We’re proud of the work we do with the communities we operate in and of the training and development opportunities we offer to the next generation of the Morris & Spottiswood Group. But we always believe that we can do more and be better. That’s why we’re excited to introduce our Social Value Lead role, which will help ensure increased collaboration with our customers and the communities within which we work, with the goal of developing more targeted outcomes across all Frameworks and projects.

We’re delighted to announce that Stephanie Braithwaite has been appointed to this role, and joined the Morris & Spottiswood team in February. Before joining us, Stephanie worked in a number of community empowerment, outreach, and Social Value delivery focused roles, in the arts and public and charity sectors.

Her focus in these early roles was community led projects, which involved working with marginalised groups to help empower them and give them a voice. She also spent time working across in both the private and public sectors (including with local authorities) to construction projects and strategic delivery plans, before moving into a Social Value based role. This background gives Stephanie a true understanding of how the Construction industry can deliver innovative and meaningful social value initiatives.

Stephanie’s role will enable us to further develop our Social Value approach and strategy, by devising, developing, and implementing new programmes and targets for the next three years. It’s a key part of our commitment to developing the young workforce, supporting community regeneration and development activities by providing funding, resources, and support in the form of staff volunteering hours, and also supporting our SME supply-chain partners.

Stephanie’s initial focus will be organising engagement sessions to help put Social Value on the map and get a better understanding of what it means to people and encourage them to share their thoughts. This will evolve into further engagement with colleagues so that she can gain a deeper understanding of their views and expectations of Social Value in order to then explore ideas for new projects and initiatives.

Stephanie believes that this is a collaborative process and that the conversations she has with colleagues will help shape her plans and strategies. “I don’t want this to be something that is projected onto people, I want everyone to have a stake in it and help shape things” she explains. Learning about what Social Value is to others and creating something together that people want to get on board with and feel passionate about is, Stephanie says, one of the things that most excites her about her new role.

Drawing on her experience with community projects, another key part of Stephanie’s remit will be looking at how we can best support the communities we operate in and how we can ensure a targeted approach which delivers optimum benefit and maximum impact. Our recent appointment to the Yorbuild Framework will play a part in this, allowing Stephanie to develop a targeted strategy for working with key partners in local schools, colleges, and community groups across Yorkshire.

Within the company, Stephanie will also build on existing success such as our equality and diversity targets and apprenticeship programme. As our Gold Membership of The 5% Club demonstrates, we already offer a wide range of training and development opportunities and are committed to the continued development of all Employees through “earn & learn” schemes such as Apprenticeships, Graduate Schemes and Sponsored Students Course Placements.

It's an exciting time for us with lots of positive changes ahead and a great opportunity for us to build on our past achievements.