Author: Lucy Wood

We are proud to be celebrating #nationalvolunteerweek2022. Volunteer Week is an annual celebration of the contribution millions of people make across the UK through volunteering. As well as helping others, volunteering has been shown to improve the volunteers’ mental and physical wellbeing too.

At The Westgrove Group, we see the importance of giving back and we are pleased to be able to offer our colleagues the opportunity to volunteer for a cause close to their hearts through our ‘Volunteer Days’ scheme.

Lucy from our Marketing Team recently used one of our Volunteer Days to support a local primary school to help them to dig a pond! 

The school wanted to develop an unused area of their outdoor space to create a pond to attract local wildlife to the area. Ponds are a wildlife magnet, providing homes, breeding grounds, bathing spots, food and a watering hole for all manner of creatures including birds, frogs, toads, newts and insects and it will create an ideal live science lesson for the children as well as an array of opportunities to help maintain the pond and learn more about it.

Lucy said: “Spending a day digging a pond with a fantastic bunch of people was a great experience. It was hard graft but I had so much fun and found it very rewarding knowing that my contribution would create so many experiences for all the children to enjoy”.

Colleagues can find out more about Westgrove Volunteer Days by emailing marketing@westgrove.co.uk.

We are extremely pleased to announce that one of our colleagues has been awarded an ACS Pacesetters Security Officer of Distinction Award 2022!

Martin Wain from Templars Square Shopping Centre in Oxford has been recognised in these prestigious awards for his outstanding contribution to the security sector and has received one of 12 awards in a ceremony that took place at Windsor Racecourse on the 25^th May 2022. 

The awards set out to reward Security Officers who have gone above and beyond in their duties. The winners are selected by a panel of industry leaders and senior officers from all branches of the emergency services.

We would like to thank Martin for his outstanding contribution, not only to Westgrove but to Templars Square and the security industry as a whole.

This follows on from the success of last year with Martin’s colleague Majid Khan also being awarded this accolade. As a business we also nominated the following colleagues for their hard work and commitment over the past year and thank them for their continued support. 

Ben Jaggers, Telford Centre went above and beyond to save the life of a member of the public who he believed was about to take their own life.  Through intuition, Ben recognised what was happening, through determination was able to prevent it happening and through empathy was able to comfort and support the person until professional help arrived.

Dave Phillips, Marketplace for his dedication to Marketplace for over 20 years.  Dave shows extensive knowledge of the site and his role and has fantastic customer service skills.

David Field, Ryemarket for providing lifesaving CPR to an unresponsive female during the pandemic.  David remained extremely calm, confident and in control of the incident and was able to bring the lady back to life.

Jake Quieros, Castle Quay, during an incident at an adjoining hotel, Jake was inspirational in the way he managed the situation outside of the hotel, liaising with hotel staff, police, the public and managing the situation in an exemplary manor.  Afterwards, during the team debrief, Jake recognised how the incident had affected his team and comforted, reassured and offered help and guidance.

Congratulations to all of our colleagues who were nominated for an ACS Pacesetter Security Officer of Distinction Award, you are all winner in our eyes. 

The Westgrove Group are continuing to support Mental Health Awareness Week. Hosted by the Mental Health Foundation, this year the theme is ‘Loneliness’.

The past couple of years have been incredibly difficult for many people, at home and at work.  Here at The Westgrove Group, we take the Mental Health of our colleagues and those around us very seriously. We’re taking this opportunity to talk about Mental Health and start the conversation with our colleagues.   

This week we are providing our colleagues with a Mental Health Toolkit.  We want our colleagues to know that if they are struggling there are lots of ways they can reach out for support.

Mental Health Toolkit

We have Mental Health First Aiders in the business and all Colleagues are offered Mental Health Awareness training via our e-leaning programme.

Through our partnership with the Retail Trust, our colleagues have access to free and completely confidential advice and support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and access to the Retail Trust wellbeing portal where they can create their own personalised wellbeing toolkit.

We provide our colleagues with free access to the Mind Over Mountains charity who run events throughout the year.  Mind Over Mountains believe that time in nature, coupled with professional support is a powerful way to build resilience, talk without pressure and re-find stillness; restoring mental health, naturally.

If you are struggling with your mental health, we urge you to take the first step and reach out.

The Mental Health Foundation provide a list of charities and organisations that offer help and support directly to people with mental health problems – Click here.

Facilities management specialist, The Westgrove Group are celebrating after landing an internationally-recognised award for high health and safety standards.

The Warrington based business, who provides cleaning, security and maintenance to sites across the UK received a RoSPA Gold Health and Safety Award for working hard to ensure its colleagues and partners get home safely to their families at the end of every working day.

Organisations receiving a RoSPA Award are recognised as being world-leaders in health and safety practice. Every year, nearly 2,000 entrants vie to achieve the highest possible accolade in what is the UK’s longest-running H&S industry awards.

“Being recognised as one of the world leaders in health and safety practices is a remarkable achievement and is testament to the outstanding hard work and commitment of the entire Westgrove team” says Claire McKinley Smith, Group Managing Director.

Angela Crawford, Head of Health Safety and Compliance added: “We are thrilled to receive this coveted award and to have achieved the gold standard in our first year of submission is a phenomenal achievement.”

Julia Small, RoSPA’s Achievements Director, said: “This is a fantastic and well-deserved accomplishment. All our award entrants demonstrate their unwavering commitment and passion for keeping people safe at work. By receiving this recognition, The Westgrove Group join like-minded businesses and organisations worldwide, who represent the very best in their approach to Health and Safety. I would like to add my personal thanks for all the work that it has taken to secure this well-deserved award – congratulations to all those involved, who champion and drive-up Health and Safety standards every day. You are a fantastic example to others in your sector.”

Following on from the company’s success in the Women in Security Awards, the regional rounds in the BSIA British Security Awards and being named as finalists in the Outstanding Security Performance Awards, it is fantastic achievement that the company is now also being recognised for its commitment to health and safety.

The Westgrove Group was founded by Group Chairmen Simon Whittle and Steve Fives.  Based in Warrington, Cheshire, Westgrove employs over 1000 colleagues and specialises in providing security, cleaning, technical services and customer service to shopping centres and mixed-use destinations, corporate offices, business parks, manufacturing and airports throughout the UK.  Following a successful 24-year history, the company expanded in 2020 to add technical services to enhance its well-established award-winning soft services provision. 

For more information about The Westgrove Group visit www.westgrove.co.uk. 

We are absolutely delighted to have SEVEN regional winners in the BSIA British Security Awards, 2022. We have some outstanding security colleagues and teams across our business and we are thrilled that their hard work and dedication over the past year is being recognised in this way.

The Westgrove Group’s regional winners are:

St John’s Shopping Centre – BEST TEAM

Templars Square Shopping Centre – BEST TEAM

Paul Britton – SECURITY MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Mo Osman – SECURITY MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Thomas Battiscombe – BEST NEWCOMER

Ben Jaggers – OUTSTANDING ACT

Cornbow Team – SERVICE TO THE CUSTOMER

We’re told that the standard of nominations was exceptional and the judging panel had a very difficult job shortlisting the winners. Well done to all the nominees and regional winners and good luck in the Nationals which are being held at the London Marriott Grosvenor Square on the 29^th June 2022.

Our people are what make us special. From saving lives and preventing crime to helping people in need and much more. Our Reward and Recognition scheme is our way of saying thank you to our Colleagues for the amazing work that they do each and every day, often going above and beyond in their role.

Well done to all our winners and everyone who has been nominated for an award this quarter – you are all amazing!

Our 2022 Quarter 1 winners are:

Site Manager of the Quarter      

• Keith Hammond, Arconic Kawneer

Colleague of the Quarter

• Aston Ford, Royal Priors

Team of the Quarter

• Ryemarket Shopping Centre

Newcomer of the Quarter           

• Judith Rees, The Quadrant

Health, Safety and Wellbeing Champion of the Quarter

• Clare Danks, Head Office

CSR of the Quarter

• Susan Williams, The Galleries

Outstanding Act              

• Christine Preece, Telford Centre
• Kirsty Kirkland, St Johns
• Jake Quieros, Hameed Smith, Imran Younis, Jonathan Chandler & Owen Jarrett, Castle Quay
• John Whitford, Willow Place
• Ryan Griffin, Willow Place
• Sebastian Tyrer & Mathew Hall, Marketplace
• Damon Kosmalski-Pearson, Riverside (Hemel)
• Darren Williams, Quedam

Service Excellence

• Mike Clark, Doncaster Sheffield Airport
• John O’Neill, Touchwood
• Timea Kubikova, Head Office
• Suphan Konthong, Ryemarket
• Kyle Smith & Jordan Holmes, The Moor
• Colin O’Neil SR, Dewight Thompson, Alex Qarri & John Taylor, Touchwood
• Mark Griffin, Eccles
• Mo Osman, Queens Square

Congratulations to all our winning colleagues and to everyone who was nominated.

If you wish to nominate a colleague for a Reward & Recognition award, click here.

To see a list of all our previous winners, click here.

See it, Sort it, Report it. 

As part of our commitment to Health and Safety, this quarter we are running an internal campaign on Near Misses to raise awareness and improve standards. 

A Near Miss is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, damage, or product loss but had the potential to do so and research has shown that for every 90 near misses an accident will occur. While the exact numbers may vary, near-misses are a warning sign that something is going wrong.

Reporting a near miss can reduce accidents and improve safety on site. It will help us to find out what went wrong, fix the problem, and learn from it.

The purpose of near-miss reporting is to address the incident and take action to prevent reoccurrence and stop an accident before it happens.

The Westgrove Group are pleased to announce a new partnership and founding patronship with the well-being and mental health charity, Mind Over Mountains. 

The facilities management company based in Warrington has pledged its support to the charity for 2022 and hopes to helps people in the wider community access the support they need through outdoor events and activities combines with professional support.

Founded by Alex Staniforth in 2020 with the belief that everyone deserves access to the tools they need to stay mentally and physically well.  As a founding patron, Westgrove provide financial assistance to enable to charity to support people facing challenging life circumstances.

Claire Mckinley-Smith, Managing Director of The Westgrove Group said: “We’ve worked with Alex for many years in his role as Mental Health Brand Ambassador for Westgrove. He provided our colleagues with mental health and well-being support and it is a privilege to continue this relationship as a founding patron of his charity, Mind Over Mountains.   

Looking after our employee’s wellbeing is of paramount importance to us and we’re pleased to be able to provide our colleagues across the UK with funded places and make Mind Over Mountains accessible to all”. 

Alex Staniforth, co-founder of Mind Over Mountains said: “Looking after well-being in the workplace has been more paramount than ever through the last 2 years and our programmes offer a sustainable solution to support colleagues, beyond simply ticking boxes. I’m extremely grateful for Westgrove supporting my own adventure challenges and charity fundraising as a Young Ambassador since 2014, and I’m delighted to see this evolve into a new partnership with Mind Over Mountains that will have a positive impact on even more lives”.

To further support the partnership, Westgrove colleagues will be taking part in a Yorkshire 3 Peaks challenge in September to raise money for the charity and provide even more people with the opportunity to walk, talk and find stillness in nature. 

As always, we are keen to ensure our valued Partners stay up to date with all the latest news from around The Westgrove Group.

We are delighted to present the Spring edition of the Westgrove Digital Newsletter.

In this edition:

• We hear from Managing Director, Claire McKinley Smith
• Welcome new partners
• Hear from our Partner at Touchwood Shopping Centre, Tony Elvin
• Find out about the expansion of the Technical Services Department
• Hear the latest news from Westgrove HQ
• Take a look at our award-winning successes
• Any much more!  

Click here to read Issue 2 of the Westgrove Digital Newsletter.

Each year we receive hundreds of nominations from across the UK showcasing some of the amazing work that our teams carry out on a daily basis and 2021 was no different.

There have been some outstanding achievements from our colleagues and as a business we are extremely proud of all our nominees, finalists and award winners.  From saving lives, to acts of kindness, and going above and beyond with their customer service, our colleagues are what makes Westgrove the company we are today.

We are extremely proud to announce this year’s winners:

A huge congratulations to all of this year’s winners, finalists and nominees. You are all amazing!!