Charter for Social Responsibility goes from strength to strength
Councillor Majid Mahmood, cabinet member value for money and efficiency, has announced the next stage of Birmingham City Council’s Charter for Social Responsibility.
The Charter continues to be a great success with 384 signatories, and is something the council and the city should be really proud of. And crucially, this has resulted in the creation of 1,068 jobs, 245 apprenticeships, over 3,000 work placements and 629 people now earning the Birmingham Living Wage, as part of their commitment to the charter.
Now some may say these would have been created anyway; perhaps so. But by planning, negotiating, documenting, monitoring, reporting and most importantly targeting on areas of most need, we can make sure that it does happen and that there is year on year improvement – just like any other aspect of business.
But we must keep developing new ways to deliver social value where it really matters.
We have been piloting some ‘matching projects’, whereby a private sector signatory partners with a charity to help some of our most in need.
For example, there has been some great work by our highways partner Amey, helping to train and qualify Age UK staff and volunteers to carry out minor repairs at the homes of elderly people; not only will this lead to better employment prospects for Age UK staff it will enable elderly people’s independent living.
St Basil’s and HTM (Highways Traffic Management) have worked together to get three young homeless people into employment and living accommodation along with other support, which will move them towards independent living.
PwC has been supporting Aquarius with business mentoring to establish their new social enterprise, running a café and conference facilities, aimed at training and supporting young people with drug and alcohol problems.
These are just three of a number of projects which we now want to build on, addressing the council’s and the city’s priorities. We want to work with charter signatories, existing and new, taking into account where strengths and capabilities lie – effectively we will be the catalyst for the private and third sectors working together to address the needs of the city.
I firmly believe that we can create enduring relationships that will continue to have a real impact on the quality of life of people living in this city.
Ends
