On 15 June, VGC hosted the SCS Supply Chain Enterprise Academy at Hazelwood Community Centre for SCS.
We welcomed over 50 people from SME’s in the SCS supply chain, delivering sessions on SEE, EDI, leadership and collaboration, our CSR programme, and modern slavery.
Andrew Spencer, Head of Procurement & Supply Chain for Skanska, began the day by introducing both SCS and VGC, as well as focussing on the value for the day, which was ‘act with integrity and respect.’
VGC’s Chief Operating Officer, Ciara Pryce, and Managing Director Chris Ryan, then hosted morning sessions covering people, HR, and recruitment, as well as leadership and collaboration.
The people, HR, and recruitment session focussed on the structure of VGC, our values, and our growth strategy. The leadership and collaboration session covered passion and ownership, our collaborative culture, in particular our leadership around labour desk formation including HS2, A14, All Together Cumbria and Morgan Sindall. The session also covered our ethical journey from identifying challenges fostered by site culture, and creating ethical and collaborative solutions to them.
The next session was hosted by Kam Dhallu, Supply Chain Manager for HS2. In this session, she covered the net zero targets for HS2, including reaching net zero by 2035. She also provided advice tailored to SME’s for how to tender for work on HS2, and what they will need to be successful in winning it. Kam also provided an analysis of the HS2 values, and how businesses can align with them.
After a short break, Louise Daily, Frankie Jones, and Laura Roche held an interactive scenario-based session on EDI, social value and SEE, where groups were asked to define these concepts and feedback, as well as explore how they could incorporate these initiatives in different workplace scenarios. It was incredibly valuable to hear the range of ideas from across the room, and how they all contributed to one well rounded solution.
After lunch, there was a case study presentation from VVB Engineering. Bethany Rose- Horne, Sustainability Advisor, explored and demonstrated how an SME can have a comprehensive and effective CSR programmes, including sharing resources available to help deliver social value.
The focus of the day turned to Modern slavery, where the Michael Waters and Andy Desmond from the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) talked about their experiences infiltrating modern slavery schemes and rescuing victims. They also explained what modern slavery and how to spot the signs. Matt Galvin from SCS presented the SCS strategy for managing modern slavery risk on the project, control measures and support for the supply chain. Ciara focussed on VGC’s risk assessment process and strategy for eliminating modern slavery through ethical recruitment practices.
Macks Robertson from SCS presented on ethics, compliance, and bribery, followed by an engaging presentation from Karen Munday and Tim Landreth at Nuneaton Signs. They are a social enterprise delivering social value in all activities. Forty-nine of their workforce of seventy have at least one disability. They spoke about what social enterprise and social value means to them and their business model.
Overall, the day was incredibly engaging, and a valuable way for those attending to share knowledge, resources and information and create networks to help deliver the SCS value of ‘act with integrity and respect.’
