MEMBERNEWS


New Nottingham café is making a real difference


Café Sobar IN BRIEF


Neighbour businesses team up for new offering


Scenariio and Initsys, based at Marble Hall, Derby, have combined their unique skills to strengthen the products and services that they offer. While chatting over coffee in


the communal kitchen in the Connect Derby building, neighbours Rob Pritchard, Operations Director of Scenariio, and Will De Figueiredo, Technical Director of Initsys, quickly established that the striking synergies between the two businesses were remarkable and the potential to collaborate was a clear opportunity. Chamber member Scenariio


specialises in the design, supply, and implementation of future- proof technologies that optimise building utilisation and productivity in the workspace. It aims to significantly improve the way an organisation connects with technology and ensures systems are ready to embrace


New chamber member Café Sobar is breaking new ground in the CSR space. A high street independent café


and entertainment venue in Nottingham, with meeting, training and event space for hire, the Community Interest Company (CIC), was set up by Double Impact, a drug and alcohol recovery charity working across Nottinghamshire for the past 20 years. Any profits go to support the


wider work of the charity, which specialises in helping people to rebuild their lives through education, training and employment. The café provides work experience for people in recovery and young people with


learning disabilities, as well as providing a safe place for people in recovery and their loved ones to socialise, without the pressures of alcohol. The café and the charity work


together to create opportunities for the people they are aiming to help. One example is its partnership with Nottingham-based confectionery business The Treat Kitchen. Its owner, Jess Barnett, said:


“With the volume of collaboration we do with Café Sobar it seemed natural to partner with Double Impact in this way. Offering placements within different parts of our business is a great way to support them. It’s brought loads of benefits to the business, for


example we found several of the volunteers became good candidates for paid positions.” While the challenge of running a


successful business is not to be underestimated, especially for a smaller charity such as Double Impact, Steve Youdell, Director of Operations, believes it has reaped many benefits in terms of the charity’s ability to engage with the private sector. He said: “Café Sobar literally acts


as a shop window for the work of the charity. There’s always a real mix of people in the café and it’s not at all obvious who is in recovery and who isn’t, which in itself helps to challenge stereotypical ideas of what addiction looks like.”


Healthy start for Intrinsic OT


A new business which aims to improve the mental health and wellbeing of workers in the East Midlands has launched. Intrinsic OT is the brainchild of healthcare


professional Ruth Bunn (pictured), who was struck by figures which showed businesses can lose up to £2,564 per employee, per year, as a result of poor mental health. Services such as employee assistance


programmes are utilised by many companies, but Intrinsic OT is designed as a proactive operation, rather than reacting to the effects of negative wellbeing and health. Ruth is a trained occupational therapist and has


worked extensively across the NHS, including work in mental health. Intrinsic OT has highlighted the three main ways in


which businesses lose out as a result of poor mental health or wellbeing in the work place – staff retention, absenteeism and presenteeism.


Poor retention rates mean businesses are continually


advertising for posts, with time in between losing an employee and a new hire starting work also having an impact. This alone costs the UK economy £7.9bn a year, according to Government figures.


Absenteeism is staff taking time off


work, while presenteeism means staff are coming into work but are not as productive as they could be if they had good mental health. This is the highest contribution to lost revenue, costing the UK economy between £16.8bn and £26.4bn a year.


Intrinsic OT works with individual employers to


design and implement action plans. Ruth said: “Intrinsic OT provides bespoke in-house


occupational therapy services to improve the mental health of the workforce, provide a mental health strategy and improve overall organisational culture around mental health.”


innovations of tomorrow. Initsys provides software solutions for intelligent security systems for a wide range of sectors both locally and internationally. Rob said: “After our initial


conversation, I demonstrated the smartengine capabilities to Will. It was exciting when we realised how compatible the systems were and discussed the possible integration.”


Children’s charity holds exploitation awareness day


East Midlands-based NWG Network, a national children’s charity working to eradicate child exploitation, recently held its fifth National CSE Awareness Day. Businesses, schools, local


authorities and police forces held awareness raising events, wore red and raised vital funds to help keep children and young people safe. One local authority lit up its town hall to highlight the need for communities to work together, while schools and businesses also supported the work. Across the country there were over 55 events raising awareness and educating on the dangers of exploitation. Child exploitation is often


hidden and can take many forms; including child sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation and trafficking. NWG estimates 70,000 or more children are sexually exploited in the UK each year. NWG Network exists to raise


awareness so we all know how to spot the signs of a child who might be being exploited, and that businesses and organisations understand their roles.


business network May 2019 21


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84