Environmental Social and Governance (ESG)

Environmental

The climate crisis is profoundly impacting the wellbeing of children, young people and those living in vulnerable circumstances. 

You can find out more about the impact of climate change on young people’s mental health in this blog post.

Sustainability for us means recognising that caring for the environment includes caring for mental health. Every step we take towards reducing waste, improving our supply chains, and embedding sustainable practices is a step towards hope, opportunity, and wellbeing.

Our sustainability working group, chaired by our CEO and including some of our youth ambassadors, meets every 6 weeks to keep the organisation on track towards our goals. It also ensures shared accountability around this work across all aspects of the charity.

Child holding a leaf in front of their face

The Trust has committed to achieving Net Zero by 2040. In 2022, we measured our baseline emissions and continue to track progress towards our goal against our Carbon Reduction Plan.

Development of our new procurement policy with a scoring matrix to scrutinise all purchasing and ensure compliance with our sustainability and ethical standards.

We have developed our sustainability action plan with success already achieved including:

  • Switching office energy supply to 100% renewable sources
  • Launching a refreshed website with vastly reduced carbon footprint
  • Committing to providing low-meat content catering at our events

  • Further reducing waste in all areas of operation by conducting thorough review of existing practices and identifying where improvements can be made.
  • Committing to relocate to a more sustainable and accessible premises when existing office lease expires.

Social

We know mental health difficulties can affect anyone at any time, and that everyone can need support. However, not everyone’s experience of mental health and access to support is equal. Research shows that experiences of discrimination negatively impacts young people’s mental health and that marginalized people sadly often do not have equitable access to mental health support that enables positive outcomes.

Our vision is a world in which all young people have the support, skills, and resilience to be mentally well for life. To achieve this vision, we must be committed to breaking down barriers, challenging social injustices and striving to be an inclusive and equitable employer.

For us, being inclusive means more than simply avoiding discrimination – it means actively challenging discrimination, and inequity in all their forms. It means that we openly strive to be anti-racist and embed anti-oppressive approaches across all areas of our work.

Our equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) working group, chaired by our CEO and including some of our youth ambassadors and parents/carers with lived experience, meets every 6 weeks to shape our continuous strides in this work.

Charlie Waller Trust Staff at the art event

  • We co-produce our organisation policies as well as our resources with lived experience experts from a range of backgrounds and expertise.
  • We have developed our inclusive recruitment practices leading to a more diverse workforce from our youth ambassadors to our senior leadership team and our Board of Trustees.
  • We host ‘Lunch and Learn’ sessions for staff (employed and freelance), volunteers and trustees, around a range of EDI topics.
  • We have developed our EDI action plan, based on the audit tool from the Psychological Professions Network, to hold us to account against best practice standards for our charitable activities, our support for staff, and our work with lived experience partners.

  • Develop a robust system for reporting and responding to discrimination through the role of Freedom to Speak Up Guardians, implementing clear and accessible formal incident reporting processes, and embedding regular feedback loops to ensure staff voices are heard and acted upon.
  • Broaden the organisation’s demographic reach by actively engaging underrepresented groups and ensuring that all communications, resources, and materials are available in inclusive and accessible formats. This includes adapting content to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities and those for where English is a second language.
  • Training Inclusive Recruitment Guardians (IRG) across the organisation to ensure every interview panel has an IRG present to support the most inclusive practices in our recruitment processes.

As a charity dedicated to supporting children and young people’s mental health, we are deeply aware of the impact that global and local events can have on emotional wellbeing. Many young people experience trauma directly through lived experience, and others are affected by the constant exposure to distressing news and images in the media. We recognise that the intensity and frequency of such stories can contribute to feelings of fear, sadness, anxiety, and hopelessness.

We are deliberate in not commenting publicly on many of the hugely significant and troubling events in the world. This is absolutely not because we don’t care, or because we fail to recognise the very real impact of these events on young people’s mental health. Quite the opposite, we care deeply. However, we also know that if we were to respond to every tragedy or crisis, we would sadly be doing so constantly. Rather than adding our voice simply to be seen to be speaking, we choose to focus our energy on what we do best: providing support, understanding, and hope to children, young people, and families facing all kinds of challenges and adversities with their mental health.

Our mission remains to help young people achieve and sustain better mental health by equipping those closest to them - families, friends, educators, communities and employers - with strategies and support based on the best available evidence.

Governance

At the Charlie Waller Trust, good governance is the bedrock of our mission to help young people achieve and sustain better mental health. We believe that operating with integrity, transparency, and accountability is essential for building a sustainable and resilient charity. This commitment goes beyond meeting regulations; it's about being effective stewards of our resources and maintaining the trust of our stakeholders. Good governance is a core pillar of our work and we actively promote an ethical culture.

Stock image of sun through trees onto road

  • We have established a clear governance structure with our Board of Trustees providing strategic oversight to our Senior Leadership Team to ensure we stay true to our mission.
  • We have implemented robust financial controls to ensure responsible management of funds and financial transparency.
  • We have recently reviewed and updated all of our policies and staff handbook in line with our ESG agenda. All have incorporated lived experience perspectives. Recent policies we have worked on include those related to safeguarding, working with communities, ethical investment and procurement.

We are committed to continuous learning and improvement. Our upcoming priorities include:

  • Developing our policy matrix, outlining our various organisation policies, their review dates, who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed, and formally integrating the review of key ESG risks into our strategic planning.
  • Broadening our engagement with young people, donors, and staff to ensure our decisions are informed by their needs.
  • Creating a framework for regular, public reporting on our ESG goals, including a dedicated section on our website

We recognise that the journey to excellence in ESG is ongoing. We are dedicated to adapting and improving our practices to better serve our communities and achieve our long-term vision. Reporting annually on our activity in each of these areas is one way for us to be accountable to our stakeholders in this essential work.