Corporate Social Responsibility
Central to Partnerships UK's values 
Corporate responsibility is central to the values of Partnerships UK; it underpins the way we manage our business and sits alongside our mission to accelerate the development, procurement and implementation of public private partnerships. As a public private partnership we wish to make a positive contribution to society, and to deliver real benefits to our people, to business and to the community more broadly.
We have established a Corporate and Social Responsibilities Committee in order to develop and manage our institutional CSR policy and programme, to manage our CSR funds, to develop and manage our sustainability policy and, more generally, to direct, monitor and ensure performance and integration of corporate responsibility throughout our operations.
Partnerships UK has chosen again to work with The Passage as its partner charity for 2009. The Passage runs London's largest voluntary sector day centre for homeless people. Its mission is to provide resources, which encourage, inspire, and challenge homeless people to transform their lives. Each day the Passage helps more than 200 homeless and vulnerable men and women, providing day centre services that offer basic care around primary needs, outreach services to contact rough sleepers, and hostel accommodation and supported semi-independent accommodation moving towards independence and re-integration. To find our more please visit http://www.passage.org.uk.
Our Community Investment programmes
Our approach to both the local community and wider society is through the following programmes:
- Charity Fundraising and Matched Giving - when our people participate in fund-raising activities, Partnerships UK matches money raised by staff for a charity, school or other not-for-profit organisation, up to a maximum of £500 per event.
- OrganisingCorporate events and programmes – we challenge all of our people to put some time back into the local community, for example by taking part in a weekly reading scheme at a local primary school or by joining in a Volunteer Day – in 2008 Partnerships UK staff refurbished a local school’s play area and gardens
- Partnering with a local charity – many of our community investment activities are in support of our chosen partner charity, The Passage, for example sponsoring events, and even helping cook breakfast for 100 people!
- Volunteering – we enable our people to contribute more to their own causes by providing an extra day to spend volunteering.
- Give As You Earn (GAYE) Scheme – we manage tax-free donations to charity through the company payroll.
Caring about the environment
We are committed to minimising our impact on the environment. We have adopted practices designed to promote sustainability and preserve natural resources and the environment; these include:
- Raising awareness of Partnerships UK staff to reduce unnecessary consumption of resources (e.g. energy and water) and providing dedicated recycling facilities to minimise and recycle waste.
- Donating to community charities instead of sending Christmas cards.
- Joining Business in the Community (BITC) – the British business-community outreach charity – and we are aiming to develop alliances with other organisations in the PFI arena.