Severn Trent pledges support to social mobility

Severn Trent Water last week showcased its commitment to supporting social mobility when it was visited by co-founder of the Social Mobility Pledge, Justine Greening MP (pictured)

The company signed the pledge, which encourages companies to improve the UK's record on social mobility. This commits the water company to:

• partner with schools or colleges to provide coaching through quality careers advice, enrichment experience and/or mentoring to people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances;

•provide structured work experience and/or apprenticeship opportunities to people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances; and

• adopt open employee recruitment practices which promotes a level playing field for people from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances.

Severn Trent chief executive Liv Garfield said: “A third of the nation's social mobility cold spots are in the communities we serve, so we're absolutely committed to doing everything we can to help improve the situation. In fact, almost half of our colleagues come from social mobility cold spots already but we really want to go that extra mile and to do even more.” Around a third of these ‘cold-spot’ employees have been promoted at least once in their career with the the company.

Justine Greening MP said: "It's fantastic to see what Severn Trent is doing, driving more opportunities for people across the region. The apprentices that I had the chance to hear from were hugely impressive and it's great to have Severn Trent on board the Social Mobility Pledge.”

In its 2017 State of social mobility report, the Sutton Trust found that the UK is among the worst of the 37 OECD nations for income mobility.