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One year ago, on the 23rd March 2020, the UK was rocked by the announcement of the first national lockdown. Not many people would have predicted the year that has followed or how coronavirus has affected almost every aspect of our lives.
The impact of the pandemic has been felt across the country, but some areas have been disproportionately affected more than others. Those from already disadvantaged backgrounds now face the double blow of pre-existing poor social mobility and the disproportionate impact of Covid-19.
Shortly after the beginning of the pandemic we created the C-19 Business Pledge to mobilise the immediate response. Our aim was to encourage businesses and universities to be a force for good by making a commitment to doing what they can to support their employees, customers and communities through the pandemic.
The response we had was phenomenal with 300 organisations, representing over 2.5 million employees and 500,000 students, making their C-19 Business Pledge and taking the active steps in support of it. There were some hugely powerful examples of organisations making a real difference in their local communities.
Direct Line Group’s response saw the launch of its Community Fund which distributed £3.5million to the communities surrounding its key sites. The first two phases of this saw the distribution of £2.5 million pounds to 200 charities, helping over one hundred thousand people with a range of support including emergency essentials, food, accommodation, PPE, mental health services and online educational access for children. This final phase of the fund focused on supporting charities that are helping to tackle four key issues: social mobility, left behind groups, food poverty and public health - all of which are essential to the immediate crisis response and the Covid Recovery.
The University of Bradford partnered with supermarket Morrisons to provide a food bank delivery service for students who were self-isolating and unable to obtain food for themselves (and their families as required). An extended laptop loan scheme for students was introduced to help them to continue studying and, through hardship and crisis funding, students in financial difficulty were supported.
bp supplied free fuel to the UK’s emergency services vehicles during the Covid-19 crisis. As part of this, Air BP provided free jet fuel to air ambulance services in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Carmarthenshire and Yorkshire who play a vital role in transporting patients at all times, but particularly during a pandemic.
Persimmon Homes, which has given monthly donations to community groups for the past five years, re-targeted its Community Champions initiative to support vulnerable, elderly people during the pandemic. The initiative is run by all of Persimmon Homes’ 31 operating businesses together with its group head office, with £64,000 donated every month.
Food and support services company Compass Group UK&I redeployed 1,000s of employees into hospitals, care homes and onto the shop floor of national retailers during the pandemic. In addition, the company has awarded a bonus in the range of 8% to 17% additional pay to all its 7,800 workers supporting the NHS as ward hosts, hospital porters or cleaners.
Staffordshire University offered access to hundreds of laptops to ensure that disadvantaged students and their families didn’t get left behind during lockdowns. As well as this, during school closures laptops were provided to the children of students to support them in their homeschooling.
Food services and facilities management company Sodexo cooked and delivered meals for vulnerable people within its communities, including children who would normally receive free school meals. The organisation was also involved in setting up Covid-19 drive-through testing centres for NHS and other key workers.
Those organisations and many others, who reacted quickly to support their staff, customers and communities, are now at the forefront of the recovery as we aim to build back better. Through the Purpose Coalition, the most committed purpose-led leaders and organisations that have signed up to the Social Mobility Pledge are now taking a lead in building back better and levelling up Britain.
Working with the Purpose Coalition, earlier this year we have now launched the ‘Levelling Up Goals’ that we need to achieve if we are to truly level up Britain. They cover key life stages like education and careers, as well as tackling other barriers such as health and housing that we need to address to unlock the chance for everyone to fulfil their potential.
One year of living with the virus and lockdowns has both deepened and widened inequalities within society and highlighted the urgent need to make a real impact more than ever. At the same time it has redoubled our determination to make this a moment we really do change for the better. The Levelling Up Goals break our challenge down for the first time and show how it is possible to have a fairer Britain with everyone having the same chances to get on in life.
Covid was a watershed moment for many organisations that defined and deepened their relationship with the wider communities they were part of. And a wider society's expectations of the positive role that all organisations can play have only been heightened by the pandemic. We’re all on the same page, and now is the time for us all to work together to make levelling up a reality.
By Rt Hon Justine Greening
Former Secretary of State for Education and founder of the Levelling Up Goals