Liberata: Giving Back

With long-term partnerships in the public sector, Liberata has a portfolio of programmes that deliver social value within the communities we serve. These programmes deliver a lasting impact year on year on a sustained basis.

Each programme is a directive of the Liberata executive team who are unified by the ethos of unifying and supporting local communities. All commitments with our customers are mutually agreed and reviewed by leadership teams who with our clients and involve their staff in a spirit of true partnership.

Giving back

Summer of Love

In partnership with the British Heart Foundation, we promote Health & Wellbeing across all centres to support a healthy life-style. These include comprehensive health-checks (blood pressure, heart-rate, metabolism, etc.) for information and recommendations to maintain a healthy life-style. The recent emphasis has been on ‘mindfulness’, considering the importance of mental health. We have been running this for 5 years, with positive feedback across the organisation.

Healthy Planet, Healthy You

For 2018 our chosen charity is Macmillan Cancer Support, where we have launched the ‘Healthy Planet, Healthy You’ campaign. This campaign focuses on the environment and community as well as charity fundraising, with a variety of wellbeing and social events being arranged locally. The campaign also focuses on reducing our impact on the environment, therefore as a business, we are currently looking at simple steps to achieve this, such as working with local environmental charities, recycling or reducing our use of single use plastics in the office.

Carbon Emission Reduction

At Liberata we have created a workplace culture that focuses and takes pride in efficiency across reducing carbon emissions. This increased awareness has ensured that staff members are monitoring use to ensure our carbon footprint is reduced. We have made consumption management a key objective of our leadership teams, for example:

Use of electronic payslips
A comprehensive programme of channel shift
Use Skype for business to reduce business travel
Use energy saving LED lights in our offices

Local focus

Workforce enhancement

Our local initiatives are driven by leadership teams to make a difference in the communities they work in…

Apprenticeship Programme

In partnership with the local job-centres, colleges and universities, we hire apprentices and fresh graduates across our various locations in Redcar and Cleveland, Bromley, North Somerset, Burnley and Pendle.

Through a comprehensive programme, the apprentices engaged receive valuable training from experienced professionals and support with the course work set by the sponsoring body. as apprenticeships came to an end we offer permanent contracts and it is pleasing to note that over 50% of those are still in Liberata’s employment.

Project Search

We participate in Project Search; a programme for young adults with disabilities aged 17 – 24 who want to increase their employability skills. The internship is run by West Thames College with local businesses in Hounslow the course is over one academic year. They try and fit the work placement to what they wish to do in the future and each placement is rotated every 3 months.

Fundraising & Sponsorship

Charities

Every year Liberata support a charity where we match funds raised by our staff through innovative fund-raising drives. Most recently we have chosen to predominantly support MacMillan Cancer Support as well as other groups such as; British Heart Foundation, Holistic Care, Children in need, Save the Children and many others. In the last 5 years Liberata employees have, as groups and as individuals, successfully raised £2000 in locations such as North Somerset and Redcar and Cleveland.

Sponsorship of events

Liberata sponsor events benefiting the local community that is aligned to our ethos. Some recent examples are:

Sponsoring the ‘Burnley 10K’ race every July
Wandsworth Business Enterprise event
Bromley Music Youth Trust – Liberata provided free consultancy in order to help them bridge their income gap as a result of the local authority withdrawing funding.
International Air fair at Biggin Hill Airport, Bromley
Annual Charity Ball – supporting the local events with our partners in Hounslow and Redcar

Vulnerable Customer Support

Our local leadership teams are driven by the ethos of public service to support communities through a series of voluntary activities and supporting local businesses and establishments. Our staff commit to 2-3 community volunteering days every year to conduct a variety of activities such as helping with decoration, lawn mowing, reading buddies in schools. Our service design incorporates a key element of supporting the vulnerable and our front-line staff are trained to support this group.

Case Study: First Steps

In partnership with North Somerset Council and Citizens Advice North Somerset, we have set up First Steps, a non-judgemental support service that helps Council Tax debtors with an opportunity to clear their debts before any enforcement action becomes necessary.

The council looks to the customer for a contribution of 24.5% currently and is looking to increase this to 27.5% from April. The Council in partnership with Liberata promotes schemes to help those who can't pay against those who won't pay with maximising the potential to collect outstanding. An example of this is the First Steps project which we have been shortlisted and commended by the IRRV awards. This scheme helps our more vulnerable customers agree different methods of support to help make payments towards their council tax but also be supported through the local citizens advice service. It is a joint working arangement and the council funds the project outside of its normal business as usual contract.

Jo Buchan - R&B Client Manager
North Somerset council

Delivering true value to our communities