Diversity, Strategy & Nursery Visits

Hello everyone,

This week you’ll hear about my visit to our Childcare nurseries, our Diversity & Inclusion Event, my trip to Wesminster and the Black Country Chambers of Commerce meeting.

Diversity & Inclusion Event

On Thursday I went along to our first Diversity & Inclusion event in Solihull where we invited a number of colleagues from around the business to take part. Throughout the day colleagues had presentations and discussion sessions around four key areas: race, age, disability and gender. The importance of this event and going forward is for all colleagues to get involved and have their say to help shape our Society, I think it is wonderful that we are being proactive and doing something about this subject and hopefully, this can be just the beginning. Many thanks to Rebekah Brain, Society Engagement Manager, who organised this fantastic event.

At the start of the day, I introduced the event and read a poem that I feel covers this subject beautifully which I'd like to share with you all below...

While walking in a toy shop
the day before today,
I overheard a Crayon Box
with many things to say.

 

“I don’t like red!” said Yellow.
And Green said, “Nor do I !
And no one here likes Orange,
but no one quite knows why.”

 

“We are a box of crayons
that really doesn’t get along,”
said Blue to all the others.
“Something here is wrong!

Well, I bought that box of crayons
and took it home with me
and laid out all the crayons
so the crayons could all see.

 

They watched me as I coloured
with Red and Blue and Green
and Black and White and Orange
and every colour in between.

 

They watched as Green became the grass
and Blue became the sky.
The Yellow sun was shining bright
on White clouds drifting by.

Colours changing as they touched,
becoming something new.

They watched me as I coloured.
They watched till I was through.

 

And when I’d finally finished,
I began to walk away.

And as I did the Crayon box
had something more to say…….

.

“I do like Red!” said the Yellow.
And Green said, “So do I !”
And Blue you are terrific
so high up in the sky.”

 

“We are a Box of Crayons
each of us unique,
but only when we get together
will the picture be complete”

 

Nursery Visits

Following my previous blog, where members of the Executive  visited some of our Childcare nurseries in London, this week I went out with Sally Mayer (Chief Operating Officer, Childcare) to visit some more nurseries within our core trading area.

We first went to Ashton Court where I met Kerry Arnold, the deputy nursery manager. Kerry took us on a tour and spoke about some of the great work they have been doing both within and outside of the nursery. From Ashton Court, we went to Finchfield to meet the nursery manager, Kelly Smith. Kelly has been providing cover as a nursery manager at Finchfield for quite a while, so it was great to meet her in her first full week as permanent nursery manager. Kelly and I also discussed some of the challenges they have overcome as a result of merging two nurseries at Finchfield.

 

(Kelly Smith at Finchfield)

Next Sally and I visited our Stonehouse nursery where we met the nursery manager, Tina Young. The nursery operates in a beautiful grade 2 listed building and actually bares the signature of Oliver Cromwell behind the chimney breast (see below). It was wonderful to talk about the transition from acquisition to date and how they have gone from strength to strength and recently achieving another Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ result.

(Stonehouse Nursery Chimney)

From there we went onto Rathvilly nursery in Northfield, Birmingham where we met Alex Doehler who is fairly new to his Nursery Manager role so it was interesting to speak to someone with a fresh perspective and exciting ideas for the future.

We ended our tour of Childcare at St. Edward’s nursery where Jo Woodward, deputy nursery manager showed me around. This nursery, in particular, was really interesting to visit as it has just been rebranded with our new Little Pioneers branding, which has really brought the concept to life.

 

(Jo Woodward at St Edwards)

I would also like to highlight the wonderful education programme that our Childcare team are rolling out for both children and parents. This programme focuses on educating children about healthy food, where it comes from and most importantly, teaching them to grow their own fruit and vegetables. Not only will our children be learning in the nurseries but they will also have the chance to go to suppliers and find out where their food really comes from, promoting a positive relationship with healthy food.

     

As you can see in the pictures above, we have put in magnetic boards in some of our nurseries where children can stick fruit and vegetables to show whether they grow in the ground, above ground, on a tree or on a bush. This has been a brilliant introduction as studies have shown that many children do not understand how their food is grown and some think it just grows in a supermarket! Childcare have been working with Happerley growers to become the first large childcare provider to carry Happerley accreditation, essentially making the source of all ingredients in our children’s meals completely transparent from farm to fork.

Black Country Chambers of Commerce Meeting

Last week I met with The Black Country Chambers of Commerce who hosted a number of chamber patron businesses from across Shropshire, Staffordshire, Hereford & Worcester to hear industry speakers and discuss transport and logistics issues affecting businesses around the region today.

The guest speaker on the day, David Cochrane (HS2, Head of route engineering) gave us an insight into developments within the passenger rail network and their plans for the next phase which will link Leeds and the West Midlands.

Not only was it great to see the plans for the future, but also the impact and growth the HS2 project has provided across the country. There are already 7,000 jobs supported by the project, 2,000 apprentices over its lifetime and HS2 will support some 30,000 jobs at peak of construction.

Meetings like this are important to ensure that as a business we have a strong understanding of the developments going on within our trading area and across the country. By understanding the impacts of projects such as HS2, we can then drive our business to meet the demands of an ever-changing landscape. If you would like to find out more about this meeting you can view the press release here.

Westminster – Agricultural Bill

You may have picked up on the announcement made by Michael Gove on 12th September on the introduction of an Agriculture Bill which sets out plans to replace the direct subsidy payments that farmers receive today with incentives linked to environmental improvements.

I believe strongly that the Agriculture Bill must deliver on food security and sustainability as well as on environmental outcomes. I attended a meeting on 2nd October in Westminster with David Drew, Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), in addition to other interested stakeholders to make representation. Interestingly I was the only retailer representative in attendance!

That’s it for another blog. I’m sure you all already know what to do if you want to get in touch, simply leave me a comment below. I hope you all have a great week and I look forward to sharing more with you next Friday.