National social value award win for Wates
National social value award win for Wates
Wates has received a prestigious award at the 2021 National Social Value Awards winning the ‘Private Sector Leadership’ category for leading the way in embedding social value into its business culture.
The win was announced at the annual awards ceremony held by Social Value Portal in partnership with National Social Value Taskforce (NSVTF) on Wednesday 24 February, which was themed ‘Recover, rebuild, renew’, with a focus on how to best support communities in a post Covid-19 world.
Wates was singled out above other top tier contractors by judges who said:
We were particularly impressed by the Wates submission including their requirement for all projects to have a Community Investment Plan and their strategic approach to addressing economic inequality, support for local business and community wellbeing and clear commitment to regenerating the environment.”
Since its establishment in 1897, delivering social value has been in the DNA of the Wates Group. Every contract at Wates supports a Community Investment Plan detailing planned activities for engagement with local people and to enrich local communities.
These are co-developed with community partners, ensuring that delivered social value will be relevant to the particular needs of each location. These reflect employment and upskilling opportunities, education engagement, volunteering and spend with local companies, SMEs and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSE).
In 2020, despite the challenging landscape, Wates delivered over £15m in social value, from education initiatives and social enterprise spend alone.
At the recently completed Gibside (SEN) school in Gateshead, delivered through the SCAPE framework, 52% of the total contract value was delivered in social value initiatives including employability support for looked after children, ex-offenders and the unemployed, engagement and collaboration with the local Jewish community and volunteer programmes.
In addition, Wates held an employability and training event at HMP Northumberland for 11 prisoners due for release within the following six months, giving them vital skills to build a career upon release, with one ex-offender subsequently securing a position with Wates.
As market leaders in delivering social value, we thrive on leaving a lasting legacy not only for our customers, but for the local communities that we work in.
We don’t do this work for recognition, but it is wonderful to have been given this award by industry peers and decision makers to acknowledge the hard work that goes into delivering our dedicated programme of social value support across the country.
This win fuels our drive to do even better next year as we help assist the essential and necessary post Covid recovery throughout the communities we serve.”
Su Pickerill
Head of Social Value at Wates Group
