Sustainability Goals

This goal aims to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. The target is to eradicate poverty for all people everywhere by 2030. Poverty is currently measured as people living on less than 91p a day.

Vanquis Banking Group Lends Responsibly and Acts Sustainably

Our Purpose as a business it to address key barriers to financial inclusion and help to put people on a path to a better everyday life. We do this primarily by ensuring that our customers have access to cost-effective and appropriate products, that meet their specific needs.

We also invest in activities and initiatives that address key factors which may affect someone’s likelihood of being accepted for credit, through our Social Impact Programme. We make sure our colleagues have the skills to deal with customers with additional needs. We also support independent financial research, money advice and financial education.

This enables our customers, and others who might face financial difficulty, to recognise the barriers to financial inclusion. They can then overcome these barriers and secure a more positive financial future for themselves.

2021 highlights and achievements

Through our Social Impact Programme, we also provide grants to charities and specialist partners to address issues like customer vulnerability, product accessibility and financial difficulties. To contribute to this SDG in 2021 the funding we provided to The Money Charity enabled it to deliver information, advice and guidance to people of all ages, so that they can manage their money well and increase their financial wellbeing by delivering: 332 hours’ worth of financial education workshops to 7,640 young people; 79 hours’ worth of financial wellbeing, Covid-19 response and bespoke workshops to 675 adults; and 10 hours’ worth of workshops to 67 young people impacted by the criminal justice system.

We often post our work relating to these programs on our social media channels. Do take a look and meet some of the faces behind this work. 

This goal ensures inclusive and equitable quality education and promotes lifelong learning opportunities for all. The target is: By 2030, to ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes. It's all about improving access to quality early childhood development to increase the number of youth and young adults who have the relevant skills in literacy and numeracy. 

How we Support the Quality Education Goal

Through our Social Impact Programme, we support children, young people and adults to boost their education, skills and aspirations. This encourages them to participate in society and secure a brighter financial future. We fund a range of initiatives that increase literacy and numeracy skills, and help the employability of young people and adults. This will help raise aspirations of both children and adults who live in disadvantaged communities, so that they can have a better chance of having a future that sees them included in society.

The work we have already done to support Quality Education includes being the lead supporter of National Numeracy and their National Numeracy Day Campaigns. These campaigns look to raise awareness of the importance of numeracy and helps people take steps to improve their numeracy skills. As a financial services business we’re keen to ensure that any potential customers understand the terms of the products they are purchasing from us. In order to do this, they require basic numeracy skills. That is why we were lead supporters of National Numeracy Day for the fourth year running in 2021. 

We also continue to support the National Literacy Trust to help develop the literacy skills of young people and give them the confidence and desire to widen their aspirations. As a large employer, we can be one of the best sources of advice and guidance for students. Throughout 2019, we supported almost 300 pupils ranging from primary school age to post 16 across Bradford, Birmingham, London, Middlesbrough and Petersfield. Colleagues from local offices also volunteered to engage with the students and deliver programme activities.

You can see some of the work we are doing through our social media channels, and better understand the resources we work with companies to provide in our resource hub.

Working in Schools

Through our work with our education partners School Home Support (SHS), we place practitioners in schools to work with young people and their families who need support to overcome challenges at home, such as poverty, poor housing, domestic violence and other complex issues in order to get into school.

We help to provide support in schools in Bradford and Chatham, where persistent absence levels are high. In these regions we also have large numbers of colleagues who volunteer to support vulnerable children. We also ran a Christmas gift giving appeal in partnership with SHS. We asked employees to buy gifts for some of the most disadvantaged children the charity works with across Bradford, London and Chatham, and we managed to donate 187 gifts.

World Book Day

Finally, through our work with our education partners School Home Support (SHS), we place practitioners in schools to work with young people and their families who need support to overcome challenges at home, such as poverty, poor housing, domestic violence and other complex issues, in order to get into school.

We help to provide support in schools in Bradford and Chatham, where persistent absence levels are high. In these regions we also have large numbers of colleagues who volunteer to support vulnerable children, and we also ran a Christmas gift giving appeal in partnership with SHS in 2020.

We asked colleagues to buy gifts for some of the most disadvantaged children the charity works with across Bradford, London and Chatham, and we managed to donate 187 gifts.

Similarly, for World Book Day in 2020, we asked colleagues to donate book and book tokens to be sent to schools in Bradford, London and Chatham. We collected over 1,000 books and £140 in book tokens which we gave to local schools to support the education of primary schoolchildren.

Through this partnership we have seen improvements in school attendance, in behaviour and in children being more engaged with their learning.The Community Foundation partnerships we have also give us the opportunity to provide funding for extra-curricular activities which contribute to the learning of schoolchildren.

For example, in 2020 we provided a grant to Bradford Community Broadcasting to support children and young people to increase their speaking skills, confidence and self-esteem. It encouraged them to widen their life aspirations and educational outcomes through producing broadcast radio programmes.

This goal aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. The target is: End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.

We are committed to supporting diversity and creating an open and inclusive culture where everyone feels valued. 

Our Target

Financial services has traditionally been seen as an industry that has lacked diversity and inclusivity however we're aiming to address this through promoting more women into senior level positions and we also recognise that PFG has a key role to play in closing the gender pay gap across the financial services sector. That's why PFG's objective is to have 40% female representaion in the Group's senior Management population.

Our Work So Far

In 2019, we signed up to the Women in Finance Charter. Being a Charter signatory underlines our commitment to focus on attracting, retaining and developing talented women. This will not only enable us to achieve a gender balanced workforce, but also to create a diverse, open and inclusive culture where everyone is a valued member of PFG.

We also seek to improve gender equality through our company wide Social Impact Programme. In 2020, this saw us support the Excel Women’s Association to provide job searching support and training to women and girls in Barking and Dagenham. We also provided funding to the Muslim Women’s Council in Bradford. This was to enable and encourage Muslim mothers to have the confidence to empower and support their daughters to achieve their full potential and build active independence.

Be Yourself

Building on our gender diversity work, we launched Be Yourself in 2020, which is our group-wide programme to promote and advance the wider inclusion and diversity agenda across Vanquis Banking Group. The launch of this programme was borne out of the recognition that our colleagues and other stakeholders can only embrace our Purpose and move along a path to a better everyday life if they feel that it’s their path and the feel comfortable walking it.

This goal promotes sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. The UN target is: Sustain economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7% gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries.

Our Target

By 2030, we will contribute to promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all by creating opportunities for all generations and protecting and promoting labour rights in both our business and supply chains.

We do this in a number of ways, one of which being our social impact programme. 

Social Mobility Business Partnership

We are a founding funder of the Social Mobility Business Partnership which brings together large corporate organisations and professional sports clubs to remove barriers, develop skills and provide experiences to sixth form and college students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The programme helps build aspirations and inspire individuals to pursue a career in a profession which they may not have previously considered. Our colleagues supported this and volunteered their time to deliver CV writing and job interview skills to young people in Bradford. You can see this in action, here on LinkedIn. 

We also support charities and other organisations in the communities we serve, to help people to develop their skills and secure employment opportunities. For example, in 2020, we funded the Wecock Community Association in Hampshire. They provide advice to people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) to access work opportunities.

Finally, we’re committed to protecting and promoting labour rights in both our business and supply chains. We do this by ensuring that we take steps to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking from occurring in our supply chain and direct business activities. We also ensure that we pay our suppliers, in particular those that are small to medium sized, promptly.

This goal aims to reduce inequality within and among countries. The target is: By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income grown of the bottom 40% of the population at a rate higher than the national average.

Our Target

Whether it is because of their age / sex / gender identity / race / ethnicity / origin / disability / ability / where they live or what their economic status is, we will contribute to reducing inequality by building these capabilities to better identify, support and empower our stakeholders who may face inequality and exclusion.

How we do this

We do this by supporting community projects in areas where people are more likely to face social and financial exclusion. We provide them grants to support local people in improving aspects of their life.

For example, we provided a grant to the Refugee and Migrant Forum of East London. This enabled immigration casework to be delivered to disadvantaged young refugees and migrants who are entitled to be in the UK but cannot afford to regularise their status. We also support the Newport Yemeni Community Association in Wales to deliver an online homework club that allows children from the Yemeni community to engage with tutors. They can then access support in key subjects such as Maths, English and Science. In Havant, we’ve been able to provide funding to  Enterpride CIC which supports and encourages the development of enterprise initiatives to allow greater work opportunities for people with learning disabilities. They raise awareness of the value that people with learning disabilities can bring and offer access to employment.

Inclusive Culture

We also seek to ensure that we create a workplace culture at Vanquis Banking Group which aims reduce inequalities. We do this because we know that our colleague’s unique backgrounds, experiences and abilities are at the core of our culture and vibrant workforce. The communities we operate in and our customers bases are made up of equally diverse mixes of race, gender, sexuality and disability and other protected characteristics.

So, by building diverse teams at all levels of our business that represent and understand these populations, we can innovate. We can provide the best products and service to our customers and contribute to the long-term success of Vanquis Banking Group. This saw us launch our overall inclusion community. This comprises four affinity groups based around disability, ethnicity, gender and LGBTQ+, to discuss inclusion and diversity plans, developments and proposals.

You can read more on Inclusion and Diversity here or find more information on what we do on our social media channels.

Our core focus in 2021 was to align our Corporate Responsibility Strategy and Brand story and Strategy with our priority goals. This will enable the strategic drivers of our business, and the everyday behaviours of our colleagues, to have a direct positive impact on sustainable development. Our purpose will be to improve the lives of the undeserved people that make up our customer base, as well as millions of others facing hardship around the world.