ALWAYS TRYING TO BE MORE.

This is our commitment to how we will fulfil our economic, social and environmental responsibilities to our local communities. As a business CarneySweeney want to be known in our community for being active participants outside of work confines.

Offers our strategy as a business is to give more alongside our best as Planners. We feel it is part of our culture and our approach to business.

Gerald Sweeney – “We understand that by treating everyone better (our clients, local authority officers, co-consultants, members of the community and our competitors) that we gain also. Making a positive impact on the people and places in our lives can only return joy to us”.

Paula Carney – “Our approach from the start has always been to be a respected Independent National Planning Consultancy. Through 'More Than Just Us' we hope to ensure that everyone benefits from our successes and learns from our staff's extensive knowledge”.

Peter Waldren – “CarneySweeney can be seen as a resource to improve the world around us. By pulling on that resource and having a positive impact in all that we do, everyone gains – clients, colleagues and the communities we work within. The motivation this provides for continual improvement in personal, professional, social and environmental arenas is a guiding principle for our business.”

OUR APPROACH
Our Approach to Social Responsibility starts with our values that underpin who we are:

We not only apply the ethically standards of the RTPI and the RICS but seek to offer clarity of advice and strategy that enables others to positive engage and improve the public benefits and outcomes from all our projects.

QUALITY
We are proud of our staff and always look to attract the brightest people, reward them well, and support them to achieve their life goals.

WORK COLLABORATIVELY
We share skills and insight nationally across all offices to benefit our staff and our clients.

SHARING KNOWLEDGE
We believe in continuing professional development and alongside internal programmes encourage staff to introduce innovation and new ways of working.

HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS
We always look to long and lasting relationships. Our approach to relationships with staff, clients and across our co-consultant networks is as trusted advisors with unrivalled reputation.

STRONG CONNECTIONS
We are already active participants in the business and local communities within which we work and live, which is reflective of our commitment to positively engaging and looking to achieve higher social and environmental goals.

SOCIALLY RESPONSIVE OUR VISION
There can be no escaping that as an independent planning consultancy we are uniquely placed to demand planning and development excellence and show leadership and integrity in helping to make projects better.

MEASURABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
We our very proud of what we have achieved in such a short time.

Planning Awards
Brent Design Awards 2023 - We are proud that two of their schemes – Ferrum Phase 1 and Samovar Space – won awards at the inaugural Brent Design Awards 2023.

Our Rebecca Hall was delighted to accept on behalf of CarneySweeney, alongside members of the Related Argent team, the award for Infrastructure Planning at the Planning Awards 2023 for the Brent Cross Town Electrical Substation, a project we worked on with Related Argent (in partnership with Barnet Council).

CarneySweeney is held up as leading National Planning Consultancies in having the 2nd highest proportion of female staff and female planners, 2023.

We are immensely proud to be actively participating alongside sponsoring national organisations that support Women in Planning and Property at all levels including Women in Planning and Women in Property.

Our staff and CarneySweeney support charitable giving with recent support given to securing local foodbanks and Walk for Cancer. We have also created a Social Responsibility Board, formed and directed by all staff, that will guide and coordinate future support and hopefully greater direct involvement with charitable organisations.

THE ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
We are committed to meeting our environmental obligations in all aspects of our business. We ensure that our planning and development advice to clients considers sustainability in social, economic, and environmental terms.

CarneySweeney is working through its ISO 14001 certification readiness. We take great care to minimise the impact of our day-to-day work on the environment and will investigate what is required to become a carbon neutral company, to improve our performance further.

Both joint Managing Directors' actively use public transport to travel to work. Gerald Sweeney regularly makes the 6 miles roundtrip on foot from home to the Birmingham Office.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE
CarneySweeney supports and participates in many charitable events and encourages staff to help others in our community via sponsored activities. Staff in each office select local charities close to their hearts. We have seen “Bake-off” days.

Our four offices look to work together to make a difference with monthly meetings with all staff and the creation of an internal Corporate Responsibility Board to influence and measure what CarneySweeney does and achieves.

HEALTH AND GROWTH
Our aim is to grow the company around the success of our clients and our people. Since 2019 and through Covid 19, we have taken steps to ensure we were able to continue to deliver an excellent service to our clients whilst protecting the health of our employees and their families, our clients, and local communities. We follow Government guidance.

We remain happy to take advice and adapt our procedures to respond to the latest advice. All our staff were able to work from home throughout and we thought carefully about the risks to health and safety in all offices.

In consultation with our staff, we put in place practical measures to minimise the risks to our staff and those visiting our offices. Where an individual feels unsafe to do any task, they are expected to walk away and remain safe.

We consult staff on our Business Strategy and ensure the Company operates for their benefit. We have shared profits with all our staff, adopt family friendly working policies and ensure that there is an independent advice and counselling service available to staff on personal matters.

INVESTING IN PEOPLE AND GROWING KNOWLEDGE
In conjunction with all our other commitments, we believe in the commitment to ensure a Living Wage is paid to all those who work with us, and it is encouraged throughout our supply chain.

We invest in all our people where they feel training would aid them, which contributes towards meeting professional goals, personal objectives, and supports the work undertaken on behalf of our clients. We support our staff giving them hands-on experience on a wide range of projects and clients. We give our staff the support they need to achieve their Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) or Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) (Planning and Development) Assessment of Professional Competence (APC).

We offer work placement for GCSE level students, as well as university students. Our placement students receive work experience, widen their professional network and increase their chances of employment.

We have a Chartered Town Planning apprenticeship scheme that we see as providing an alternative route for new planning talent to join outside the traditional graduate full time university route. We activity encourage our staff to share knowledge through LinkedIn so that everyone can easily access their thoughts and updates.

Everyone in CarneySweeney is encouraged to contribute and share their knowledge through any medium.

We are in the process of launching a free CPD programme for the benefit of all staff, clients and co-consultants that will aid in meeting APC requirements for RTPI and RICS.
To learn more about us and our Offices please contact:

Birmingham - Kam Saini – kam.saini@carneysweeney.co.uk
Cardiff – Emma Fortune – emma.fortune@carneysweeney.co.uk
Exeter – Robin Upton – robin.upton@carneysweeney.co.uk
London – Katie Russell-Smith - katie.russelsmith@carneysweeney.co.uk