties from Woodlands Special School, Edinburgh to go on an outdoor residential course. 21 children experienced increased confidence, realised they were capable of more than they had thought and developed skills in co-operating with others.