A leading managed print services firm has raised more than £8000 for local and national charities during 2017.

In Scotland, Xeretec which works throughout the UK and Ireland, opted not to send Christmas cards, and donated money to Age Scotland, presenting the charity with a cheque for £600 in Edinburgh last week.

Other charities to benefit from the team’s endeavours and donations from Xeretec included, Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice, Crohns and Colitis UK, Cantraybridge College, COPE Galway, Macmillan Cancer Support and WADE (Wokingham & District Association for the Elderly).
In one commendable personal achievement, by raffling a Formula 1 driver’s signed cap and various other activities, Xeretec employee Marta Gosson raised €45,000 to support a bereaved family whose father passed away during the Isle of Man TT Race.

Each year Xeretec teams up with three core charities to support them throughout the year with company fundraising initiatives, and this year’s charities were Age Scotland, Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice and COPE Galway.

Xeretec also encourages team members to embark on their own initiatives. Team initiatives included a 50-mile relay race, Dress up in Pink, the Alexander Devine Windsor Santa Dash, 24hr gaming broadcasted live on Twitch, The Nuts Challenge and a thrilling Trek up Mount Tukbal in Morocco.

Xeretec company initiatives included a golfing tournament for clients hosted at Sand Martins Golf Club, event tickets auction, office bake sales and dress down days. Inspired by the charity efforts during the year the directors also decided to donate their Christmas card budgets to charity.

Commenting on its charitable activities in 2017, Adam Gibbons, Xeretec’s Group Managing Director, said: “As a company with a growing nationwide footprint, we’re keen to support national and local charities. One of Xeretec’s core values is to share our success and give back to our local communities’ charitable causes. I applaud our team’s efforts and commitment to supporting causes this year, and their desire to have a positive impact on their communities.”

Its positive contribution to charities wasn’t the only success Xeretec enjoyed in 2017. It also acquired the Landscape Group, the UK’s most accreditedHP MPS and Solutions Specialist, in a move that creates a new managed print powerhouse. With a bigger team on board, Xeretec is looking forward to increasing its charitable efforts in the New Year and throughout 2018.

Pictured: (L-R) Sarah Randell Age Scotland, Head of Fundraising, Stacey Kitzinger Age Scotland Events and Community Fundraiser, Craig Hamilton and Susan Payne of Xeretec.

Charities and businesses across Scotland are joining forces in a first-of-its-kind event on “civic leadership”.

The one-day event brings together The Open University, TSB Bank and the Edinburgh Cyrenians as well as the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce in a bid to unite the skills and common drive of both third sector organisations and businesses looking to shape the future.

The event, held on 10 October at the Hilton Edinburgh Grosvenor Hotel, will see 50 select delegates combine their skills and experience to drive forward a positive social agenda in Scotland that aims to help the economy and wellbeing of Scots.

The Edinburgh Cyrenians are one of the partners in this innovative project and work with the homeless and vulnerable to help transform their lives.

“Businesses in Scotland are not separate from the communities they serve.” said Ewan Aitken, Chief Executive Officer.

“Their staff and customers are part of those communities. Business people often find roles as leaders in all sorts of organisations but especially in youth and social care roles. The advantages are many. Not only does the organisation, and its members, benefit from the service provided but there is also benefit for the volunteer in terms of skills developed and contacts made.” he explained.

Another partner in the event, TSB Bank, have recently made a bid to return to their founding principles and demonstrate what learnings can be gleaned from the ten years since the economic crisis of 2007.

“TSB Bank was founded on the principles of Reverend Henry Duncan, who wanted to address the economic needs of his parishioners as well as their spiritual ones. He used his professional position to offer support to his community and clearly enjoyed himself in the process.” said Business Historian, Professor Charles Munn OBE FCIBS.

Director of The Open University in Scotland, Susan Stewart said she was “delighted to be a lead partner in such an exciting event that will help make Scotland a stronger society. This fits in with our ethos of making use of The Open University’s academic expertise for public good.”

‘Reimagining civic society. A new paradigm for Scotland’ is a free event that will be held on Tuesday 10 October from 12.15pm to 5.00pm at the Hilton Edinburgh Grosvenor Hotel. Tickets are limited but may be booked via https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reimagining-civic-society-a-new-paradigm-for-scotland-tickets-37447288849

An extra special community event took place at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo this Father’s Day (18 June), with over 400 guests from five Scottish charities invited to take part in the second annual Wild about Scotland Day.

The charities in attendance were Children 1st, Children in Scotland, Aberlour, Circle and Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Scotland.

The event, delivered by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland with support from Clydesdale Bank, saw over 400 tickets being handed out to disadvantaged service users through the five charity partners. The young people and families spent the day visiting the Zoo, engaging with the Wild about Scotland education programme, and learning all about the fascinating wildlife that Scotland has to offer.

By visiting the Wild about Scotland bus, taking part in workshops and exploring the Wild about Scotland garden, guests learnt about the simple steps we can all take to help safeguard the precious native species on our own doorstep.

The event caps off a busy year for RZSS’s Wild about Scotland team, with a number of major milestones achieved. The project has now engaged over 55,000 people, visited 450 schools and reached all 32 local authorities in Scotland. The team have also established a dedicated volunteer group, launched a suite of online resources, attended the opening of the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament, and won a prestigious BIAZA silver education award.

Barbara Smith, Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), said:

“Wild about Scotland Day caps off a truly impressive year for the project as a whole. We are delighted to be working so closely with our key charity partners around Scotland to provide hundreds of free tickets to the Zoo, enabling people from all backgrounds to connect with nature during their visit.

“Thanks to the generous support of Clydesdale Bank, the Wild about Scotland team have now visited 450 schools and connected with over 55,000 young people across all 32 regions in Scotland.”

Helen Page, Group Innovation and Marketing Director at Clydesdale Bank, said: “This celebration has been a great way to round off another successful year for the Wild about Scotland team. It has been a pleasure to play a part in helping young people enjoy all that the Zoo has to offer.”

The Wild about Scotland initiative aims to educate the next generation of conservationists about the importance of Scottish wildlife, teaching them about native species, their habitats and environments and what they can do to protect them. This is done with the help of a bespoke double-decker bus and a team of experts, who delivers free wildlife lessons to children across Scotland. The Wild about Scotland bus has been converted into a fully functioning teaching space, which provides fun and practical lessons, engaging children and communities with Scotland’s native wildlife.

To find out more about the Wild about Scotland bus, visit the website at: http://www.rzss.org.uk/wildaboutscotland

Charities must deal with issues around National Minimum Wage and on-call workers, writes Ben Doherty, Head of Employment at Lindsays

A recent legal case has spotlighted a vexed question around National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the obligations of charities: when does sleep count as work?

Like so many issues around NMW, the regulations seem to read clearly, but in practice employers face a host of pitfalls. And for social care charities, which often require to have workers on call overnight, sleep has been the cause of much legal uncertainty and insomnia.

This latest case highlights the importance of getting to grips with – and getting advice on – this area. It also reinforces the need for employment contracts to be completely clear on what duties workers have when they are on call or asleep, and to reflect the reality of each situation. If a worker’s duties change, contracts may need to be updated.

The details of this particular case (Focus Care Agency v Roberts) will strike a chord with charities of all sizes, which is why it’s so important. The charity in question ran supported living facilities for vulnerable adults. At night, it usually had two workers available – one carrying out duties and the other doing a sleep shift, just in case they were needed to help out.

The ‘sleep-in’ workers were paid a flat rate of £25 per shift, rather than receiving hourly pay. This was on the basis they were usually asleep, and the Minimum Wage Regulations provide that ‘time work’ attracting the NMW only applies when workers are actually awake and available to work.

It may sound cut and dried, but it’s not. The worker argued he was entitled to hourly pay since he was actually doing ‘time work’ even when sleeping. And he won.

On a typical eight-hour shift and with minimum wage now up to £7.50 per hour, we’re looking in such situations at a potential additional wage liability per worker per night of £35. So the issue carries huge financial significance for both social care employers and staff.

However, while the case has starkly highlighted the issue, the judge also emphasised that each case will depend on its own circumstances and facts. Factors that came into play in deciding whether sleeping time is working time included:

• Would workers be disciplined if they left the premises during the shift, or were they free to come and go?
• How much responsibility was placed on sleep-in workers during the shift? For example, was it likely they may be needed to perform personal care for clients (thereby having a greater burden of responsibility) or less likely, such as only being required to act in the event of an emergency, such as a break-in?
• How immediately did sleep-in workers have to be available? Would they need to be woken by another worker or have to make the decision to intervene themselves?

These issues will clearly vary from situation to situation. There are still no easy answers to the question of when sleep constitutes work, but it should be clearer to charities that there’s an issue here, and one they now have to address.

They should also be aware this is by no means the only pressing issue they must address around NMW, there are wider employment law issues such as working time or transfers of contracts. The consequences of blundering on these points are not just limited to legal costs and possible fines, but could also lead to wider reputational, recruitment and sustainability issues.

It’s safe to say that no one comes into the social care sector because they want to grapple with employment law dilemmas, but it’s an area that really can’t be avoided.