Andrew & Co LLP

In October 2004, the firm appointed a new Practice Director with experience of the benefits of adopting a Corporate Social Responsibility policy, and the Managing Partner attended a “Seeing is Believing” day in Lincoln.  This resulted in the launch of “Andrew & Co Cares” at the Annual Staff Meeting in Spring 2005.

During 2005, Andrew & Co became a member of ProHelp (30 hours), encouraged employees to spend a day a year in the individual or team community activity of their choice (70 hours), encouraged Partners to continue to give their professional time to Community organisations such as Home-Start, The Brayford Trust, The Pelican Trust and others ( 97 hours), and regularly raise funds for local charities under the Cares brand (£3,660 in 2005)

Pro-bono support through ProHelp and other Pro-Bono activities under the Cares Brand are now, very much a part of Andrew & Co’s culture.

The Firm’s commitment to CSR has been led from the top down.  Phillip Hoskins, the Managing Partner and Peter Bateson, the Practice Director, have taken lead roles in the development of the Cares initiative, having launched it at the Annual Staff Meeting in Spring 2005.   

Andrew & Co’s Strategic Business Plan (the Plan) was also presented to staff in Spring 2005, is available to key business partners, and all staff have a current copy.  The Plan outlines the strategy for encouraging partners and staff to take an active role in their local communities.  It emphasises the benefits for staff, the benefits for the firm and more importantly the benefits for the community. 

In Summer 2005, Andrew & Co committed to work towards achieving the CommunityMark.  This commitment was in the Plan and an application will be submitted to Business in the Community later this year.

The benefit for staff and for the firm are:

• They have created a caring culture which is generating staff commitment and goodwill
• They provide opportunities for staff to working with different communities and cultures with people from diverse backgrounds.
• They are demonstrating and communicating a commitment to CSR
• They generate goodwill with our business partners, many of whom already have similar values
• They provide opportunities for staff to develop their skills, which they will transfer to the Practice such as team building and personal confidence development
• They are generating good PR enabling Andrew & Co to create a good impression and share its values with potential clients and recruits.

Being a member of ProHelp means they have better access to projects needing support:

• Hemmingby play area – enabled group to secure area for play activities
• Home-Start Grantham – assisted with the negotiation of a new lease
• Rutland Railway Museum – assisted with land registration and setting up a new company
• Preston Village Hall – Assisting project to obtain charitable status

Organisations are usually able to quantify the time given to them in kind, in monetary sums and use this to lever more money from their funding bodies.  They assisted ProHelp to give £47,100 of support to the Community in 2005.