The ‘Three Cs’ of Social Value: Company, co-members and community

In this article, Associate Director George Fella unpacks the three Cs and explains how they contribute to our social value approach. He also gives exciting insight into our next moves forward with social value.

Reed in Partnership was founded over 25 years ago to deliver services that change lives for the better. Ever since our first day of operation – on the first day of the Labour government’s New Deal employability programme in 1998 – it’s this principle which has given our company its purpose. The services that we deliver have broadened out over the years as we’ve evolved into provision across five distinct divisions; the principle – changing lives for the better – remains.

So when I think of social value and how we deliver it, I simply have to look to the foundations of the company, the ethos that we espouse and the work our teams across the country are driving forward on a daily basis for my answer. Our social value footprint is visible at the Company, Co-member and Community levels, it’s the ‘three Cs’ of how we do things.

Company

One of our beliefs at Reed is that without business there is no charity; but without charity there is no point to business. We are a company which has giving back hard-wired into our DNA. The most vivid demonstration of this is the fact that we are 18% owned by the Reed Foundation, which means that, in effect, all our co-members are spending one day of their working week working for charitable causes. This year, to celebrate our founder Sir Alec Reed’s 90th birthday, and the Reed Group’s 65th anniversary, the Reed Foundation is donating £10,000 each week to the chosen charity of a Reed Group co-member’s choice through a weekly cross-company raffle. In total, £520,000 will be donated on behalf of 52 individual charities, both national and local, chosen solely by our co-members.

We have just announced the winner of the Sir Alec Reed Prize, a £1 million award to a charity involved in working with young people facing mental health issues, helping them to keep or secure employment. Many congratulations to UK Youth, one of the longest-standing youth charities in the UK.

Moreover, at Reed in Partnership we are very proud to be stakeholders in Big Give, the UK’s largest match-funding charity. Christmas is always a very special time of year for Big Give as it marks its annual Christmas Challenge, the UK’s biggest collaborative fundraising campaign, championing a wide range of charitable organisations. Every donation received during the week of the challenge (3-10 December) is doubled, enabling thousands of charities to make an even bigger difference. Last year, £33 million was raised for over 1,000 charities, with almost three quarters of charities hitting their donation targets. I am really excited to see what we can achieve with this year’s campaign.

Co-members

One of the most common reasons I hear about why people enjoy working for Reed in Partnership is that they are part of a company that gives back. Through all the company’s initiatives we are always thinking about what comes next; what more can we do; how can we maximise our impact? It was this philosophy that led us to establishing Community Connect, which we launched last month.

Given our ownership structure, by being one of our co-members at Reed in Partnership, you are already contributing to the sustainment of charities – but we don’t want to rest on our laurels. So through Community Connect, everyone who works for our company has the opportunity to nominate three days every year for volunteering at a charity of their choice. It’s not only a way of further growing the company’s impact; it allows a personal touch to be placed on a cause close to our co-members’ communities.

As much as we celebrate our co-members giving back to wider society, at Reed, we feel there is a duty of care flowing from the company to the individual co-member. That is why we have robust and considered policy in place on inclusion and belonging. We want every co-member to feel like they can bring their authentic self into the workplace every day. We find that we get the best from our co-members by embedding this environment. Our Ethnic Minority and LGBT+ steering groups ensure that the company is always operating with the voice of our co-members at its heart. We also offer broader support and resources across the full range of needs that co-members have, including access to financial support and advice, mental and physical health support and wellbeing resources.

Community

At Reed in Partnership, we really are rooted in our communities. Our services span the full length of the country, from Cornwall to the Shetland Islands. As well as full focus on the contractual obligations of our services in the communities which we operate, our approach is to go further and push the boundaries of what good looks like.

A hallmark of our provision is its embeddedness within communities, through partnership, so that we can truly understand and respond to people’s requirements in an authentic, value added fashion. Take our Employability provision. In addition to our contracted support, we are proud to partner with community-based organisations to hold a series of dedicated, local health and wellbeing events. These events provide participants with the chance to engage with and be signposted to other local provision that can support in a variety of ways whether that be mental health, physical health, poverty alleviation, financial advice and much more. We have held 25 events and over 1,500 participants have engaged with us throughout this year and last. We evaluate impact through a survey to participants and providers post-event – we want to stretch what works and learn from our participants’ insights.

Coming next

What are our next moves forward at Reed with respect to social value? Our Chairman and CEO, James Reed, is passionate about building a movement of PhilCos, philanthropy companies, in the UK which commit to 10% of their ownership by a charitable foundation. There is huge potential to unlocking the power of philanthropy. If more companies operated in a purpose-focused fashion, an estimated £149 billion could be added to UK GDP. At a time when government is focused on economic growth, this is a significant prize.

At Reed in Partnership, our focus is on continuing to ensure that our ‘three Cs’ are each geared towards delivering maximum impact. Our philosophy is that each of us has a duty, and can make a considerable impact, by acting in a way that can benefit society. That could be through giving time and money. It could be through harnessing broader organisational resource. Our commitment is that whatever shape it takes, we are always wanting to unlock more social value at every turn. It is our unrelenting focus.