CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORT 2016

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1 ST. JAMES S PLACE IS COMMITTED TO GROWING OUR BUSINESS IN A WAY THAT CONSIDERS THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF WHAT WE DO We understand that responsible management is important to all our stakeholders shareholders, clients, Partners, employees, suppliers and the communities in which we operate. Our commitment to responsible management was established in the founding principles of the Company and is expressed in both the Our Approach document, which is shared with all members of our community, and the What it means to be a member brochure, which sets out the expectations for our Partners. We believe responsible management continues to be embedded in our culture and reminders and encouragement to live by this philosophy are provided regularly through team meetings, and employee and Partner newsletters. By living up to the expectations established within our culture, we believe we will be able to demonstrate trustworthiness, reliability and a commitment to the common good. In a world where the reputation of the financial services industry is constantly under pressure, we aspire to create an authentic alternative which all our stakeholders can trust, and which the communities we are part of can appreciate and respect. OUR APPROACH TO CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) We are constantly seeking to improve our delivery, but recent public endorsements include: We have received various awards relating to our client offering over the years. Most recently, these have included the Wealth Adviser Award for Best Private Client Investment Manager (fourth year running), the Personal Finance Awards Best Financial Adviser (seventh year running), FDs Excellence Awards Pension Firm of the Year, City of London Wealth Management Company of the Year Award (second year running), What Investment Readers Award Best Wealth Manager and Shares Magazine Awards Best Wealth Manager. Our business model has been recognised through winning the 2016/17 Britain s Most Admired Companies Award in our sector for the second year running, which is run in association with Management Today. Our continued inclusion in the FTSE4Good Index, which comprises companies that meet globally recognised corporate social responsibility criteria, recognised our positive culture and ongoing commitment to responsible management. Responsible management is central to our culture 1

2 CSR GOVERNANCE Responsible management is central to our culture, and the task of maintaining this culture (including our CSR ambitions) is a key focus of the Executive Board, with oversight by the full Board. The Executive Board is supported in this objective (as in all of their work) by a number of sub committees, which are chaired by Directors or senior management. COMMUNITY SUPPORT 2016 HIGHLIGHTS The St. James s Place Foundation We have always recognised our social responsibility to our local communities and, from the founding of the Group, have encouraged our staff and Partners to use their expertise to help local charities and other voluntary organisations. The desire to provide support to the less fortunate in society resulted in the establishment of the St. James s Place Foundation which continues to receive support from all parts of the St. James s Place Community: employees, Partners, clients, suppliers and shareholders. This has been another record year for fundraising by members of our community and, as a result, the 100% matching grant and other support from the Company was 3.7 million. Since 1992, the St. James s Place Foundation has now raised and distributed over 54 million to good causes. Community Volunteering and Support St. James s Place has a strong tradition of volunteer support for the work of the Foundation, but 2016 has seen continued and significant increases in our staff volunteering for wider CSR initiatives and in work time community support. In 2016 we have launched a new initiative to partner with local charities to provide both financial support and the physical and skills capital of our organisation. We are not supporting specific projects, but rather the core charity to improve efficiency and sustainability. These partnerships are aimed to last five years with decreasing funds but increasing staff ties and skills based support. In this first year we have partnered with: The Churn Project, which works to improve the quality of life and well being of isolated and disadvantaged people within Cirencester; and Cirencester Housing for Young People (CHYP) which provides a home for young people at serious risk of homelessness as well as pastoral care and mentoring. Staff support has included Marketing, Property and IT expertise and Partners have provided financial advice. During 2017 we aim to add three more charities to this initiative and empower these charities to work together as they all strive to help the same people. We are also pleased to have maintained our drive to link the professional skills of our employees to the professional needs of local charities. During 2016 we were able to offer 86 of our staff, who already volunteer with a local community organisation, a grant of 300 as our way of recognising and supporting the 14,800 hours of volunteering they gave in their own time. We also formalised our encouragement for staff to get involved with community activity, by offering all members of staff two days a year for community support in work time. This has been used to support The Foundation, to get involved in other corporate CSR initiatives or through giving skills directly to a charity of their choice. In 2016, 27.4% of staff used half a day or more of their two days and increasing this is a core objective of A new CSR initiative introduced in 2016 was our community team challenges. These provide an opportunity for groups of colleagues to undertake community and charity projects together, which can also be beneficial in strengthening teamwork and motivation. 1,200 hours of team community work have been undertaken this year, working with causes local to our offices including local charities, conservation projects, and an NHS trust. 2

3 Employability Skills for Young People St. James s Place is an entrepreneurial organisation and we have always been keen that the next generation should be able to contribute successfully through employment. In 2016 our work with Cirencester College, including our apprentices initiative, continued to be the heart of this workstream. CIRENCESTER COLLEGE St. James s Place has now been providing support to Cirencester College, a further education college local to our head office, for over twelve years. During that time, we have been able to offer 82 internships to students from Cirencester College, with 29 of them turning into full time employment opportunities often in our Apprenticeship scheme (see below). However, our main involvement has been providing support for the four Academy Programmes, operated in conjunction with the national charity Career Ready, each designed for students who aspire to work in a particular market sector. The support provided includes providing paid summer internships, mentors, and business coaching to many students. 88% of Group employees and contractors involved in some kind of citizenship activity STAFF GIVING THROUGH SALARY COVENANT 77% STAFF ORGANISING FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES 12% STAFF PARTICIPATING IN CSR ACTIVITIES 18% STAFF PARTICIPATING IN FOUNDATION FUNDRAISING EVENTS 41% 14 hours the number of hours our employees receive per year for community support in work time. 8.1 hours the average number of hours our employees and contractors gave to support our communities in 2016, during work time. 4.4 hours the average number of hours our employees and contractors gave of their own time in support of CSR activities and the Foundation. APPRENTICESHIPS Working in conjunction with Cirencester College, which provides the training, our apprenticeship programme is now a cornerstone of our long-term recruitment policy. Our 2016 September intake of 14 has included apprenticeships in Financial Services, Business Administration, Marketing, IT and Accountancy. The 2016 programme has been enriched by the addition of the Duke of Edinburgh s Award for all our apprentices. A further intake of 14 apprentices is planned for September

4 OTHER EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS TRAINING This year we have maintained out support for organisations like Young Enterprise and Employability UK, but also started to support The Duke of Edinburgh s Award and the Urban Stars programme; all helping young people bridge the gap between education and work. We have also maintained our support for local schools with staff giving their time to support CV workshops, networking days, assemblies, interview training and work experience. With increased focus on careers education in schools and colleges we believe this is an important area in which we can develop our offering in 2017, moving beyond providing grants to finding ways of working more actively in supporting these organisations with staff skills and expertise. Financial Education As one of the leading providers of financial advice to individuals and business owners in the UK, we recognise the importance and value of financial education and this continued to be a core focus in the year. During 2016 we significantly increased the delivery of our Year 9 and 495,172 the total value of all the time our employees and contractors gave in work time million the total cash value we invested in 2016 in our communities and good causes through our CSR programmes and the SJP Foundation. 1,773 the number of young people our staff have worked with face-to-face, through our Financial Awareness programme. Sixth Form Financial Education courses with schools. Offering a mix of full day, half day and flexible modular programmes we supported PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) and Maths curriculum in 15 schools and two charities in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and London. We have developed a team of staff to go into the schools to deliver our courses which brings the day to life for the students and delivers excellent engagement and positive experiences learning about tax, budgeting and understanding debt. In all, 27 sessions have been delivered supporting over 2,000 students. We have been able to both lead and support these days thanks to the 81 individual staff who volunteered to be involved, in all, giving 550 hours of work time. Following the success of 2016 we will look to maintain the scale of our Financial Education programme in 2017 and expand delivery to schools and charities in more locations across the UK supported by volunteers from our offices and wider Partnership. Loughborough University Swimming In 2016, we were pleased to continue our sponsorship of the Loughborough University Swimming programme. This enables the squad to receive additional coaching and, since our relationship started in 2007, the team have medalled in all major UK and International events including European, Commonwealth, World Championships and the Olympic Games. Four of the 26 strong British Swimming team at the Rio Olympics were part of the Loughborough University s Fast Swimming programme: Francesca Halsall, Molly Renshaw, Georgia Davies and Tim Shuttleworth. Adam Peaty, who also trains at the University, won Britain s first medal of the games, a Gold in the men s 100 metre breaststroke. The 21 year old then led Team GB to win Silver in the men s 4 x 100 metre medley relay. In measuring our CSR community support activities, we use the LBG measurement methodology. 4

5 SUPPLIERS AND SUPPLY CHAIN St. James s Place believes in treating all our stakeholders fairly. We also believe in the benefits to be gained from building long-term relationships based on mutual trust. As a result, many of our key suppliers have been associated with the Group for a number of years and we have been able to cultivate very strong and mutually beneficial relationships, such as our providers of outsourced administration services: IFDS, Capita and State Street. More generally, we expect all our suppliers to act in accordance with the standards embedded in our culture, and will undertake due diligence on new service providers to ensure we are comfortable with their approach to socially responsible management. Since 2014 we have been accredited with the Living Wage Foundation, which involves us working closely with our supply chain. We are particularly pleased that many of our suppliers share our desire to make a positive and lasting difference to the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves, and we are very grateful to all those who have provided support to the St. James s Place Foundation, both through donations and through active participation in many of the events. St. James s Place has always placed great reliance on the support of third party suppliers and the continued success of our business reflects, amongst other things, our success in cultivating and managing successful relationships with suppliers. We are pleased to remain signed up to the Prompt Payment Code which is encouraged by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and demonstrates a commitment to good practice between organisations and their suppliers. Signatories to the Code commit to paying their suppliers within agreed and clearly defined terms, and commit also to ensuring that there is a proper process for dealing with any issues that may arise. RESPONSIBLE INVESTING At St. James s Place we place emphasis on the principles of responsible investing (RI) in the management of our clients assets and in the integration of environment, social and governance (ESG) factors into the investment process. We see this as a tool for better managing risk and generating sustainable, long-term returns and better financial outcomes. We have continued to develop our approach to RI during 2016, with the adoption of the St. James s Place Approach to Responsible Investing Policy and its extension to cover all of our major asset classes equities, fixed income and property. Our policy draws upon the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) but we also look to other exemplars, such as the Stewardship Code and the Investment Association s Stewardship Reporting Framework, the FTSE4Good criteria, as well as industry good practice. We encourage the investment advisers, where appropriate, to become signatories of these associations. We have also established a dedicated RI Governance Group with the objective of promoting the principles of RI across our fund range. We continue to engage with our community of fund managers with a comprehensive programme of pre-appointment due diligence and ongoing oversight. This includes a major emphasis on the incorporation of ESG into the investment process and the importance of stewardship activities, including engagement and voting. In 2017 we plan to publish our first RI dedicated client report. THE ENVIRONMENT St. James s Place is committed to managing our environmental impact through effective monitoring of energy systems, travel, water usage and waste recycling. We recognise the effect our business can have on climate change and manage our business activities to reduce this impact where possible. We were pleased to see these efforts recognised in 2016, when we were awarded a Grade B, Management by the CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project). 5

6 Oversight of our environmental strategy is through a Corporate Social Responsibility Group (CSR Group) with ultimate responsibility resting with David Bellamy (CEO). The group meets on a monthly basis and reviews environmental performance. We collect and report our environmental data from October to September. The emissions were calculated by our external sustainability partner, Carbon Clear, in line with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol using the 2016 emission factors provided by DEFRA. Further more detailed information on this reporting is available within the 2016 Annual Report and Accounts of St. James s Place PLC available on our website at As our business continues to grow, we have worked to integrate the acquired entities and our offices in Asia into the Company wide environmental reporting. Our new building in Cirencester has not been accounted for in this year s carbon footprint, as staff moved into there after our current reporting year. We have achieved a BREEAM rating of very good for the new building and will account for it within next year s carbon footprint. In 2016 we exceeded the Scope 1 and 2 targets that were set in 2013, in both absolute and normalised terms. We have now confirmed our next set of emission reduction targets. As a Company, we have committed to reducing our Scope 1 and 2 absolute emissions by 50% between 2016 and We plan to achieve this target through a range of initiatives, including procuring renewable electricity for our UK offices. The St. James s Place Partnership and the titles Partner and Partner Practice are marketing terms used to describe St. James s Place representatives. Members of the St. James s Place Partnership in the UK represent St. James s Place Wealth Management plc, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. St. James s Place Wealth Management plc Registered Office: St. James s Place House, 1 Tetbury Road, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 1FP, United Kingdom. Registered in England Number SJPM4955 V1 (05/17)