Oxygen Lives and Breathes Social Value
We understand how hard it can be for companies to make a meaningful difference in the community.
That’s why we have committed to publicly share our own impact, which we update each quarter.
Hannah Joyce
Client Success Manager
and Social Value Lead
paid early to small businesses for free through FreePay
£
0
bn
suppliers routinely receiving Early Payment
0
Amount paid to Local and Micro Suppliers via FreePay in last 12 mths
£
-1
million
tonnes of local authority Scope 3 Carbon emissions identified
0
million
Social Value for our Colleagues
- Healthcare & Benefits packages to support colleague wellbeing and personal finances.
- Volunteering days are available to all our colleagues (up to 2 days per year).
Social Value for the Community
- Time & funding to local authority initiatives to improve air quality and sequester carbon.
- Charity fund matching for sponsored activities (up to £250 per colleague per year).
Social Value for Stakeholders
- Our FreePay product supports cashflow for small, local businesses via prompt payments.
- Clients invited to Oxygen’s forums to facilitate best practice and greater savings.
Our staff - making a difference in their communities
Our staff have volunteered their time and energy over the last year, with around half of our people taking part. The participation from our employees has allowed Oxygen to make a bigger impact on both our local community, and the communities we serve across the UK.
Over the last year Oxygen’s employees have supported the following projects and charities: Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Brushstrokes, Bury Foundation FC, Rainbow Hub, Movember Foundation, and St Luke’s Hospice.
Our Social Value Highlights for FY 2024
One of the key parts of our approach to Social Value is how we look after our colleagues, and how we contribute to our local communities as a team. 2024 saw us undertake a host of activities that benefit local charities, the environment and our people:
| Enabling faster payments to small and micro suppliers with FreePay | With over £2.7bn paid early to 19,000+ firms, FreePay is driving social value by helping public sector organisations pay their small suppliers early, for free. |
| 100k Charity Bike ride for Birmingham Children’s Hospital | A fantastic team of 7 riders from Oxygen raised over £3,300 for Birmingham Children’s hospital. |
| Football charity Collection for Birmingham Children’s Hospital | Oxygen volunteers attended the Aston Villa vs Walsall charity friendly on the 17th July to collect valuable donations from fans. |
| Charity matched funding for employees | Oxygen matched individual fundraising totals for employees, up to £250 each time, totalling £1,250 for 2024. |
| Our 5-aside team raises money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital | Oxygen Finance’s 5-aside team took part in a charity football tournament, to raise money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital. |
| Procurement Act workshops and materials | Oxygen hosted a variety or workshops and provided materials to help our clients and their customers navigate the Procurement Act 2023. |
| World Mental Health Day – Team activities | This year’s theme, ‘balance,’ encouraged everyone to seek harmony between work, well-being, and personal life. |
| Free webinars | Free webinars throughout the year to educate buyers and suppliers on a variety of topics to aid collaboration and create greater value. |
| Supplier Engagement Days | The team joined Northumberland County Council for their Supplier Engagement Day in February, and STAR Procurement for their Meet the Buyer event in October. The team introduced early payment programme to suppliers, educating them about the opportunity. |
| P2P Advisory Forum | Our P2P Advisory Forum is free for public sector P2P and Accounts Payable professionals. This year topics included fraud prevention, preparation for the Procurement Act, and AI adoption in P2P. |
| CPO Advisory Forum | Attended by over 40 public sector procurement leaders, Oxygen’s CPO Advisory Forum discusses the most pressing topics facing the sector today. |
| PROUD Award at South Tyneside Council | Oxygen was honoured to sponsor the PROUD Awards, celebrating the achievements of employees from South Tyneside Council, South Tyneside Homes and local schools. |
| Volunteering Days | Karen Gilbert, Head of Marketing, took part in the launch of Girls Out Loud’s teenage girl mentoring programme at St. Julie’s Catholic High School in Liverpool. John Newton, Marketing Director, shared his insights with BTEC Level 3 Marketing students at Halesowen College. |
| Oxygen Open Data Release | As part of Oxygen Finance’s commitment to open data, we publish the topline third-party spend data for the UK public sector organisations we currently track to provide insights into the size and structure of the public sector, and in doing so help public and private organisations do better business with each other. |
| Oxygen ‘Forced Fun’ Days | Like most businesses who have introduced hybrid working, it has improved our employee’s work-life balance. To ensure the teams still have chance to meet regularly we have launched a coordinated set of days, every other month, where we ask different teams to come into the office, to improve the invaluable face to face interactions- We call it “Forced Fun”! |
| Public Finance Awards Finalist | Oxygen were a finalist in the ‘Solutions Partner’ category due to the transformative impact of FreePay accelerating well over £2.5billion in payments to small and micro suppliers. |
| Team Oxygen took on Movember | Staff from Oxygen joined the ranks of over 6 million individuals by taking up the Movember challenge to raise awareness and funds for men’s health. |
| Spreading holiday cheer at Brushstrokes | Eight individuals from Oxygen eagerly volunteered for the third consecutive year, devoting their time to wrap donated Christmas gifts for refugee children in Birmingham at Brushstrokes, a local charity. |
| Helping our people live their best lives | We continued to offer several staff initiatives, from an Electric Car Scheme to help our team switch to electric, a Payroll Giving scheme, and a Cycle to Work Scheme to help more of our people get to work in a more sustainable way. |
