Victim Support

During the London Olympics and Paralympics 2012, the company's North West Victim Care Unit ran a programme of events focusing on team work and performance, showcasing the Olympic spirit. The units ran events for ‘best commissioned services' for victims of crime and ‘most commissioned services' by a Victim Care Officer to boost individual performance. The team event ‘The Olympic Race' included a competition which promoted increasing performance based on the number of referrals for support that each team made to their community branches. The number of referrals made by individuals was added together to create a team total and was updated daily on the ‘Olympic Race' track. At the end of the 14 day period the number of visits was totalled and the winning team were crowned Olympic champions. Each team also adopted an Olympic country. All team members worked together to represent their country in the most innovative and creative way. They decorated desks and the wider offices in line with the theme. At the closing ceremony each team represented their adopted country and one team from each site was judged ‘the winner'. The results for the competitions were announced and medals awarded to individuals and teams during a spectacular closing ceremony. The event focused on effective team working to support the aims and objectives of Victim Support and services that they provide. Another example saw the finance team undertake a number of events based on MBTI and increasing individual and team awareness to support the team working together.

As a charity, Victim Support's purpose is helping victims find the strength to move on after crime. The work that they undertake focuses on giving back to local and wider communities by providing support to victims and witnesses of crime. Since Victim Support first began in 1974, they've helped well over 25 million people affected by crime. Over the last year we, they made almost 74,000 visits to see victims; made more than 1,167,700 phone calls to talk to victims of crime; organised 45,800 pre-trial and 124,034 on-the-day court visits to help witnesses prepare for giving evidence; supported 26,700 witnesses who were vulnerable or intimidated witnesses and identified a further 15,600 people who they felt needed special help at court. Delivery of their services depends on the skills, knowledge and time of their volunteers, supported by their employees. They have over 6000 volunteers undertaking work for Victim Support. They invest in development for their volunteers through training. This is imperative for delivery of frontline services but for many volunteers it also gives them access to skills which will support them in their wider life, whether in paid work roles, whilst studying or as life skills that they can use every day. In the last year they also launched their first apprenticeship programme and are currently supporting apprenticeships for circa 7 paid apprentices; supporting them to gain valuable skills that we hope they will be able to continue to grow and develop with Victim Support.

In London locality Victim Support invited each of the divisions, the National Homicide Service, Locality Head Office, the Victim Care Unit and Supportline to nominate a member of their team to join a new communications working group. The purpose of the group is to act as a forum in which to engage with the London locality staff by acting as a channel of communication between senior management and staff regarding organisational concerns and issues; providing an opportunity for the participation and involvement of staff in developing an action plan in response to the findings of the employee engagement survey; discussing and agreeing actions to address areas for development identified through the survey and taking forward agreed actions with a view to seeking feedback from the respective teams. Meeting at least every two months, the communications group is popular within the locality. As a direct result of engagement with staff, the group have introduced several new initiatives including a work place shadowing scheme and a new London locality newsletter. Members of the group meet with their respective teams and divisions and provide a channel of two way communication whereby matters can be discussed and fed back to the group. Victim Support has also introduced monthly summaries of their senior management team meetings where staff are invited to raise any issues or concerns with their respective manager. Any matters raised are guaranteed to be discussed and considered at the next relevant senior management team meeting and are responded to accordingly.