The government has launched a new ‘Promoting opportunity through social mobility’ category in the prestigious Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, recognising businesses that promote a sustainable and inclusive culture.

UK businesses are being urged to join more than 7,000 winners of the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in applying for the new award category.

The award recognises those who are playing a role in creating an inclusive and compassionate society by supporting socially disadvantaged individuals to develop their skills and chances of finding work.

There are 4 award categories and winners are announced each year in April on Her Majesty the Queen’s birthday. The categories are:

• Innovation
• International trade
• Promoting opportunity (through social mobility)
• Sustainable development

Small Business Minister Paul Scully said:

Creating opportunities through education, work and training is at the heart of our ambition to level up all parts of the UK economy, enabling people from all walks of life to reach their full potential.

Businesses not only provide jobs and skills but can also be a force for creating lasting social change, and we want to recognise that in the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise.

The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the UK’s most prestigious enterprise awards and offer local and global recognition for businesses. They are most likely to be the only business awards in motion this year due to the disruption caused by coronavirus and winners tell us that the awards are now more important to their business than ever.

The emblem is a royal seal of approval which helps businesses to compete on the world stage with much larger companies. It offers businesses an opportunity to connect with other winners and offer help and assistance to the wider business community.

The refocus of the Promoting opportunity (through social mobility) category gives applicants a better understanding of the application process. It will enable those whose organisations’ core aim is to provide opportunities for others, and employers with a social mobility intervention or programme, to be recognised and celebrated.

It also it easier for organisations to demonstrate how they have supported socially disadvantaged individuals in improving their job skills and their chances of finding work and provide evidence on the impacts and benefits of their interventions.

Winning business are presented with the award by one of the Queen’s personal representatives, a Lord-Lieutenant. They then have the right to fly the Queen’s Award flag at their main office and use the emblem on marketing materials for 5 years. They are also given a Grant of Appointment and a commemorative crystal trophy.

Applications for the Promoting opportunity (through social mobility) category open on 20 July 2020. They are free to enter, and it is a self-nominating process.

To apply for the promoting opportunity award, organisations must:

• show how your organisation has supported people from disadvantaged backgrounds in improving their job skills and their chances of finding work

This includes doing at least one of the following, for at least a 2-year period:

• providing work experience or careers advice
• mentoring
• offering interview and job-related training
• making sure your recruitment process is open to everyone

Applicants will need to prove the benefits for:

• the people they have supported
• their organisation
• their employees
• the wider community

The Safer Streets Fund aims to stop offences that blight communities and cause misery to victims from happening in the first place.

Following a bidding process, grants of up to £550,000 will be provided to PCCs in England and Wales for projects to improve security in areas particularly affected by acquisitive crimes such as burglary, vehicle theft and robbery.

The money will go towards measures proven to cut crime. These include simple changes to the design of streets such as locked gates around alleyways, increased street-lighting and the installation of CCTV.

The funding will also be used to train community wardens, deliver local crime prevention advice to residents and establish Neighbourhood Watch schemes.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

I will not stand by while criminals inflict fear and misery on our communities.

That is why I set up this fund to ensure we are doing all we can to prevent people falling victim to these crimes.

Crime and Policing Minister, Kit Malthouse said:

Persistent street crime and burglary have a corrosive effect on a neighbourhood, leaving people apprehensive about leaving their homes, and afraid of what they might encounter when they return.

But simple modifications like better street lighting or CCTV can do a lot to prevent crime.

So alongside more focussed thief-taking by the police, these projects should have a big impact on the communities hardest hit by burglars, robbers and villains in general.

Crime Prevention Leads from the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, Roger Hirst and Keith Hunter said:

Today’s Safer Streets Fund announcement represents positive news for communities across England and Wales.

This funding will support PCCs and their community safety partners to effectively deliver crime reduction activities that will prevent and reduce crimes such as burglary and robbery in the areas that need it most.

Acquisitive offences are the crimes that the public are most likely to encounter, and they are estimated to cost society billions of pounds every year.

There is strong evidence that these crimes can be prevented by tactics that either remove opportunities to commit crime or act as a deterrent by increasing the chances of an offender being caught.

Measures that the funding will go towards include:

• CCTV
• improved home security
• Neighbourhood Watch schemes
• street lighting
• crime prevention advice

The Home Secretary announced the Safer Streets Fund in October 2019, and PCCs were invited to bid for funding in January this year.

Bids were evaluated against a set criteria and bidders were asked to outline a plan to reduce crime within a local crime hotspot, demonstrating value for money, evidence of community engagement and long-term sustainability.

As they are rolled out, each initiative will be assessed to help inform future government investments.

The Safer Streets Fund forms part of the government’s concerted action to tackle crime.

We are recruiting 20,000 additional police officers over the next three years, and the amount of funding available to the policing system for 2020/21 will increase by more than £1.1 billion, totalling £15.2 billion.

A full list of the successful bids and amounts of funding is as follows:

The total funding awarded today totals £22.4 million. The remaining funding will be spent on supporting successful areas to deliver their bids, evaluation of the fund’s impact, administration and other activities which support the aims of the fund.

Sarah Flannigan and Jantiene T. Klein Roseboom van der Veer have been reappointed as board members for second terms of three years. Sarah’s second term will run from 1 September 2020 until 31 August 2023. Jantiene’s second term will run from 1 November 2020 until 31 October 2023.

Ian Karet, Michael Lear and Derek Myers terms have been extended for six months from 1 September 2020 until 28 February 2021. The Queen’s Trustee, Val Gooding’s term has been extended for six months from 1 October 2020 until 31 March 2021.

RBG Kew became an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body under the National Heritage Act 1983 and is sponsored by Defra. The Board of Trustees comprises a Chairman and 11 other members.

The appointments have been made in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments published by the Cabinet Office. All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process.

Trustees do not receive any direct remuneration for their services, although reasonable travel and subsistence expenses can be reimbursed.

There is a requirement for appointees’ political activity (if significant) to be declared. The appointees have not declared any significant political activity in the past five years.

Biographical details

Sarah Flannigan

Sarah Flannigan is Chair of Riverford Organic and of travel company Sawday’s. She is a Non-Executive Director at Inspired Energy plc and at the Institute of Physics Publishing, and is a Trustee at the National Lottery Heritage Fund and at the Holburne Museum. As a Trustee of Kew, she sits on the Visitor and Commercial Advisory Committee and the board of RBG Kew Enterprises Limited. Alongside her non-executive roles Sarah is a consultant Board advisor on strategy, leadership and technology. She was previously CIO at National Trust and EDF Energy and was named European CIO of the Year for delivery of a major digital transformation programme. She lives in Somerset with her two sons.

Jantiene T. Klein Roseboom

Jantiene T. Klein Roseboom has a portfolio career consisting of executive and non-executive directorships in the private, public and third sector. She has degrees in business administration and landscape architecture and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and London Business School. She has held senior executive positions with global responsibilities for marketing, corporate strategy, M&A, finance and capital markets in major companies, and was a partner of a leading capital markets advisory firm. She has served on the boards of a number of professional associations. She is MD of a landscape architectural practice which has a strong focus on the interdisciplinary fields of heritage, conservation and habitat restoration.

In addition to Kew, her current non-executive appointments include Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Henri Moerel Foundation, member of the Board of Trustees of the Yehudi Menuhin Competition Trust and Trustee of Bury Court Opera, reflecting her interests in safeguarding nature and humanity’s future through science-driven global action, the arts and music, education, and empowering a younger generation. Jantiene is the first ever international Trustee of Kew and sits on the Corporate Strategy Sub-Committee, Science Advisory Committee, and Audit and Risk Committee.

Today marks 100 days since I became the Chair of the Youth Justice Board. In some ways it’s an arbitrary milestone, but it feels as good a time as any to share my reflections and to confirm my priorities.

The many conversations I have had with stakeholders, ministers, the Board and YJB staff over the past few months have confirmed two things for me.

Firstly, the youth justice system is not working for everyone. There are disparities in outcomes and experiences, and not just for children from a black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) background. Youth custody, although improving, is far from the nurturing environment it needs to be and, in the community too, we often struggle to meet the multiple needs of children in the system.

The second confirmation for me has been one of hope. In every single conversation I have had over the past 100 days, people have told me of their dedication to improve the system, and of their confidence that we can, and will, make a difference. This commitment is universal, from ministers to the third sector to the youth custody service to youth offending teams and I am determined to harness it during my tenure.

If we are to build a youth justice system that works to create safer communities and fewer victims we need to understand what works, specifically what is proven to work. That means adopting what is known as a ‘child first’ approach. In its most basic sense it means we must:

• treat children as children and ensure their rights are upheld
• support children to reach their potential
• ensure children are fully included and engaged
• keep children safe and, wherever possible, out of the justice system

This does not equate to being ‘soft on crime’. It means that we do what we know works to help children escape the dead-end cycle of reoffending and positively contribute to society instead. It is one of my top priorities to see child first principles being practically applied across the whole system.

My other top priority is to address the over-representation of children from certain groups within the youth justice system, specifically children from a BAME background, including children from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, and looked-after children. There is, quite rightly, an increasing focus on fairness and equality more generally within society, particularly in minority communities and black communities, which has helped to further highlight the stark inequalities experienced by children in the youth justice system. Yes, it’s a complex issue, and change must also be sought beyond the justice system, but we must not hide behind this complexity.

I have made addressing over-representation a top priority for the YJB and I will not shy away from challenging other government departments to do the same. We must all champion and challenge for equality if we are to achieve the change these children desperately need.

I sincerely hope that being appointed as the first black Chair of the YJB and also now, as a Commissioner for the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, that I can help to make a difference.