2011 in numbers...

When reviewing RBLI’s achievements in 2011 my eye was quickly drawn towards a series of numbers:

• We have enabled 350 people to find employment through the Work Programme and have started assisting 4700 individuals who are long term unemployed.

• We have given 5224 members of the Armed Forces community, employment and training information, advice and guidance through the Civvy Street programme.

• LifeWorks, our new vocational assessment service, has worked with 45 wounded, injured and sick ex Service personnel.

•  65 members of the Armed Forces have attended the Army Recovery Courses (ARC) on our site in Aylesford, Kent.

• We have supported 3 young ex-Gurkhas, one of whom has recently started employment in our Signs Department, by providing accommodation in our village.

•  We are proud to have a workforce consisting of 88 employees with disabilities.

• 300,000 pieces K’NEX (construction toy), have been assembled by our specialist team for a range of global displays (see our monster truck).

• 36,000 road and rail signs have been produced by our Signs Department.

• 237,000 new pallets have been built by our Pallet Department. 510,000 other pallets have been inspected, maintained and returned to the system.

• Our village hosts 50 people in our high dependency care home, 38 in our assisted living home and a further 137 in our houses.

• 3 new apprentices have joined our team. We hope that this number will grow in 2012.

•  With a combined age of 153, 3 members of our Senior Management Team, successfully completed the Maidstone Half Marathon and the hope is that the number of RBLI runners will increase in 2012 thereby reducing the average age of participants!

•  54 local children with special needs and their carers attended a Christmas Party as part of our own charitable contribution to our community.

• 176 people ‘Like’ our new Facebook page

•  504 people ‘follow’ @RBLI on Twitter.

•  RBLI videos have been watched 1,047 time on YouTube.

  

A total of 300 RBLI staff made all of the above numbers happen. Of course, the numbers merely give some idea of scale of effort. What is less easy to describe is the dedication, passion and commitment that is required to deliver such high quality services that I see as I visit all of our activities. I do hope that our blog and social medias will, through articles and photographs, better illustrate the work of RBLI and all our staff.

From all at RBLI, I wish you a very happy 2012.

More successes for our Social Enterprise

I’m also pleased to report that our Social Enterprise has achieved yet more success!   We’ve just been accredited a preferred supplier to Carillion plc.   

One of the key factors to our success as a Social Enterprise is that we operate on a par with any other organisation when competing for business, which means that quality accreditations and approved supplier status are vital elements in terms of differentiation and added value.    We know we do a great job but it’s always a major boost for us to have this recognised by external organisations. We have a long term aim to provide more employment opportunities at RBLI and becoming an approved supplier to Carillion is yet another step in our journey to achieving this.

Iain Duncan Smith Visit

Last Friday we welcomed The Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Tracey Crouch MP for Chatham and Aylesford.  The Minister met many RBLI employees as we explained how our model of a Social Enterprise fits neatly into the Big Society Agenda.    The Minister also had an opportunity to meet some of the Armed Forces personnel who had sustained life changing injuries or illness attending our LifeWorks course.   They explained to him how the vocational assessment and employability training they had received during the week would help them to understand their employment options and compete more effectively for civilian work opportunities.   

We were able to feedback to the Minister some suggestions to enable us all to offer the widest range of services to former Armed Forces personnel

At the same time we hosted a meeting of representatives from KCC, Jobcentre Plus, G4S and Service Charities; including the Poppy Factory and Royal British Legion to explore how organisations could work together more effectively to improve access to services for former Armed Forces personnel seeking work.  We were able to feedback to the Minister some suggestions for quick and easy wins that would ensure better data capture and integration of services to enable us all to offer the widest range of services to former Armed Forces personnel.  Thus ensuring we can work together to help meet the principles of the Military Covenant.

The Secretary of State displayed a genuine feel and understanding of the work of RBLI.  He interacted positively with everyone he met and the visit was a most positive stimulus for all.  

Lord Lieutenant of Kent Visit

RBLI’s new President is The Viscount De L’Isle,  Lord- Lieutenant of Kent.  Royal British Legion Industries was honoured to welcome The Lord- Lieutenant and The Viscountess De L’Isle to Aylesford on Wednesday 23^rd November.  The Lord -Lieutenant spoke with staff in the Social Enterprise Signs Department and produced his own sign.

As a former officer in the Grenadier Guards, Lord De L’Isle was particularly interested in meeting the staff and students on the LifeWorks course.  This course provides vocational assessment, information and advice to Veterans with disabilities or health conditions.

The final part of the tour was a visit to RBLI’s high dependency care home, Gavin Astor House and the assisted living home, Queen Elizabeth Court.  Linda Alder, Head of Healthcare and Welfare hosted this visit which included a satisfactory ‘room inspection’ of former Chief Accountant of TRBL, John Riggs.

Signs for the Minister

We were recently visited by Mike Penning MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport. The Minister had heard of some of the exciting work we have been doing, particularly in our signs division and wanted to see first hand what we can deliver.

The visit began with a site tour, where he was exclusively invited to see our top-secret new assembly project, and was keen to help out! Mr Penning was then shown around other parts of the organisation and got to meet some of our beneficiaries.  The Minster then participated in a roundtable discussion with representatives from KCC, Enterprise, TMP, Unipart Rail, Balfour Beatty Mott MacDonald and Gatwick Airport to identify way in which Government, Local Government, Commercial Businesses and Social Enterprises can work together to help those disadvantaged by disability or health conditions.

Mr Penning was extremely interested in our work, stating that he “had heard a lot of good things about RBLI but had no idea of the breadth of support that RBLI offer.” He went on to say that he was “genuinely impressed with our passion and commitment.”

Many thanks to Mike Penning MP for his enthusiastic support.  I would also like to thank Tracey Crouch, our local MP, who is a staunch supporter of RBLI and very much made this visit possible. (click here to view all of the event photos)