Fox Group launches Fox Worx social impact programme

Blackpool-based Fox Group has launched a new social impact and workforce development programme bringing together its employment, skills and community initiatives under one banner.

Fox Worx formalises a range of long-running projects delivered by the business, including employing serving and former prisoners, supporting at-risk young people, investing in apprenticeships and promoting women in construction.

The company says the initiative will help it work more closely with customers, education providers and supply-chain partners while sharing best practice around social value and workforce development.

A launch event at Farington Lodge Hotel was attended by MPs, councillors, college and university representatives, HM Prison Service employment advisers and supply-chain partners.

At the centre of the programme is Fox Group’s partnership with HM Prison Service, which supports around 30 prisoners each year through release on temporary licence (RoTL) placements and pre-release employment support for Category C prisoners nearing the end of longer sentences.

The business has previously received the Lancashire Skills Pledge award for ‘Employing Lancashire People’ in recognition of its prison employment programme.

Caroline Hurst managing director at Fox Brothers (Leyland) said: “Our HMP programme is the foundation of Fox Worx.

“The evidence shows employment halves reoffending while creating excellent, well-rounded and loyal employees.

“By formalising what we do, we can scale it, share what works with our supply chain and customers, and create more second chances for the people who need them most.”

Zowi Whittaker, group sustainability and environmental director for Fox Group, added: “Fox Group has been doing this work for decades.

“What Fox Worx does is bring it together, give it a name, give it a structure, and give our stakeholders and customers a clear way to engage with it.

“We believe that where someone starts should never define where they finish, and that the communities we work in should be better off for our presence.”

Fox Worx also includes initiatives focused on apprenticeships, schools engagement, armed forces employment pathways, community partnerships and social value projects across the region.