Partou, one of the UK’s leading day nursery providers with more than 100 settings, has secured B Corp™ certification after meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.
To become certified, organisations must complete a rigorous independent assessment covering five key areas: how they are governed, how they support their people, how they contribute to communities, how they care for the environment and how they serve their customers.
The global certification, administered by not-for-profit organisation B Lab™, is re-assessed every three years.
There are currently around 10,300 B Corps across the world including 2,700 in the UK.
Kirsty Jackson, Partou Co-Managing Director, said: “We’re proud that Partou has achieved B Corp certification. I want to thank team members at every level who put in a lot of hard work over many months to achieve this outcome.
“The assessment process highlighted the strength of our governance and the policies that underpin everything we do. For example, our well-established feedback channels enable families to share their feedback and access support when they need it.
“We have developed detailed people policies covering those issues of greatest importance to team members including equality, inclusion, pay, benefits and employment practices, including our newly introduced menopause policy. We provide additional health and wellbeing assistance through our Employees Assistance Programme and Medicash.
“We are also focussed on expanding and measuring our social impact, actively contributing to everyday lives in the communities we serve with regular fundraising activities for good causes across our settings.
“Partou will continue to strive, not only to maintain high standards in all we do but raise our performance levels across all areas of our business to even greater heights.”
Chris Turner, CEO of B Lab UK, said: “We are delighted to welcome Partou UK to the B Corp community. This is a movement of companies that are committed to changing how business operates and believe business really can be a force for good.
“We know that Partou UK is going to be a fantastic addition to the community and will continue driving the conversation forward.”
Further information on Partou becoming a Certified B Corporation™ is available via this link.
