Social Value
Social Value at KPS
Our social value approach follows the Government’s Social Value Model. We measure what we deliver using recognised frameworks like the National TOMs model, quantifying our outputs into measurable social return on investment for the clients, customers and communities we are privileged to support. We make a real difference, whether it’s the school grounds we landscaped during a refurbishment upgrade, a young person gets their first trade apprenticeship, or our local charity gets a year of backing it would not otherwise have.
Every KPS contract starts with the same question: what does this community actually need? We build our Social Value Plan around the answer, give it a named owner, and report against it until it is done. Where we commit, we deliver, and where a client wants to check, the numbers are there to evidence the real impact and differences we have made, changing lives and communities for the better.
COMMUNITY CARE
Charity of The Year
Each year, KPS partners with one local charity for 12 months of practical support. Nominations come from our staff and clients; we choose organisations based in the communities where we work, that make a difference and that resonate with the values and lived experience of our teams.
Our support goes beyond a financial donation. We use our own workforce and surplus materials from live contracts to deliver improvement works such as decoration, repairs and landscaping to their offices and sites. Every member of our team has a paid volunteering day each year, which we direct towards the partnership, with our suppliers and subcontractors regularly contributing alongside us. We offer joint training opportunities like on FM compliance, all the while sharing upskilling and learning in broader business delivery.
At the end of each partnership, we publish what was delivered: hours volunteered, funds raised and works completed.
If you know a charity in one of our communities that would benefit from our support, we welcome nominations at any time.
Charities we’ve Supported
FUTURE TALENT
Apprenticeships and Local Skills
The construction industry has a skills gap. We are doing something about the bit of it we can reach, targeting young people, the long-term unemployed and minority groups to improve diversity and inclusion in the industry.
KPS recruits apprentices from the communities where our contracts run. They train alongside experienced tradespeople on real projects, with a clear route from apprenticeship to a qualified role. Several of our current team started exactly this way.
We open the door earlier too. Our Managing Director, Will McLaughlin, volunteers as an Enterprise Adviser, working with school Careers Leaders to connect pupils with the world of work: careers talks, CV workshops, interview practice and site visits that show young people what a career in the built environment actually looks like. We also offer work experience placements on our contracts, giving students and NEETS (18–25-year-olds not in education or training) a genuine taste of the industry before they choose their path.
LOCAL GROWTH
Local Economic Development
When we win a contract, the local economy should win with it.
Suppliers and subcontractors based near our contracts get first call. Buying locally keeps money circulating in the communities we serve, shortens delivery distances and cuts vehicle emissions. It also builds the relationships that make our projects run better.
We keep our supply chain accessible to smaller firms. We pay promptly, keep our onboarding straightforward, and work with local SMEs and VCSE organisations to identify businesses that would not normally get in front of a contractor our size. Where a smaller supplier needs support to meet our standards, we help them get there rather than looking elsewhere.
We follow a simple principle: the value of a KPS contract should stay in the area that hosts it.
TEAM WELLBEING
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Construction and FM have some of the highest rates of poor mental health of any industry, which is why we have embedded the principles of ISO45003 in our operations, preventing psychological risk and improving wellbeing.
We extend this outward too. We offer mental health awareness sessions tailored to our clients and the communities we serve, whether that is staff, residents or pupils, supporting the wellbeing provision our clients already have in place to enhance it further.
ESG COMMITMENT
Environment, Social and Governance
ESG is a set of habits, embedded in how we run the business day to day, ensuring that we govern, manage and monitor our social value delivery. Everything that we do is about day-to-day improvements that collectively add up and change lives, via:
Environment
Our environmental commitments are set out in full in our Sustainability section: year-on-year reduction targets for carbon and waste, reported publicly, and delivered through the way we plan and run every contract.
Social
We are an equal opportunities employer with accessible recruitment, reasonable adjustments as standard, and training tailored to the individual. We hold trained Mental Health First Aiders in the business and extend that support outward, delivering mental health awareness sessions for clients and the communities we serve. We work with disability organisations to keep awareness live across the workforce, not filed in an induction pack.
Governance
Every social value commitment we make has a named owner, a measurement method and a reporting date. If we ever fall short, we say so, and we put it right on a timeline our client agrees. We evaluate what works together on our contracts and then use that to improve future plans, improving our social value impact.