Senior business leaders head to Sheffield to see what inclusive employment really looks like

Business in the Community (BITC) has today brought senior business leaders to Sheffield for the next The King’s Seeing is Believing visit, led by Andy Milner, Chief Executive Officer of Amey, to explore what inclusive employment means in practice and how businesses can help change long‑established life patterns by starting with families and early opportunity.  
 
The visit forms part of BITC’s flagship experiential leadership programme, which takes business leaders out of the boardroom and into communities to see first‑hand the realities people face and the role business can play in unlocking opportunity. Established in 1990 with His Majesty King Charles III as Royal Founding Patron, the programme has engaged over 25,000 senior leaders across the UK. 

Inclusive employment starts early 
 
In Sheffield, inclusive employment is not viewed as a single intervention at the point of recruitment. Instead, the visit will show how access to opportunity must start earlier – with families, early years support, and sustained pathways that build confidence, skills, and aspiration over time.  
 
Business leaders will meet organisations working to provide support from early childhood through to further education and employment, to understand the interconnectivity of disadvantage and understand how, with the right long‑term partnerships, these patterns can be changed. 
 
The visit will highlight why inclusive recruitment is not just a social issue but an economic one, with employment and skills identified as priorities for Sheffield’s growth and prosperity. Inclusive recruitment is positioned as a practical way for employers to widen talent pipelines, strengthen communities, and support sustainable economic growth. 
 
Why Sheffield – and why early intervention matters 
 
Sheffield is a city of stark contrasts, where poverty and opportunity sit side by side, with profound consequences for life expectancy, health, and employment outcomes. Recent public health data shows that around one in four people in Sheffield live in poverty, with child poverty significantly higher than the national average.² 

The consequences are visible across the city: 

From insight to action 
 
Led by Andy Milner, the visit focuses on families, early years, and long‑term pathways, not just on recruitment at the point of entry. By seeing how disadvantage becomes entrenched over time and how early access to support, networks, and opportunity can change trajectories business leaders will gain practical insight into what inclusive employment truly requires if it is to be sustainable.  
 
The visit will demonstrate how businesses can play a role far beyond individual hires working with local education providers, family support services, and community organisations to help remove structural barriers, strengthen pipelines into work, and support better outcomes for future generations. 

By seeing inclusive employment in action in Sheffield, delegates will gain insight into how businesses can: 

• remove barriers that exclude people from opportunity; 
• create clearer, fairer pathways into work; 
• support families and young people to break cycles of disadvantage; and 
• align inclusive recruitment with core business and growth objectives. 

These themes sit at the heart of Sheffield’s Pride of Place partnership, which brings employers, local government, and community organisations together to drive collective action on inclusive growth.  
 
By grounding business leadership in lived experience and local data, The King’s Seeing is Believing programme continues to challenge leaders to turn insight into action helping to break cycles of poverty and open opportunity, starting where inequality has the greatest and earliest impact. 
 
About The King’s Seeing is Believing programme  
 
The King’s Seeing is Believing programme, supported by Linklaters LLP and Salesforce, is one of the UK’s longest‑running experiential leadership initiatives, designed to help senior business leaders understand complex social issues by experiencing them first‑hand and turning insight into sustained action. Each visit is rooted in place and focused on practical outcomes for both business and communities.⁷ 

ENDS

Notes to editor

For further information, please contact Polly Dacam, Senior Public Affairs and Media Officer, on 020 7566 6638.

About Business in the Community

Business in the Community (BITC) champions responsible business as essential for long term economic growth and resilience.   
 
It is the UK’s leading responsible business network, working with companies of all sizes to tackle society’s most pressing challenges from climate change and place-based community regeneration to inequality, workplace wellbeing, and inclusive growth.  
  
Founded by His Majesty King Charles III in 1982, BITC has over four decades of experience in engaging business and delivering measurable impact in both business and in communities through evidence-based interventions. 

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