Medical education
Napp has a strong commitment to furthering the understanding of chronic pain and its treatment and we support medical education in this field through a range of activities, including symposia, support for professional bodies, such as the Chronic Pain Policy Coalition (click here), and websites for continuing medical education (click here).
We have provided a donation to Cardiff University Medical School to support them in continuing to develop and deliver their postgraduate training in pain management. We also sponsor healthcare professionals to undertake the MSc qualification run by the university. The Cardiff course is very well respected amongst the health profession and we are delighted to be able to support its ongoing development.
The Napp Educational Foundation
We support the Napp Educational Foundation (NEF) with an annual donation. The NEF is an independent registered charity, which runs educational courses for community matrons and nurses. It continues the work of the community nurse training course in palliative care, which was originally set up in 1983 by Dr Ronnie Fisher and Dr Tim Hunt, with the support of Napp. The comunity nurse course is the longest running course in palliative care and has been responsible for the training of around 3,500 district nurses, benefitting almost 1 million patients and their families. As well as updating nurses on the latest treatments and thinking in palliative care, the course provides a unique opportunity for nurses to meet and exchange ideas.
Napp School Science Ambassadors
We launched the Napp Science and Engineering Ambassador scheme in 2005 to support local schools with teaching science and engineering. The scheme has been developed in conjunction with STEM TEAM Cambridgeshire, a government-backed organisation that is part of the nationwide STEMNET initiative, which aims to ensure that more young people in the UK make the choice to study science, technology, engineering and maths-related careers, and that future generations are informed about the science and technology that surrounds them. Anyone at Napp can become an ambassador, providing they have the passion and energy needed to bring science alive within schools. We provide our ambassadors with up to five days paid leave each year to support our local schools and we have had fantastic feedback from the schools that we have worked with.
We currently have 30 ambassadors who undertake a range of activities, including science days within schools, career fairs and setting up science clubs. We also run a week long event, timed to coincide with National Science Week, during which we invite local primary schools to bring a class of children to Napp for the day. During their time here, they take part in a range of science activities that are linked to our Production and Quality testing processes, and they tour our production facility to see science in action (see the picture on the right). During the academic year 2009/10, the Ambassadors were involved in 43 events reaching over 7,000 students aged 4 to 19 years from 58 local schools and colleges.
If you would like more information about the Napp ambassador scheme, please email the co-ordinator ambassador@napp.co.uk.
Support for the local community
As well as our School Science Ambassador scheme we support local organisations and events in other ways. Over the years, we have hosted a number of events to raise money for local groups. In 2010, working with Chimney's Catering (incorporating Black Tulip Events) and with a generous donation from Macfarlan Smith, we hosted a charity ball to raise money for the local branch of the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT) who are creating a new specialised unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital. The event raised a total of £30,000.
Environment
We are committed to reducing our impact on the environment, and we have two internal groups focused on reducing our consumption of natural resources. Our Energy Group works to make our premises as energy efficient as possible and improve our carbon footprint. Our Waste Impact Group is responsible for waste management and recycling, and we aim to reuse and recycle wherever possible. Examples of items we currently recycle at our head office include paper, cardboard, food waste, foil, glass bottles, computers and mobile phones. To avoid excess paper consumption in our offices all our printers are defaulted to print double sided. We recently upgraded our standard printers to smarter models that require people to login to retrieve and print off any documents they send through, thereby reducing forgotten print jobs.
We are a member of the Cambridge Travel to Work Partnership and encourage the use of lower CO2 company cars and alternative methods of travel to work through initiatives such as an employee Cycle2Work (bike purchase) scheme. To make cycling and walking to work a more attractive option for staff, we have also introduced showers and a supply of towels in our head office buildings.
A group of 'Green' representatives from departments across our company also champion environmental issues across our business.