Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)
/Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) pledges to:
Challenge ourselves to increase the positive impact we make on our local community and make better use of our assets – our buildings/grounds and our people.
In the next six months we will do at least three things that we don’t do at the moment to improve our social impact.
Terry A'Hearn CEO, March 2018.
1st Commitment
Engagement with schools to inspire pupils to excel
We will aim to inspire young pupils through three pledges under one commitment:
Introduce a programme of targeted mentoring of up to 20 disadvantaged pupils per year in socially deprived areas to help them achieve their real potential. This mentoring will be a combination of face to face meetings and remote communication and will include a visit to a SEPA office. Pupils will be selected through close cooperation with local authority educational officers and target schools.
Continue to progress ‘Foundation Apprenticeships’ to help aspiring pupils from schools in an area of high social deprivation, linked to Scottish Government priority areas and thus help them unlock the first steps towards their future. Target area for the first year is North Lanarkshire. We will work with 5 schools to hold a competition with the prize of a ‘foundation apprenticeship with SEPA’ for one pupil from each school. The apprenticeships will consist of focussed mentoring over one year, culminating in a 4 to 6 week in-house work experience suited to the need to the apprentice (apprenticeships in Science, IT and office management).
Develop and roll out a ‘water lab in a box’ that enables schools in rural areas and
areas of high social deprivation, that do not have the facilities or equipment, to carry out great environmental experiments. The stand-alone kit will provide all that is needed to carry out the experiments and compare results with other schools and SEPA’s environmental monitoring network. The kits will be supported by appropriate SSERC methods and STEM training.
Geographical location of impact: Areas where there is high social deprivation and rural areas
Contact details: Carol Gillespie Human Resources Adviser / Jennifer Russell Head of Human Resources
2nd Commitment
Step change in our new Volunteering Commitment
We will aim to increase uptake of SEPA’s newly-launched Employee Supported Volunteering Scheme, with the specific purpose of proactively promoting engagement with communities local to SEPA’s offices, and actively support the social aspects of our purpose.
We will focus on targeted social enterprises to work with, where their aims align well with our purpose and where we can help them make an impact. We will achieve this through engagement with Social Investment Scotland and Social Enterprise Scotland, to explore opportunities where we can add value to social enterprises.
In our engagement we will aim to encourage uptake of environmental outcomes in projects, alongside social and economic outcomes.
Engagement will enable our people to increase their understanding of the social need and drivers within a community and the social enterprises and charities working to achieve them.
Geographical location of impact: In locations adjacent to our offices across Scotland, linked to our staff’s existing connections and may include targeted communities of interest.
Contact details: Catriona Gow Human Resources Adviser / Jennifer Russell Head of Human Resources
3rd Commitment
Challenging our environmental performance on single use plastics
We will challenge our own behaviour in terms of single use plastics and find alternatives where we can. We will do this through reviewing procurement contracts, especially with respect to catering.
We will join community initiatives such as the final straw campaign to show our commitment to reducing our plastic use. We will deliver change through our Greening SEPA network by embedding this commitment into their delivery plan.
Geographical location of impact: Initial focus bigger SEPA offices (Stirling, EuroCentral, Edinburgh)
Contact details: Fiona Wallace Greening SEPA / Grant Stewart
