Chatterbug: A Social Enterprise
You may have noticed across our website or social media posts that Chatterbug is a social enterprise. But, what does this mean, and what do we aim to achieve through this?
What is a Social Enterprise?
Social enterprises are businesses that aim to bring change for the better. Social enterprises still aim to make a profit. However, it’s what they do with these profits that sets them apart. This includes choosing to reinvest or donate profits to create positive social change. It’s business for the good – when they profit, so does society.
Why did we choose to be a social enterprise?
At Chatterbug, running a business doesn’t just mean making a profit. Alongside making a profit, doing good and creating positive change is our priority.
Growing a successful business allows us to use our voice to influence others around us. This way, we can encourage them to have a positive impact too.
What are we striving to achieve?
As a speech and language service, we are dedicated to helping children develop their communication skills and to seek ways in which we can make a difference to the lives of the people who use our services.
Our Social Values capture the positive impact we hope to have on the communities we operate within. These are our 3Rs which include:
Reducing environmental impact
Chatterbug is always working on ways we can reduce our impact on the environment. We are currently 95% paperless and have developed our own patient record system. This system allows us to store patient data securely. We have created a range of digital resources to reduce our paper waste. We also source low carbon impact and use only renewable energy in our offices.
Recycling is also a big one for us. We regularly encourage our staff to do their bit for the environment. Lots of our staff choose to grow their own fruit and vegetables. One of our staff members even has a wormery!
Raising awareness
Raising awareness of speech and language needs and conditions such as autism is paramount here at Chatterbug. We aim to raise awareness of various conditions and the effect these can have on a child’s education, future employment, and day-to-day life. We work to intervene early to offer our speech and language services to those who need them most.
Recruiting and training a high-quality workforce
We regularly work with apprentices and newly qualified practitioners to provide training and employment opportunities to those just starting. This enables us to offer new starters the knowledge they need to excel in their careers and make a difference to people’s lives.
We also run regular well-being events linked towards our social values. These include workshops on education, and more recently, we ran a HIIT workout session for our staff to enjoy. We believe promoting staff wellbeing helps to prevent stress and creates positive working environments where individuals and organisations can thrive.
What impact are we having?
Chatterbug has a 15% asset lock for social impact activities. We do this through a mixture of cash, time volunteered and in-kind contributions. Since our inception, we have contributed an equivalent of £452,809 to adding social value to the communities we operate.
We regularly participate in social media awareness campaigns to support our mission to raise awareness of the impact of SLCN. To name just a few, our social media campaigns have included:
- Selective mutism awareness month
- UK Disability History Month
- Special Education Day
- DLD Awareness
- Stammering awareness
We also strive to have a positive impact on the environment around us. Here are just some of the ways ChatterBug have reduced our impact:
- We have removed all single-use plastic from our office base
- We have introduced a staff cycle to work scheme
- We have changed our electricity supplier to 100% carbon neutral
- We have reduced our paper waste by 95%
- We have provided staff training on reducing environmental impact
- We use refurbished technology, rather than buying new.
Our aim is also to recruit and train a high-quality workforce. So far, we have facilitated 50 SLT student placements, two admin apprenticeships, one digital apprenticeship, the recruitment of 5 newly qualified practitioners and seven communication and language specialists.
What are our plans for the future?
We aim to become recognised industry leaders showcasing that businesses can be profitable and still add value by choosing to do good.
We aim to keep improving our social impact. This will also allow us to continue to promote and raise awareness of the importance of speech and language interventions. We also want to challenge healthcare providers to make the change in making these services more accessible to those who need them the most.
We plan to innovate, inspire, and challenge others to make the change to become a social enterprise. If more businesses choose good, the impact and positive changes will be significantly greater, helping to contribute to the economy, tackle social problems, support communities, and help the environment.