Bringing together two very different organisations to build a transformational partnership

Centrica’s new partnership with Carers UK seeks to transform the lives of carers across the country. We were brought in to help both organisations build strong foundations for the partnership and to develop innovative, skilled volunteering opportunities that will maximise its impact.

We began with in-depth scoping to understand how each organisation works best, what they could put into the partnership and what impact they wanted to have over the three years.

From all this rich insight we then designed a one-day partnership workshop for the ‘doers’ from both organisations. We immersed the Centrica leads in the experiences of carers, which included hearing real recorded calls from the Carers UK’s helpline, exploring the charity’s online forum for carers and speaking to carers within Centrica about the support they need.

Then, together with the Carers UK leads, they shaped the partnership activities, overall goals and Year 1 targets. They left the workshop enthused and energised by the huge potential of the partnership and with tangible next steps to drive it forward.

We then focused in on volunteering, a key pillar of the partnership. Drawing on insights from employee surveys and workshops, we worked with those tasked with making volunteering happen to devise six new flagship opportunities which can be made available to all Centrica staff. Then working directly with those who run activities across Centrica’s sites, we developed a new skilled volunteering toolkit to help them get the most out of their local partnerships for the charities, beneficiaries and staff.

“Three Hands’ support was invaluable in getting our three-year partnership with Carers UK off to the best possible start. They build great relationships with stakeholders, understand what makes a truly impactful partnership and are never afraid to be bold.”

Katie Bucher, Senior Corporate Citizenship Manager, Centrica