Serco Group plc (Hook) - Head Office
We, the undersigned, commit to honour the Armed Forces Covenant and support the Armed Forces Community. We recognise the value Serving Personnel, both Regular and Reservists, Veterans and military families contribute to our business and our country.
The Armed Forces Covenant
An enduring covenant between the people of the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Government and all those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces of the Crown and their families
The first duty of Government is the defence of the realm. Our Armed Forces fulfil that responsibility on behalf of the Government, sacrificing some civilian freedoms, facing danger and, sometimes, suffering serious injury or death as a result of their duty. Families also play a vital role in supporting the operational effectiveness of our Armed Forces. In return, the whole nation has a moral obligation to the members of the Naval Service, the Army and the Royal Air Force, together with their families. They deserve our respect and support, and fair treatment.
Those who serve in the Armed Forces, whether Regular or Reserve, those who have served in the past, and their families, should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services. Special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given most such as the injured and the bereaved.
This obligation involves the whole of society: it includes voluntary and charitable bodies, private organisations, and the actions of individuals in supporting the Armed Forces. Recognising those who have performed military duty unites the country and demonstrates the value of their contribution. This has no greater expression than in upholding this Covenant.
Section 1: Principles of the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant
1.1 We Serco Group plc (Hook) - Head Office will endeavour in our business dealings to uphold the key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are:
- no member of the Armed Forces Community should face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen;
- and in some circumstances that special treatment may be appropriate especially for the injured or bereaved.
Section 2: Demonstrating our commitment
2.1 Serco Group plc (Hook) - Head Office recognises the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to our business. We will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by pledging to the following:
- Armed Forces Friendly
- UK Service Veterans And Leavers
- UK Service Spouses And Partners
- Flexible Leave For Spouses
- UK Reservists
- UK Cadets
- Armed Forces Day
- Reserve Forces Day
- Armed Forces Charities
- UK Wounded, Injured And Sick
We also pledge the following:
Promoting the fact that we are an armed forces-friendly organisation; Supporting the employment of veterans of all ages, and working with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) to establish a tailored employment pathway to help Service Leavers to join Serco; Striving to support the employment of Service spouses and partners; Endeavouring to offer a degree of flexibility in granting leave for Service spouses and partners before, during and after a partners deployment; Supporting our employees who choose to be members of the Reserve forces by offering up to 12 additional days of paid annual leave for their training and deployment; Doubling our volunteer reservist numbers by 2021 to 170 (from 86 currently) by working with CTP and local Units on a Reservist recruitment initiative. This will focus particularly on apprentices and junior managers; Offering support to our local cadet units, either in our local community or in local schools; Providing increased support for Adult Cadet Instructors by increasing their additional annual paid leave from one to three extra days; Jamie Black (Sercos AFC lead) chairing the AFC Gold Alumni Association for the next calendar year; Support Armed Forces and Reserves Day with regional Reserves Days events supported by regional contract champions; Further publicise Sercos HR Policy supporting Reservists and Cadet Instructors and the benefits that they get to promote service in the Reserves by carrying out an internal PR campaign to publicise the benefits that Reservists and Cadet Instructors bring to contracts in order to encourage contract managers to support and champion; Hold Reserves awareness days at Sercos sites as well as support Defence initiatives such as Sandhurst Leadership Challenge and Wessex Warrior; Explore a global approach to military support with Serco Australia (Serco signed the Australian AFC equivalent in 2017) and Serco North America to promote best practice and exchange ideas inside Serco globally.
2.2 We will publicise these commitments through our literature and/or on our website, setting out how we will seek to honour them and inviting feedback from the Service community and our customers on how we are doing.