Some of the ways we deliver Social Value are:
Local people and employment
We support and improve the economic and social wellbeing of our staff and the communities we serve by offering development, training, and employment opportunities for local people and our employees:
Apprenticeships
We employ apprentices and offer our existing employees apprenticeships enabling people to gain the skills and experience to create fulfilling and sustainable careers.
Work Experience
We provide employment workshops, short-term placements, and work experience opportunities for people from all backgrounds, ages and experiences. These help people gain confidence in the workplace and learn skills to secure long-term employment. We organise work experience placements and employment workshops locally in our contract areas.
Equal Opportunities:
We are an equal opportunities employer. Our recruitment, selection and employment policies, processes and procedures comply with the Equality Act 2010. These ensure we do not discriminate against people based on the following 9 Protected Characteristics:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender reassignment
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Race
- Religion of belief
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
This means we actively embed equality and inclusion in our company culture, making sure we recruit a diverse workforce representative of the multi-cultural communities we serve. We are also a Disability Confident committed employer, meaning we are committed to making our employment opportunities inclusive for people with disabilities.
Local communities and charity work
Carers Trust partnership
We regularly meet and work with unpaid carers when providing our services which gives us first-hand insights into the challenges they face. This was a major contributing factor in our decision to be an official partner of Carers Trust, a national charity which supports unpaid carers of all ages across the UK.
As part of our partnership with Carers Trust, we are working with local carer charities from Carers Trust’s UK-wide network. We support their provision of services, advice, and social events for unpaid carers in the communities we serve. We do this through fundraising, promoting Carers Trust charities and the work they do, as well as signposting our service users and unpaid carers to local Carers Trust charities.
In addition to the local fundraising undertaken by our colleagues, we make a corporate donation annually to Carers Trust to support national initiatives and research.
Carers UK Jointly App
Jointly is an innovative mobile and online app that is designed for carers by carers.
Jointly makes caring for someone a little easier, less stressful and a lot more organised by making communication and co-ordination simpler between those who are sharing the care.
NRS Healthcare has teamed up with Carers UK to offer carers access to the Jointly App free of charge.
Local fundraising and community work
We promote different initiatives across our contracts which are tailored to local needs. Our dedicated employees go the extra mile to support their community and local charities. For example, local staff fundraise for local and national causes, such as NHS Charities together.
We also donate equipment to local and overseas initiatives for people with disabilities and provide Dementia Friends training for staff across our contracts and third sector partners.
Environment
We are committed to continuously improving our environmental performance by employing eco-friendly practices, investing in ‘green’ solutions and actively reducing our CO2 emissions. We are working towards delivering carbon neutral services in partnership with Commissioners.
Some things we are already doing to reduce our emissions and protect our planet are:
- Using low emission commercial vehicles in the delivery of our services
- Planning the most efficient routes for our drivers which reduces mileage and fuel consumption
- Sorting and recycling waste created by packaging and other aspects of our business
- Recycling and reusing equipment wherever possible
- Using motion sensors and energy-efficient LED lighting to reduce energy consumption
- Reducing water wastage and the use of chemicals through more efficient steam cleaning and eco-friendly cleaning products
- Setting business-wide Environmental Objectives which are reviewed each year to ensure we continually improve our environmental performance.
Our Environmental Policy and ISO 14001 certification can be found here.