Our Charity of the Year

We champion causes that are important to our employees and relevant to our work in education. Each year our team nominates a charity to support through employee-led fundraising activities.

For 2023-24 we have chosen to fundraise for YoungMinds, the UK’s leading charity fighting for children and young people’s mental health. YoungMinds’ mission is to make sure all young people can get the mental health support they need, when they need it, no matter what. A group of volunteers from across LocatED have put together an exciting and varied programme of activities, including a big night out, team lunch and quiz, to raise funds in support of this vital work.

Volunteering initiatives

Everybody receives two paid days each year for volunteering. Our team has undertaken a wide range of activities to support their local communities, including:

• Working with local schools; taking on governor roles, assisting teachers on class outings, supporting an SEN school, and painting bathrooms in a primary school
• Partnering with VINCI Facilities Management to organise libraries and tidy allotments at local schools
• Helping fundraise for and build a community outdoor gym as part of the Barnes Rugby Football Club Big Build, coaching local youth rugby teams, and providing water to London Marathon runners with the Downside Fisher Youth Club
• Roles as conservation volunteers at nature reserves, clearing local parks and community green spaces, cleaning beaches, and litter-picking with Keep Britain Tidy
• Working at food banks, Ukrainian Crisis Centres and delivering meals to the vulnerable and to the elderly
• Knitting Twiddlemuffs for dementia patients and making baby blankets, hats, and cardigans with Knit for Peace UK.

A programme of outreach at schools, colleges, and universities

We take part in career days at secondary schools to promote the property profession as a viable and attainable career path, and offer useful tips on CV preparation, presentation skills and other skills for the workplace. We also host university students for mentoring sessions with senior members of staff and insight days covering a range of property and wider professional skills.

Young Persons’ Programme

We have set up a Young Persons’ Programme in partnership with education and skills focused charities and trusts to provide internships and work experience at LocatED.

As part of this we have signed up to the Care Leaver Covenant, a promise made by the private, public and voluntary sectors to provide support for care leavers aged 16-25 to help them live independently. To help them start careers in property we offer insight days and work experience to those leaving care.

Engaging with the wider property profession

We collaborate with other government organisations to help improve pathways into the property profession and progression for under-represented groups. We take part in mentoring sessions with junior professionals as part of our membership with Real Estate Balance. And we encourage our team to deliver Continued Professional Development and engage in networking events using their expertise, skills, and experience to give back to the sector.

Supporting communities through our asset management work

Our Asset Management Team delivers ‘meanwhile uses’ for the sites that we manage on behalf of the Department for Education while they are vacant. This includes opening sites for community use, such as for clubs, societies and public services; as well as supporting SMEs by working with partners to provide flexible and affordable workspaces. During the pandemic we worked with the NHS to use vacant buildings as vaccination centres in Hastings, Derby, Heathrow, Liverpool, and Letchworth.

We have also introduced ‘guardian’ schemes in appropriate vacant properties: this means we can make affordable living space available to the rental market while the building is being held for future educational use.