Author: Lucy Wood

Westgrove nominated for diversity awareness award

The Westgrove Group, one of the UK’s leading independent facilities management companies, has been nominated for a prestigious diversity awareness award.

The Warrington based company is a finalist in the Kimberly-Clark Professional Golden Service Awards 2020.

Held biennially, the awards were created 30 years ago to reward the excellence of facilities management and cleaning teams and are a hallmark of quality.

The winners will be announced at The Golden Service Awards ceremony which will take place on March 4th at the London Hilton on Park Lane.

Claire McKinley Smith, Managing Director of The Westgrove Group, said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted as a finalist in these prestigious awards for Diversity Awareness, recognising our commitment and investment in raising mental health awareness in the workplace.

“We have seen so many benefits this year in raising awareness of mental health with our colleagues across the UK. This will continue into 2020 with more investment in training and support in mental health and other areas of diversity awareness.”

Earlier this year, Westgrove embarked on a journey to improve mental health awareness across the business.

A number of initiatives were rolled out across the year which aimed to create a work place environment where all colleagues felt comfortable in discussing their own and other people’s mental health.

The whole company, including over 1,000 colleagues across the UK, got involved and it delivered measurable results including the appointment of mental health first aiders, awareness weeks and a new well-being portal with the charity retailTRUST offering 24/7 free and confidential help to colleagues.

Working with bodies such as the Samaritans, MHFA and Revo, the representative body for retail and shopping centres, Westgrove is also looking at good practice and specialist training around mental health and suicide awareness for all their colleagues working in shopping centres.

The Westgrove Group is on course to become a £40million turnover business in the next five years.

The company provides its security, cleaning and PRM (Persons with Reduced Mobility) services to shopping centres, corporates, business parks, retail environments and airports across the UK.

The Westgrove Group, which recently celebrated its 21st anniversary, was founded by Group Chairmen Simon Whittle and Steve Fives. The Senior Management Team have proven direct Shopping Centre pedigree including operational experience at some of the country’s largest regional Shopping Centres such as the Trafford Centre and Meadowhall.

They have held senior positions for owners such as Westfield and managing agents including CBRE and Lambert Smith Hampton demonstrating strong commercial and operational experience.

Westgrove Group partnership with retailTRUST

Facilities management company the Westgrove Group has engaged with retailTRUST to support the welfare of the company’s colleagues.

Through the partnership, Westgrove can now offer free and confidential support to all its 1,000 plus colleagues 24/7 through an on-line portal and helpline, My RTWellbeing.

retailTRUST is a charity which supports the wellbeing of people employed in the service industry including retail, aviation, manufacturing, corporate and many other sectors.

As well as self-help tools online, downloadable resources, counselling and CBT, the Trust also offers critical incident support.

The Westgrove Group is investing heavily in the wellbeing of its colleagues. The Warrington headquartered company recently declared its first Mental Health Awareness Week a big success.

Over the course of a week the company sent out daily advice and information to its colleagues to help build awareness of mental health. Colleagues were also signposted to advice on podcasts and videos and given tools to test their stress and levels of positive mental health.

As part of the Westgrove Aspire Training & Development programme, colleagues were encouraged to take a ‘Mental Health Awareness’ online eLearning course giving them an understanding of the importance of their own and other people’s mental health.

Over 70 Westgrove colleagues are now qualified as MHFA England mental health first aiders with an additional 50 planned by the end of 2020.

Westgrove HR Manager Hannah Denning said: “Supporting the wellbeing of our colleagues is vitally important to us as a company, which is why we are working hard to increase awareness of mental health issues both generally and within the workplace.

“Engaging with retailTRUST allows us to extend our colleague welfare offer in line with the mental health awareness training we rolled out earlier in the year.”

As well as retailTRUST, the company is also working with bodies including the Samaritans, MHFA and Revo, the representative body for retail and shopping centres.

We are working hard to improve mental health awareness

Our first Mental Health Awareness Week has been a big success.

Over the course of the week, we sent out daily advice and information to our colleagues to help build awareness of mental health. Colleagues were also signposted to advice on podcasts and videos and given tools to test their stress and levels of positive mental health.

As part of the Westgrove Aspire Training & Development programme, colleagues were encouraged to take a ‘Mental Health Awareness’ online eLearning course giving them an understanding of the importance of their own and other people’s mental health.

Over 70 Westgrove colleagues are now qualified as MHFA England mental health first aiders with an additional 50 planned by the end of 2020. MHFA offers mental health training, including Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), a mental health skills and awareness programme.

Westgrove Managing Director Claire McKinley Smith said: “We are working hard to increase general awareness of mental health issues both generally and within the workplace.

“Working with bodies such as the Samaritans, MHFA and Revo, the representative body for retail and shopping centres, we are also looking at good practice and specialist training around mental health and suicide awareness for all our colleagues working in shopping centres.

“We are delighted that over 50% of our colleagues trained via eLearning during Mental Health Awareness Week and are encouraging others to do so by the end of the year.

“We also received some great feedback from colleagues who felt well informed and empowered after taking the course. We are looking forward to holding more Mental Health Awareness Days in the coming months.”

Westgrove will be supporting World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th as well as running their own Awareness Week.

Colleague Newsletter – July 2019

Westgrove expands into the South

Adrian Canale, Business Development Director Westgrove Group

To head up our continued expansion into the South, we have recruited a new Business Development Director.

Adrian Canale, who has worked extensively in facilities management across a range of sectors, has been appointed to support our continued business development and also bring the company into new sectors including education and healthcare.

Click here to find out more.

Westgrove a winner at the British Security Awards 2019

We are delighted to announce that the Westgrove Group won a prestigious award at this year’s British Security Awards.

Steve Allen, Dual Service Manager at Haymarket Shopping Centre, won the national award for ‘Service to the Customer’. He was presented with his award at the event held at the London Grosvenor Marriott Hotel.

Our BSIA regional winners included Paul Ogden, Market Place (Service to the Customer), Vijay Odedra, Haymarket Shopping Centre (Best use of Technology), Gavin Jones, Matthew Lamb and John Wallbank, Ropewalk Shopping Centre (Outstanding Act), Steven Travis, Arcades Shopping Centre (Outstanding Act) and Matthew Bray, Concourse Shopping Centre (Best Newcomer).

Mental Health Awareness Week

Steve Allen of The Westgrove Group receives his BSIA award

Mental Health is something that Westgrove believes strongly in, which is why we were delighted with the success of our recent Awareness Week.

During the week, we sent out daily advice and information to our colleagues to help build awareness of mental health and offer advice.

Over 50% of colleagues trained via our online eLearning course during the week and we received some great feedback. 

Look out for more Mental Health Awareness Days, fundraising activities and do ask about our eLearning course.

Did you know?

We are proud to have been accredited as a Living Wage Recognised Service Provider. This means we work with our Partners to recommend that they pay the Real Living Wage of £9 per hour (£10.55 in London), rather than the National Living Wage of £8.21.

New Colleague Engagement Survey

Hearing from our colleagues is extremely important to us. This year, we are asking what you think on a quarterly basis.

Look out for the link coming soon to our third Colleague Engagement Survey. This new survey focuses on Health & Safety.

The results of our first two surveys will be appearing in the new issue of the Westgrove Magazine, out soon.

Reward and Recognition Awards – Quarter 2 Winners

Here are all our R&R Award winners for Quarter 2. Congratulations to you all.

Site Manager of the Quarter
Stewart Todd – Security Manager – Birchwood Park

CSR of the Quarter
Joanne O’Neill – Business Manager

Team of the Quarter
Birchwood Park Security Team

Colleague of the Quarter
Martin Davison – Cleaning Operative – Gloucester Quays

Service Excellence of the Quarter
Waqas Maroof – Service Manager – TATA Technologies
Jack Beeney – Guest Service Ambassador – The Galleries Shopping Centre
Carpark Team – Grosvenor Shopping Centre
Istvan Szobollodi & Andrew Gregory – The Galleries Shopping Centre
Gillian Hurst – Cleaning Operative – Liverpool Air Traffic Control
Ajay Shah – MSO Supervisor – MSO Team
Lion Yard Cleaning Team – Lion Yard Shopping Centre
Stan Sinclair – Business Manager

Outstanding Act: May 2019
Lauren Gilhooley – Security Officer, St Johns Shopping Centre
Simon O’Neill and Keith O’Neill – Cleaning Operatives, The Lowry Outlet
Rajdeep Sidhu & Zdenek Lanik – Security Officers, Skydome Leisure World

Westgrove a winner at the British Security Awards 2019

The Westgrove Group has scooped a prestigious national industry award for its outstanding security personnel work.

Steve Allen, Dual Service Manager at Haymarket Shopping Centre, won the national award for ‘Service to the Customer’ at the British Security Awards, held in London.

Organised by the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), the awards showcase the national finals of the security personnel categories and highlight outstanding personnel within the industry who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in their everyday work.

Mike Reddington, Chief Executive of the BSIA, said: “The British Security Awards is a major celebration in the security industry calendar that recognises the talent and commitment of our industry’s finest.

“We have an industry fit to burst with positive ambassadors from within our sector: from young officers starting out to seasoned professionals – every one of them recognised today for having gone above and beyond expectation, demonstrating courage, innovation, customer service and contribution to the industry.”

Westgrove Group Managing Director Claire McKinley Smith said: “Steve is a superb manager and it’s fantastic to see him recognised in this way.

“This is a huge achievement and shows the value in both putting our amazing colleagues forward for prestigious industry awards and showing how our people go the extra mile for the company and our Partners.”

Westgrove also had a number of regional winners in this year’s BSIA awards including Market Place, Ropewalk and Concourse Shopping Centres.

Steve Allen of The Westgrove Group receives his British Security Award

Mental Health Awareness Week

Mind Over Mountains, Alex Staniforth

We’re raising awareness of mental health all week to support the Mental Health Foundation. You or someone you know may at some point in their life be affected by mental health issues and need support. 

We are sending out advice and information each day starting with a special video from our Brand Ambassador Alex Staniforth, himself a champion for mental health awareness.

Westgrove Group’s outstanding security work recognised in prestigious awards

The Westgrove Group has scooped a number of prestigious industry awards for its outstanding security personnel work.

Six colleagues won regional awards in this year’s British Security Industry Association (BSIA) awards. There was further success in the ACS Pacesetters Security Officer of Distinction awards where the company scooped one of only 13 UK awards.

The BSIA award winners were recognised by the trade body representing the UK’s private security industry, in four categories – all celebrating their great work. Winners of the regional awards are put forward to the BSIA’s panel of national judges.

The BSIA holds awards both regionally and nationally to celebrate some of the outstanding personnel within the industry who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in their everyday work.

The ACS awarded Steve Brooks one of only 13 Security Officer of Distinction Awards in relation in response to his contribution at Templars Square Shopping Centre in Oxford. Steve was praised after he bravely calmed a woman who was threatening to jump from the roof then went to put out a fire started by two homeless men.

Approved Contract Scheme Pacesetters membership is made up of Contract Security Guarding Companies who are in the top 15% benchmarking and achievement levels set by the Security Industry Authority Approved Contractor Scheme.

Steve will receive his award at an event at Royal Windsor Racecourse in Berkshire on May 22.

Mike Reddington, Chief Executive of the BSIA said: “It is vital as the voice of the professional security industry that we recognise the great lengths security personnel go to in keeping the public and property safe.

“More often than not, these security professionals are first on the scene when incidents and emergencies occur and they demonstrate true quality and professionalism in their actions. This year’s regional winners are no exception and have shown remarkable achievements throughout the past year.”

Westgrove Group Managing Director Claire McKinley Smith said: “As always, we are very proud of our security officers for their dedication, loyalty, team work, customer service, use of technology and their bravery.

“It is a remarkable achievement and a testament to how our people go the extra mile for the company and our Partners.”

www.westgrove.co.uk

The Westgrove BSIA regional winners are:

Service to the Customer: Steve Allen, Haymarket Shopping Centre, Leicester

Dual Service Manager Steven was instrumental in achieving the Westgrove Aspire Six-Star award for the Centre and gained ROSPA’s silver award for the second year running. He was part of the Green Initiative for his work to help reduce the Centre’s environmental impact, slashing power consumption by 35% and introducing the Lotus Pro chemical free cleaning system which has cut the team’s chemical use by 95%. Steve, 57, won praise for his ‘consistently high performance and improvement in staff morale which gives great value to the client and demonstrable results’.

Service to the Customer: Paul Ogden, Market Place, Bolton

As part of the service to Market Place shoppers the centre was keen to ensure that they identified a mental health first aider, something which is being called for by many companies in the UK to be mandatory as part of the ‘Time to Change’ campaign. Paul Ogden is Westgrove’s first site based Mental Health First-Aider. Paul is now available to offer support and advice to vulnerable customers visiting the centre as well as to the centre’s tenants. Paul, 49, was praised for his outstanding customer service, his positive outlook and his extreme reliability.

Best use of Technology: Vijay Odedra, Haymarket Shopping Centre, Leicester

On top of his job as a security officer, Vijay, 27, used his initiative to introduce a comprehensive Health and Safety online log which is now an essential part of monthly Health & Safety meetings. It helps to track maintenance issues which may have otherwise been overlooked and caused a danger to public and staff. Vijay received an internal accolade from the shopping centre for his work as well as a Quarterly Service Excellence award from the Westgrove Group.

Outstanding Act: Gavin Jones, 50, Matthew Lamb, 48, and John Wallbank, 47, Ropewalk Shopping Centre, Nuneaton

The team, who have each worked in the industry for over 14 years, worked together to prevent an intoxicated man with a drink driving conviction from driving too far after leaving the car park. Their quick thinking and instinctive skills were praised by the police for ensuring that the public were not put in danger due to the actions of the driver.

Outstanding Act: Steven Travis, Arcades Shopping Centre, Ashton-under-Lyne

Steve, 56, bravely dealt with a gang of teenagers running amok in the shopping centre throwing bottles and armed with a knife. He kept a clear head, radioed for help, calmed the situation down and removed the youths from the premises.

Best Newcomer: Matthew Bray, Concourse Shopping Centre, Skelmersdale

Security Officer Matthew, 30, won praise for his ‘infectious personality and drive to help others’ after just four months in the job. He was recognised for helping an elderly man who was unsteady on his feet to do his shopping and also for quickly resolving an issue with a children’s vending machine for a customer.

Westgrove Group wins new three-year security contract

Facilities management company The Westgrove Group has won a new contract in the Midlands.

The fast-growing soft services provider, based in Warrington, has been appointed to provide security services to Queens Square Shopping Centre, managed by property management partner Lee Baron, in West Bromwich

Westgrove Managing Director Claire McKinley Smith said: “We are delighted to announce this new contract win.

“The management team at Queens Square and Lee Baron were impressed with our bid which included our bespoke real time patrolling system, extensive shopping centre experience and the colleague centric nature of our business.

“Our people are what makes us special and we are looking forward to developing the on-site team through our training and development programs.”

Aaron Powell, Centre Manager for Queens Square said: “We are delighted to award Westgrove the Security Contract for Queens Square. We pride ourselves on delivering an exceptional level of customer service alongside on-going support for our retailers and are excited to partner with a national leading service provider who shares these same values as us.”

The Westgrove Group is expanding rapidly across its core service areas of security, cleaning and customer service teams, increasing its market share in shopping centres as well as moving into new sectors. The company is on track to grow its turnover to £40million by the end of 2021.

Colleague Newsletter – April 2019

Award winning Westgrove

Congratulations to our brilliant colleagues who have just scooped awards in this year’s BSIA Regional Awards and ACS Pacesetters.

This is great news and testament to how you all continually go the extra yard for the company and our Partners.

The BSIA Regional Award winners are

  • Steve Allen – Midlands – SERVICE TO THE CUSTOMER (Haymarket)
  • Paul Ogden – North West- SERVICE TO THE CUSTOMER (Market Place)
  • Vijay Odedra – Midlands – BEST USE OF TECHNOLOGY (Haymarket)
  • Gavin Jones, Mr Matthew Lamb, Mr John Wallbank – Midlands – OUTSTANDING ACT (Ropewalk)
  • Steven Travis – North West – OUTSTANDING ACT (Arcades)
  • Matthew Bray – North West – BEST NEWCOMER (Concourse)

ACS Pacesetters (one of only 12 in the UK)

  • Steve Brooks – Security Officer of Distinction (Templars Square)

This is a huge achievement by all involved – well done! Fingers crosses for the national awards!

New Colleague Engagement Survey

Our second Colleague Engagement Survey is now online. This new survey focuses on career development and training.

We would love to hear from as many of you as possible – follow this link to complete the survey.

Thank you for your time.

Mental Health Awareness Week

Mental Health is something that Westgrove believes strongly in. Look out for a series of activities which we will be getting involved in during this important week, which runs from May 13-19. These include:

  • Promoting our Mental Health Awareness E-Learning, which is available online for all colleagues;
  • Discussing the important work done by Paul Ogden, our first Mental Health First Aider and advocate for mental health;
  • Daily hints and tips from our Brand Ambassador and mental health awareness supporter, Alex Staniforth;
  • Promoting the ‘Colleague Forum’ on our website and asking colleagues what they think we could do as a business to assist with mental health in the workplace;
  • Daily emails to all colleagues with links to the Mental Health Foundation website with free downloads.

Skyfall Abseil

We are – nervously – looking forward to helping our Partner St Johns Shopping Centre in Liverpool to raise £3,000 for Alder Hey by abseiling 450ft down St Johns Beacon on Saturday, 11th May.
If anyone would like to support us, please visit this page.

Reward and Recognition Awards – Quarter 1 2019 Winners

Here are all our R&R Award winners for Quarter 1. Congratulations to you all.

Site Manager of the Quarter – Shane Roberts, The Core
Shane’s hard work and dedication has enabled us to raise our SLA score at The Core to 99.5%. He has strengthened the team, managed manning levels and created detailed procedures for the site to ensure compliance is met.

Colleague of the Quarter – Anthony Clegg, Grosvenor
We love Anthony’s easy to use fire system’s control panel guide which is perfect as a training manual for new security officers and all staff.

Team of the Quarter – St Johns Security Team
Well done to the team for their professionalism in dealing with a number of harrowing and challenging situations this year which have included escalator falls, serious assaults and first aid emergencies.

Service Excellence

We have a number of great nominations, which include:

Front of House Team – TATA Technologies
Special mention to Silvia and Phil from the EIDC reception team who go out of their way to welcome customers, help with conference room bookings and make sure visitor parking bays are available ahead of meetings. They both give ‘wonderful support’ and ‘provide a super experience when people visit EIDC’.

Security Team – Birchwood Park
Thanks to the security team who quickly manned both barriers to the ANPR car park in heavy rain, allowing 700 people arriving at Birchwood Park to park their cars without any issues. Excellent customer service.

Sean Helbert and Paul Clarke – Birchwood Park
Sean and Paul were praised for spotting a contractor working at a weekend without a Building Manager on site. They prevented the contractor from potentially having an accident due to the high winds and kept health and safety well under control on site out of hours. With the telephone support of a Building Manager they did an excellent job, well done.

Gillian Davison and Dave Phillips – Market Place
Gillian and Dave acted quickly after a radio call from Debenhams reporting a flood in their plant room. Dave and two maintenance engineers from the site quickly went to assist and quickly cleared it up.

Robert Mercier – The Galleries
Whilst on car park patrol, Robert noticed loose signage on one of the public/pedestrian entrances to the shopping centre. He immediately contacted the duty manager and made the area safe for the public.

Rob Hawkins and Luke Aries – Gloucester Quays
After a gentleman fell and injured his head, Rob carried out First Aid and Luke assisted before an ambulance arrived. Once then man had recovered he wrote to centre management to tell them how well they had looked after him.

Neil Disley – St Johns Shopping Centre
Neil, who works in the centre’s control room, spotted a man smashing windows. He reviewed all the CCTV footage to hand over to the Police. The next day, he spotted the same man at the back of the centre and arranged for security staff to detain him.

Edward Booker – Templars Square
Edward spotted an elderly man in distress who was struggling to walk. He calmed him down, collected a wheelchair from the management suite and arranged for a taxi to take him home – kindly paying for it himself. He also stayed on for an hour after the end of his shift to ensure all the night cleaning jobs were completed. Outstanding.

Renay Snelson – Runcorn Shopping City
Renay was thanked by a member of the public for her help, support and compassion when she visited the centre for the first time after her partner’s death. The lady said that it was the first time for a while that she had felt like a person and not a widow. Outstanding customer service, Renay.

Tom Lewis – National Operations Manager
Tom was praised for the professional way he dealt with a very difficult situation at Riverside. Tom was able to organise an internal process without delay and worked with the DSM in ensuring all shifts were covered following the departure of a Westgrove employee.

Cleaning Team – Riverside
The Cleaning Team were praised by our Partner for their high standards, their positive approach and their team spirit. They are a ‘real credit’ to themselves and Riverside.

Security Team – The Galleries
Thanks to the team for their quick thinking after a serious accident which helped to keep the public away and freed cars from the car park.

Outstanding Act

Our quarterly winners include:

Mark Quinn – St Johns Shopping Centre
Mark came across a distressed disabled man in a faulty electric wheelchair on the mall. Mark calmed him, called the man’s relative and arranged for a taxi to take him home.

Security & Cleaning Team – Templars Square
The entire team won praise for a number of incidents they handled superbly on a busy day in March. These included tracking down a handbag thief and returning the bag to the upset elderly lady it had been stolen from and coming to the rescue after witnessing a man being assaulted in the car park.

Martin Wain – Templars Square
Martin calmly helped a distressed suicidal woman. He talked to her, listened and made her a cup of tea before calling the police to make sure she was taken to hospital to get the help she needed. A fantastic example of an officer making a difference by caring and being aware.

Security & Cleaning Team – Runcorn Shopping City
The entire team at Runcorn Shopping City worked tirelessly to deal with a major incident on site. They were professional, discreet and seamless in dealing with this incident and their hard work and efforts were recognized by our Partner and very much appreciated by all. Well done.

Jason Corker – The Riverwalk
Jason helped identify two known shoplifters which led to their arrest.

Steve Brookes & Richard Holmes – Templars Square
Steve consistently goes above and beyond what is expected of him. In addition to this he has now taken it upon himself to train our other night shift officer and between them they have done an astounding job not only looking after the centre but also the local community. In the last few months they have dealt with a number of incidents.

Dave Phillips, Denise Phillips and Paul Ogden – Market Place
Well done to our security guards for quickly responding to reports of a potential suicide. Our guards were brilliant and talked to the man while waiting for the emergency services to arrive. I’m glad to say the man is still alive, which is a big thank you to Paul and Nikki for their skills, whilst Dave and Denise controlled the situation.

Natalee Watmough – The Lowry
Natalee also showed professionalism and calmness in a difficult situation when a young man was threatening to jump from the car park.

Matthew Barrett, James Thompson and Gregorz Birowka – Stamford Quarter
The team responded with the utmost professionalism after a suicide in one of the service areas.

Chris Edwards – Maylords
Chris remained extremely calm, kept a professional manner and was helpful throughout an incident when a stall holder tenant went into cardiac arrest.

Rob Hawkins, Tom Chandler, Lisa Anderson, Alan Beattie, Lanre Bhadmus and Steve Mott (MSO) – Gloucester Quays
Well done to all involved who helped restrain a woman who had attempted to jump from a car park in the city centre.

Security Team – Templars Square
The fast action of the Security Team helped the police to arrest and charge a man who was seen in the centre with two large hunting knives.

CSR Of The Quarter

Our winners include:

Market Place
Thank you to the team for their work helping singer Jamie Lawson and his team make his new music video in the centre. Two of the Market Place team are actually in the video!

Lee Stones – Haymarket
Lee has been instrumental in helping the centre raise funds for their nominated charities. Thank you Lee.

Runcorn Shopping City
Thank you to every member of staff who helped to make the centre’s Christmas appeal to collect warm clothing for homeless people in the North West such a success. A great team effort.

Westgrove’s mental health first-aider wins award

Paul Ogden, The Westgrove Group’s first site based Mental Health First-Aider, has won a prestigious industry award.

Paul, who is a mental health champion at Market Place Shopping Centre in Bolton, has won a Revo ACE Award.

The awards programme showcases people and places that achieve excellence customer service.

Paul was presented with his award at an event at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole last night.

Also shortlisted for an award was Handforth Dean Retail Park and St Johns Shopping Centre in Liverpool, both of which Westgrove provides services for.

Westgrove has been working with one of its key partners, Market Place, to champion awareness of mental health.

As part of the service to shoppers the centre was keen to ensure that they identified a mental health first aider, something which is being called for by many companies in the UK to be mandatory as part of the ‘Time to Change’ campaign

Following a very successful mental health awareness week in 2018, Changing Minds, the centre and Westgrove worked together to train over 80 staff in mental health awareness.

Following the training, Paul Ogden, one of the centre’s Guest Service Ambassadors, took on the role as mental health champion.

Paul is now available to offer support and advice to vulnerable customers visiting the centre as well as to the centre’s tenants.

As part of his training, Paul completed a mental health first aid course through St John Ambulance, the nation’s leading first aid charity, and a NCFE CACHE Level 2 certificate qualification in Mental Health Awareness.

Claire McKinley Smith, Managing Director of The Westgrove Group, said: “As a company, we take mental health extremely seriously so we are delighted that Paul has been recognised for all of his hard work to champion mental health in the workplace. We are so proud of him.

“He is equipped with all the skills required to help someone, be it a colleague or a member of the public suffering mental distress, which is all too common an occurrence today”

“Since starting in the new role, Paul has rolled out his training to the Westgrove team onsite and to the tenants within the centre.

“He has already identified a number of vulnerable customers and offered them advice and support. We will be looking to appoint mental health first aiders at many more centres across our UK portfolio during 2019.”