Boots Group plc

The UK’s leading health and beauty retailer has developed an award winning community investment programme that focuses on health promotion.

The company

Boots Group plc is an international business focused on health and beauty. It is the UK’s leading health and beauty retailer with more than 1,400 Boots the Chemists outlets in the UK and Ireland, and 300 Boots Opticians. As well as retailing, Boots has international sales and marketing operations and also develops and markets its own brands.

The drivers

A strong sense of social responsibility is part of Boots heritage. Today, Boots actions in CSR are underpinned by a strong commitment within the business to support health in the community in a way that contributes to the company’s overarching strategic direction.

This commitment is reflected in the company’s values and behaviours and is made explicit in its statement of business purpose. "Our community investment programme is an integral component of this commitment to CSR", explained Nicki Heathcote, Communications Manager for the Community Investment Programme.

Taking action

Boots undertakes a variety of CSR activities. The aim of its Community Investment Programme is to support and develop initiatives that deliver health promotion messages in the community. One area of this work has been to develop projects in partnership with the NHS in Nottinghamshire. This programme began when Boots joined forces with Nottingham City Hospital and the charity Look Good…Feel Better. The charity provides morale-boosting makeovers for women with cancer, helping to restore confidence and stimulate general well-being. The partnership joint funded the UK's first dedicated hospital beauty room at Nottingham City Hospital in 2002. The initiative's success encouraged Boots and Nottingham City Hospital to widen access to other user groups, both hospital patients and clients from local community groups.

A programme of health initiatives has subsequently been developed by Boots in Nottinghamshire by working in partnership with local Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and hospital NHS trusts. These include:

• Time for a Treat, which expands the Look Good…Feel Better concept. Working in partnership with Nottingham City Hospital, Nottingham City PCT and New College Nottingham (NCN), the initiative aims to make a range of holistic health and beauty treatments available to hospital and wider community client groups. NCN students provide the therapies.
• Following the positive impact of Time for a Treat a volunteer massage service has been established at Nottingham City Hospital. The volunteers, many of whom are Boots employees participating in either work time or their own time, provide basic therapeutic massage services to in-patients.
• Time for a Treat days were also offered to NHS staff. Here NHS staff had the chance to sample a range of health treats from massage to yoga. Boots is supporting plans to pilot a permanent well-being service for staff at Nottingham City Hospital.
• Boots is also working in partnership with the Nottingham Skin Cancer Action Group to create fun, educational resources that promote sun safe messages. 20,000 leaflets have been distributed by health workers to parents across the region.

Keeping the momentum

Independent evaluation is an integral part of all of these projects. Key findings from Time for a Treat workshops included the participants’ view that their feeling of well-being extended beyond the sessions themselves. They said that they were sleeping better and felt more confident. In their feedback, 100% of the patients and their partners were positive about the workshops.

The strong partnerships, formed in establishing each of the initiatives, have developed organically and some have led to new projects. Most crucially the programme of activity developed in partnership with the NHS gave Boots a springboard from which to develop a broader programme of community activity focusing on public health, both outside of Nottinghamshire and in settings other than within the NHS. Examples of such programmes include:

• A programme of eight Feeling Good days for older people in Edinburgh;
• Support for a "No Sweat" physical activity pilot in East Lothian for teenage girls;
• A relaxation day at Wormwood Scrubs Visitors Centre;
• Working with the charity Action for Sick Children, to sponsor the Dental Playbox project in Scotland;
• Sponsorship of the Cot Death Society's First Baby Well-being Day;
• Development of a Boots/NHS skills sharing pilot in partnership with The Improvement Network.

The business benefits

The programme of health promotion initiatives is at the heart of wider work of the community investment team. New volunteering opportunities in the field of health for Boots’ employees have been developed, and all opportunities are mapped against business competencies. “As a result Boots’ staff have acquired new skills and competencies and this approach is often just as good as formalised training,” Nicki Heathcote explained. “It’s also great that the volunteering is accredited through the National Schools Associate Programme, so staff receive a qualification”.

The programme has received national and local recognition, winning two national awards for excellence from Business in the Community. This has created positive media opportunities to promote Boots and has in turn led to approaches from new community partners.

Another business benefit has been the whole partnership approach. The added expertise gained from partnering with charities and the NHS has meant Boots’ staff have had unique learning opportunities, which in turn, help the business.

Internally, an audit of Boots’ staff at their main site in Nottingham revealed another benefit: 80% of staff felt either very positive or positive about the company when they knew of its support to the community.

Why is it CSR?

Boots community investment activity is an integral component of the company's commitment to CSR. The programme supports the wider issue of health promotion and social inclusion – key CSR components.

What next?

Boots is building on the best practice established through the programme of activity developed in partnership with the NHS in Nottinghamshire and further initiatives are being developed which further enhance its portfolio of partnerships and initiatives.