Environmental and sustainability

PCC is committed to sustainability and considers it in all relevant decision making. The Company’s sustainability and environmental policy is based upon the following principles:

• To comply with, and exceed where practicable, all applicable legislation, regulations and codes of practice
• To integrate sustainability and environmental considerations into all business decisions including the sourcing of suppliers
• To ensure all staff are fully aware of the Company’s sustainability and environmental policy and are committed to implementing and improving it
• To minimise the impact on sustainability of all office and transportation activities
• To make clients and suppliers aware of the sustainability and environmental policy and encourage them to adopt sound sustainable management practices. This will be an increasing focus of our service provision
• To review and continually strive to improve the Company’s sustainability performance.

PCC is committed to implementing initiatives and policies to reduce our impact on the environment. In February 2022 we reduced our office requirements and now maintain a small serviced office space in central Leeds, close to the train station. We have a mix of permanent home working and hybrid working.

Where appropriate we continue to hold internal meetings virtually and, where it is practical and appropriate to do so, we provide support to clients virtually rather than face to face to reduce our impact on the environment.

PCC completes NHS Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment

PCC is pleased to have completed the NHS Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment. The Assessment is a self-assessment and reporting tool and resulted in us receiving a Level 1: Publicly committed to net zero carbon and engaged with sustainability. The information reported through Evergreen is supporting us to understand our alignment with NHS sustainability priorities and identify those areas in which we need to accelerate progress. The Evergreen Assessment is one of several NHS initiatives designed to support its net zero and wider sustainability objectives. We are delighted to be supporting the NHS to achieve their net zero and sustainability ambitions, including those set out in the NHS Net Zero Supplier Roadmap.

PCC aims to be carbon neutral by 2030 or before. Through ongoing reduction measures, we have significantly reduced our emissions year on year. The measures we have taken, and continue to take, are outlined in our carbon reduction plan. We have chosen to offset 35tCO2e of our residual emissions through independently measured and verified Social Impact and Energy Transition projects that support communities and restore and conserve biodiversity.

See our environmental and sustainability policy.

See our carbon reduction plan.

Social value

PCC aims to transfer learning, building the capability of those we work with, and support local communities. We support the development of individuals and teams and promote of good practice in planning and delivery of healthcare. We help our clients fill gaps in knowledge, skills and capacity, enabling them to commission and provide services that are efficient and effective for people and improve health. Our events, websites and publications play an important role in supporting the dissemination of information that NHS and other public sector bodies need to develop their organisations and better serve local communities. We share and promote learning gained via our work and embed capability into organisations and local communities where practicable.

PCC provides NHS Networks, a website and networking function, free of charge for use by health and social care organisations and individuals.

NHS Networks provides valuable resources for free including daily news alerts, the latest news and policy information for health and social care for subscribers. The platform provides a space for those involved in health and care to support their work through virtual networking.

We supported the community and voluntary sector organisations to develop their skills in collaboration across the health and care sector to support work at place level to benefit local communities.

We have developed a social value investment fund for clients to apply for PCC support grants. To date six grants have been awarded to support a variety of schemes. These include:

• Support to a PCN around Covid recovery and wellbeing via the delivery of personal resilience sessions
• Wellbeing support to practice staff
• Support to explore outcome focused commissioning for GP services to reduce health inequalities
• Helping a PCN to develop a pain café for local people
• Provided leadership development support for clinical project lead to improve services for people with autism and other learning disabilities.

Applications for a new round of grants are available now. Apply here.

PCC provides coaching support which supports individuals’ development and wellbeing. Our workshops, events and supports individuals’ to reach their potential and improve their employment prospects.

PCC enables local volunteering through our volunteering policy. Recently our Adviser Wendy Crew, spent two days being a poppy seller for the Royal British Legion (RBL), in her local area. As well as the support that the RBL provides on an ongoing basis for serving members, veterans and their families, there was a focus on the protection of a person’s mind, as while body armour provides protection from physical danger, there is no shield for the mind. The donations given this year are being used to help bridge this gap. Wendy said that she had a wonderful experience seeing the support of the public. And it wasn’t just about their monetary donations, people were happy to share their stories about theirs or their loved one’s time in service, but she found it very poignant when they were talking about the sacrifices too.

Modern slavery

As a small business PCC does not fall with the reporting obligations of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. However we have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships and to implement and enforce effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our own business or our supply chain.

Due to the nature of our business, we assess ourselves to have a low risk of modern slavery in our business and supply chains. Our supply chains are limited and we procure goods and services from a restricted range of UK and overseas suppliers. We do not enter into business with any organisation, in the UK or abroad, which knowingly supports or is found to be involved in slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour.

Our commitment as an equal opportunities employer is to create and ensure a non-discriminatory and respectful working environment for our staff. We want all our staff to feel confident that they can expose wrongdoing without any risk to themselves. Our recruitment and people management processes are designed to ensure that all prospective employees are legally entitled to work in the UK and we safeguard our employees from any abuse or coercion.