PAST WINNER INTERVIEW
Landau
What made Landau apply for a King’s Award?
Did you learn anything about your own company during the process?
Our Deputy Lieutenant told us about the Awards and how a new category had been introduced called Promoting Opportunity that suited our business. We had never considered applying for an Award before: we knew about the Kings Award for Enterprise and for voluntary services but never thought a social enterprise company would ever be eligible. What research did you do about the awards/ application process? We read the application process and supporting guidance information thoroughly. As it was a new Award we were unable to find anyone that had previously applied.
It provided the opportunity to step back from the day-to-day stuff and see the bigger picture. Plus, it brought home just how impactful our work is and how we are constantly changing people’s lives for the better.
Did you engage other team members?
AWARD CATEGORY: Promoting Opportunity SIZE OF COMPANY: Small WHERE BASED: Shropshire TYPE OF BUSINESS: Charity PROFILE: Sonia Roberts JOB TITLE: CEO
Yes finance, HR and a team manager.
Describe any challenges you overcame in the process? Time was a big challenge. Despite how long you think it’s going to take, it always takes longer. I had to clear my diary and just dedicate that last couple of days to getting the application submitted. Now you’ve won an award, what advice would you give to others thinking of applying? If you are concerned about the time it’s going to take and the effort you have to put in and think it’s not for you, then you should do it for your staff and customers. You cannot overstate the impact it will have on them. How will you use your award to promote your business going forward? We have the logo on all our documents, emails, press releases. When press releases go out on any of our work or services they always mention the KAE. Much of our work involves carrying funders’ logos on our documents - being able to have the KAE alongside our logo elevates our status as the Award is so prestigious.
What planning did you do beforehand?
Company Background
A user-driven enterprise that delivers supported training and employment, Landau was formed in 1995 by a group of like-minded individuals who were keen to help people with learning disabilities to establish alternative, more fulfilling lives for people with learning disabilities through employment. Today Landau provides individual support and employer brokerage to people with a range of barriers including mental health and long term unemployed. Our approach helps people to secure sustainable paid employment, lead independent lives, and integrate with the local community. Landau currently manages and delivers several programmes designed to help anyone facing employment barriers to find work and access meaningful training. Just this year, the organisation has assisted more than 2,000 people to develop new skills, gain work experience, and move on towards and into paid work.
As a social enterprise we have an extensive evidence-base on the impact our service has. We engaged a number of people in the business to support the gathering of information, case studies, financials, outputs, staffing, etc, before sitting down to complete the online application form.
How did you find the application process?
Using the online platform allowed us to return to the application form making it easier to complete the sections, it also gave you the ability to allocate sections to other staff to complete. The process is very robust, first we had to pull all the data together and then tell our story. We used a ‘critical friend’ who was not involved in the application to sense check that our application was understandable to anyone not familiar with our work.
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