Back together for our ‘Training and Development Day’ 2022

1 August 2022

After a two-and-a-half year gap, we were finally able to reunite for a Training and Development Day last week.

We enjoyed sessions from our partners at North Yorkshire County Council on energy reduction, devolution, and mental wellbeing.

Many of our staff members hadn’t seen each other in person since the pandemic.

Some who had started working with us during the lockdowns had never met, so the day was a great opportunity for lots of internal networking!

As well as external speakers, we had presentations from each of Veritau’s services. Colleagues from internal audit, counter fraud and information governance updated us on their work over the past year.

Max Thomas, our chief executive, also provided an update on the business and our plans for the year ahead. In 2021/22, we:

• Increased the number of FTE employees to 73
• Welcomed new clients, including Birmingham Children’s Trust and Sunderland City Council and more academy schools
• Maintained high staff satisfaction rates
• Continued to grow our DPO service and increased the number of resources on our client portal
• Launched a three-year internal audit strategy
• Recovered £600k+ for our clients from counter fraud work
• Developed new service offerings for schools covering risk management and whistleblowing

We also enjoyed a ‘human bingo’ based team building session to get to know each other better. And to get our energy back up after lunch, we brainstormed ideas for how we could further develop our corporate social responsibility strategy.

This session included a brief discussion on our volunteer policy. Veritau offers employees the option to do volunteering work in the community on work time, for up to ten days per year across the company.

Staff members who have used the policy this year have volunteered for a range of causes, including:

• Scout Association – organising events for children, helping them develop important life skills
• Friends of Rowntree Park – providing accounting support to this local charity
• Local church – playing the piano for sessions with elderly members of the community
• Sing Inside – helping to run a singing workshop in a prison, aiding community outreach

We’re looking forward to our next Training and Development Day where we can get together again to share best practice and strengthen the relationships between our teams.