St James's Place Wealth Management Plc
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 St James’s Place Wealth Management Plc 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 St James’s Place Wealth Management Plc 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
- Armed Forces Charities
We also pledge the following:
Actively Promoting the fact that we are an armed forces-friendly organisation by . publishing our Covenant Pledge publicly on our corporate and careers websites, corporate Linkedln and promoting it internally on our intranet’ . Creating a bespoke SJP Military Network LinkedIn page for Service leavers and veterans . Promoting our work activities and events for employment of veterans through our own PR and media channels, including social media,’ . Placing the Armed Forces Covenant Logo on any veteran advertising; . Continuing to encourage our Partnerships to independently sign the Covenant and support them being awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze by the MOD Employment Recognition Scheme. Supporting the employment of veterans young and old by: Working with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) to establish a tailored employment pathway for Service Leavers and supporting CTP recruitment events’ Working with and advertising vacancies and opportunities through the Career Transition Partnership (CTP), the Officers Association, VET;, REFA RMA and White Ensign to ensure employment opportunities within St. James’s Place Management Services and re-training opportunities for ex-service personnel through the St. James’s Place Academy’ Welcoming applications from veterans who meet the criteria in the job specification,’ Recognising military skills and qualifications in our recruitment and selection process’ Delivering bespoke ex-military academy recruitment events, supported by the SJP Military Network Striving to support the employment of Service spouses and partners by: . Seeking opportunities to work with and advertise vacancies through Recruit for Spouses, Forces Families and Families Federation as well as advertising widely across the Armed Forces community; . Aiming to support spouses across St James’s Place Wealth Management if their partners are posted to a new location,’ . Welcoming applications from spouses/partners who meet the criteria in the job specification,- . Endeavouring to offer a degree of flexibility in granting leave for Service spouses and partners before during and after a partner’s deployment. Supporting our employees who are members of the Reserve forces, including by accommodating their training and deployment where possible, by: . Supporting employee Reservists with up to l5 days paid leave per annum for essential training, as specified in our Reservist Policy which we will review regularly, . Supporting our employees who are instructors for the Sea, Army and Air Cadet, allowing 6 days of charitable paid holiday to accommodate their service where possible. Offering support to our local cadet units either in our local community or in local school where possible by: . Donating through the St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation and Corporate Responsibility function. Our continuing commitment to support our local communities is a core part of our business culture. Actively participate in Armed Forces Day by: . Ensuring that on Armed Forces Day (AFD) we openly publicise our commitment to the Armed Forces and the Reserve community and publicise opportunities within the local cadet community,’ . Becoming an AFD partner,’ . Promoting AFD through the web social media, membership and other networks in advance’ . Encouraging employees to take part in Reserve Forces Day, Uniform to Work Day and any Flag Raising Ceremonies; assisting with case studies and stories and working nationally to get them to press; . Publishing stories on the web social media, through our own membership and other networks as well as working with the RFCA Communications lead and the press. . St. James’s Place Wealth Management has a strong record of successfully employing Service Leavers and veterans. The transferable skills they offer are recognised by us and we strongly advocate their employability; . We have established an SJP Military Network which currently has over 100 ex-military personnel and reservists, cadet instructors and spouses across SJP We have joined the City Veterans’ CIC and paid {35k to be the first lead sponsor of the Annual City Veterans Gala Dinner in November 2079, which raised over {100k for two military charities and we have agreed to sponsor it again in 202Q’ We are an active supporter of Help for Heroes, donating a corporate sum of f50k each year, and are responsible for the Financial Education component of the Recovery College, The St. James’s Place Academy alone has trained 28 veterans to become Wealth Advice Professionals since its creation in 2012; We actively encourage and support the Partnership to volunteer their time with financial guidance initiatives including Forces MoneyPlan, a pro-bono initiative offering free financial guidance to Armed Forces personnel and veterans; We are encouraging and suppofting Service Charities such as the Royal Navy’/Royal Marines Charity Trafalgar Night Dinner and events like the Armed Forces Awards Dinner and Heropreneurs Awards Dinne4’ Our Partnerships are signing the Covenanf, and several have already been awarded Eronze and Silver status by the MOD ERS; Wder Charitable Work: The St. Jamesb Place Charitable Foundation is an integral paft of our company and culture. Launched in 7992, it is now one of the most successful company charities in the UK with over {100 million raised and distributed to good causes.
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.