Defence Vetting Agency and the community

Introduction

The Defence Vetting Agency (DVA) takes into account the social, environmental and ethical impact of its business and acknowledges that community involvement is integral to our long-term success.

The obvious benefits of involvement include the direct support of worthwhile causes and the satisfaction of "giving something back". Other potential business benefits include: improvements to corporate reputation amongst customers and employees, enhanced employee motivation, skills and development and an increased competitive edge, helping to differentiate the Agency from others in the same field.

Policy Aims

• Develop a community strategy that will enhance the Agency's reputation and provide developmental opportunities for staff to build on or learn new skills
• Increase both staff and customer awareness of what the Agency does for the community
• Identify the business benefits and encourage employee involvement
• Monitor procedures and outcomes, and assess the effectiveness of the policy

Our approach to community involvement

We have:

• Chosen to support St Leonard's Hospice and the St Oswald's school in York
• Identified the communities that we serve and explore opportunities to enrich those communities
• Created a framework for employees to choose future community involvement
• Appointed a Liaison Officer to act as a focal point for Community issues
• Wherever possible supported staff who are members of voluntary services (such as the Red Cross) and are called for in an emergency
• Publicised our community involvement to our customers and staff via this website
• Embraced the Prime Minister’s Challenge by encouraging staff to carry out voluntary activities benefiting the local community
• Adopted and promoted activities benefiting the local environment (such as car sharing and cycling)
• Supported work experience placements for children from local schools
• Encouraged employee skill sharing within the local community

Monitoring the effectiveness of our involvement

We will:

• Request feedback from staff, customers and community partners on the effectiveness of our approach
• Monitor levels of staff involvement, numbers and activities and report half yearly to the DVA Management Board
• Make use of the feedback we receive to develop our plans to maximise the impact of our involvement