Our values
Our employees at Southdown helped identify the values most important to us that describe our promise to our colleagues, clients, tenants, partners and communities and what they can expect of us. Simply put, our values are what we stand for. They are:
Living our values:
Our values are for everyone working at Southdown, no matter what our role. They guide how we do things, how we interact with the people we work with and the decisions we make. Take a look at the Staff Stories section on our website to read about how we live our values every day.
Our commitment:
To ensure our values are more than just words on a page, we embed them in everything we do. This includes embedding them in our people policies so that our values are part of our colleagues’ working life at Southdown. It includes working with our managers and leaders to develop role model behaviours. And it includes recognising, celebrating and sharing the stories of our people living our values.
Equality, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI)
We aim to promote equality and diversity both in our service delivery and as an employer. We want all our clients and employees to feel welcome, and we won’t tolerate discrimination or unfair treatment.
Our support framework – Southdown Beacon
In 2023, we launched a bespoke support framework, called the Southdown Beacon, to help everybody across Southdown recognise and respond to people’s psychological needs (our colleagues as well as the needs of people who access our services). It comprises of three key areas: Environment, Relationships and Individual, with nine ‘beams’ each of which acts as a focus for specific training and team discussions.
Whilst we provide a wide range of services, the Southdown Beacon enables us to provide a consistent support approach across everything we do. We believe the person who best knows what they need and want is themself. Our role is to help people know their strengths and potential, overcome barriers, and access opportunities to take charge of their own path.
Co-produced and piloted over 18 months with input and support from colleagues and clients from across the organisation, the Southdown Beacon has been clinically reviewed by external psychologists, providing additional assurance and quality benchmarking.
Southdown Voice
We are committed to enabling everybody across Southdown – our employees, volunteers, clients, and tenants – to have their say and real influence over what and how we do things. Our Southdown Voice network represents a commitment and framework to enabling this. It includes our Assembly, Community Voice Network, Employee Networks, EDI activities, and Client and Tenant involvement activities.
Southdown Assembly
Elected Community Voice Reps form the Southdown Assembly, which meets with the Executive Team regularly throughout the year. The purpose of the group is to discuss ‘hot topics’ from Community Voice meetings with the Executive Team and ensure that Southdown’s leadership understands employee sentiment. It is also to discuss, influence and make recommendations on the development of policy and key business decisions.
Community Voice Network
Community Voice Reps are elected by their peers to represent function areas at regular meetings throughout the year. The Reps seek opinion from their team colleagues about current challenges, ideas and opportunities and share these at the Community Voice meetings. They then feedback what was discussed to colleagues following the meeting. Key themes of discussions are fed into the Assembly meetings.
Employee Networks
Our Employee Networks are informal groups that connect colleagues who have a shared lived experience and want to explore that and/ or raise awareness of it. The Networks are led by employees at Southdown and are open to everybody.
Client and Tenant Involvement
We work closely with people who use our services to create meaningful opportunities for co-production and involvement, ensuring continuous improvement in what we do and how we do it. To support this, our dedicated Client and Tenant Involvement Lead collaborates with housing and support teams across Sussex.
Corporate social responsibility
We use our strength as an organisation to contribute to the local economy and reduce our environmental impact.
Making a contribution to the Sussex economy
With a turnover of £32 million and employing around 850 local people each year, we make a significant contribution to the local Sussex economy. We prioritise working with local businesses, and with all our employees living locally, they in turn reinvest their salaries to further stimulate the local economy.
Showing the value of disability-confident workplaces
We aim to act as a role model for other employers in promoting opportunities and providing support for employees who have a disability or other long term health condition.
Protecting the environment
We’re committed to keeping our environmental impact to a minimum and, over the long term, to ensure that all our practices and developments are sustainable. To support this, we have a plan designed to reduce energy and water use, cut carbon emissions and waste, and reduce the impact of business-related travel on the environment.
We aim to:
- Provide advice and information to clients to help them reduce environmental impact and energy costs.
- Reduce energy use in all our buildings.
- Implement green technologies where possible.
- Reduce the environmental impact of the construction, refurbishment, and maintenance of our homes.
- Address energy and water efficiency at all stages of property design and development.
- Use recycled and biodegradable materials where appropriate.
- Consider waste in our procurement process.
- Reduce the need for business-related travel.
- Reduce the environmental impact of our offices.