| Delivering Value |
| Local Communities |
In our first Partnership Report, 'Strength in Numbers', we related examples of the Bank's involvement with local communities. However, in this year's report we aim to provide clear and substantial evidence that the support we provide delivers value to those communities receiving aid. Therefore we commissioned Business in the Community to audit our involvement in a number of community projects and report on the results below.
[ Determining the community's priorities and measuring the Bank's performance ]
Ascertaining the priorities of a Partner such as "Community" is much more difficult when compared to the likes of "Customers" or "Staff". A number of different groups go to make up a community and each may have a different point of view. For this reason we brought in an expert third party, Business in the Community, to assess the scale and quality of our community relations programme. We also commissioned research amongst customers to ascertain views on the impact closing a number of our branches made on the community (which is reported in the section on Social Responsibility opposite).
1) Charitable support
As detailed in our Mission Statement the Bank aims to "be a responsible member of society by promoting an environment where the needs of local communities can be met now and in the future". One way in which to do this is to ensure funds are available from our charitable aid programme to go towards supporting community groups .
[ Existing commitment ]
The Co-operative Bank has a policy to support community organisations in and around our centres of operation, particularly those involved in ethical, ecological, co-operative or economic development ventures.
[ Performance ]
The Co-operative Bank contributed a total of £1.95 million to charitable causes during 1997, 30%of this was allocated to causes benefiting the Community. The Bank has concentrated its involvement in projects which contribute to the following areas:
As can be seen, a significant portion of the Bank's community support was channelled into urban regeneration, ecological projects and educational initiatives. In order to assess what difference our charitable aid made on the ground, we asked Business in the Community to audit a series of case-studies, chosen by themselves, and these are reported on throughout this section.
"Business in the Community conducted interviews with three of the Bank's community partners. None of the three organisations made any negative comments on their relations with the Bank and were in fact very positive. Business in the Community found that these partnerships embodied key indicators of real commitment: top management involvement, long-term commitment and staff engagement."
CHRISS GRIBBIN Business in the community
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An important feature of our performance in this area is the fact that much of our community support is not initiated at Head Office, but is derived from referrals originating across the network. Furthermore, a recent audit of staff involvement in community projects found that employees from 54 different locations or departments were actively engaged in providing in-kind community support, which is consistent with the commitment given in our Mission Statement to encourage "our staff to take an active role within the local community". For example, during 1997 six Bank employees were involved in a programme which aims to help young people identify and develop their non-academic core skills, thereby enhancing motivation, self esteem, self awareness and increasing their employment and further education opportunities.
[ Future objectives ]
i) The Bank will continue to provide charitable aid and in-kind support to community groups in priority areas.
ii) Next year we will develop, in consultation with Business in the Community, a revised Corporate Community Involvement Plan, which will, amongst other things, aid those approaching the Bank to understand our community priorities.
CHRIS SMITH Group Public Affairs Manager
DAVID DICKMAN Head of Co-operative and Community Affairs
Macmillan Nurses "Each year Macmillan Nurses help over 200,000 people in the United Kingdom and has worked in partnership with the Bank on a range of initiatives. Macmillan were one of the benefiting organisations from the Bank's Customers Who Care scheme. In 1997 the Bank was heavily involved with Macmillan's Manchester and District Appeal. The Bank's then Managing Director chaired the appeal and 328 staff were involved in fund-raising activities which ranged from quiz evenings to Hot Cross Bun sales, and £14,665 was raised. The Bank then invited its customers to support Macmillan through mailshots to 900,000 customers which has resulted in ongoing funding of over £200,000 per annum. Nicholas Young, Chief Executive of Macmillan Cancer Relief said of The Co-operative Bank: "The tremendous commitment and enthusiasm of everybody at the Bank has made a real difference to us at Macmillan, and, much more importantly, a very real difference to people living with cancer .""
CHRIS GRIBBEN Business in the community
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| Central to the Bank's Partnership Approach is an appreciation of the manner in which the Bank's future is linked to a whole variety of Partners. | |
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| When we launched our Ecological Mission Statement we recognised the important part that local communities can play in the shift to a more ecologically-sound society. | |
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