Manchester-based company scoops Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Promoting Opportunity (through social mobility)
Procure Plus Holdings has been recognised with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise after helping thousands of people from disadvantaged communities in to sustainable, meaningful employment.
The company specialises in the procurement of goods and services for the social housing sector, helping providers secure cash savings of between 10% and 20% with no reduction in quality or service.
The surpluses generated from the procurement business are used to train and develop people who find themselves distanced from the employment market, using a range of training and support mechanisms, and working with local communities. This pioneering work has supported 2,534 people into sustainable employment over the last five years, with 90% of these beneficiaries having significant barriers to the labour market.
In order to ensure employment is truly sustainable, ongoing in-work support is provided for both candidates and employers, leading to over 87% of candidates remaining in work for longer than six months.
While Procure Plus Holdings supports many communities which are disadvantaged, its support of ex-offenders is especially exemplary. When PPH created OSCO Homes as a subsidiary company to deliver affordable housing using off-site construction methods, it also saw the opportunity to integrate social value in its business model to the benefit of the individual, company and community.
It did this by basing its first factory inside HMP Hindley, employing offenders serving custodial sentences. On release, prisoners are guaranteed roles within OSCO or its supply chain and are provided with access to a range of personal support to ensure they succeed on the outside. This has resulted in reoffending rates at OSCO of just 6%, compared to rates of up to 59% in the wider prison population on release.
I am incredibly proud that we have been awarded a Queen's Award for Enterprise in Promoting Opportunity by Her Majesty The Queen.
Procure Plus is a business with a commercial head and a social heart. To be recognised by the most prestigious business awards in the UK is a huge honour, and one that I share with our employees, clients and everyone who we were able to help into work.
The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious awards for UK business – often thought of as a ‘knighthood for business’ – with Her Majesty The Queen personally approving the winners. They recognise and encourage outstanding achievements in the fields of Innovation, International Trade, Sustainable Development and Promoting Opportunity (through social mobility).
225 UK businesses have been given awards this year but Procure Plus Holdings is one of just 9 to win in the Promoting Opportunity category.
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