Senior executives from leading organisations in the South West attended the launch of Work Wise South West at the Met Office, Exeter, on March 26th.

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PICTURES FROM THE EVENT 

Suzanne Bond, executive director of people and skills at the South West of England Regional Development Agency , was joined by executives from BT, Devon & Cornwall Business Council, CBI South West, First Great Western, Exeter City Council, and Work Wise UK, amongst others, to sign the Work Wise UK Concordat, committing their organisations to the principles of smarter working practices and their wider adoption across the region, marking the launch of Work Wise South West. 

Thursday 15th May was National Work from Home Day when up to five million workers are estimated to have worked from home across the UK.

According to TUC research, the South West has seen the number of people working from home grow by 14 per cent in the last decade.

Nearly 400,000 workers - 15.7 per cent of the regional working population - are now based at or usually work from home, the highest level in the UK. If figures for employed people who are normally or permanently based at home, but not self-employed, are analysed, the South West has seen a massive 40 per cent increase over the same period. MORE

As part of the UK-Wide Work Wise Campaign, we are continuing to expand the regional and devolved adminstration programme and are now looking for progressive organisations in the South West to become Strategic Partners of Work Wise South West.

This vanguard group will be tasked with developing a programme of activities to share best practice and seek opportunities for joint working, as well as promoting the benefits of smarter working to other businesses and organisations across the South West. The group will also lobby and work to address the challenges facing the South West and to alleviate the blockages to the adoption of smarter working, whether they are technological, cultural, skills or infrastructure, related.

Regional programmes including Work Wise London, Work Wise North East and others have already been established and we are now calling for public and private sector enterprise to help lead the programme to encourage the adoption of smarter working practices in this region. This regional initiative will feed into Work Wise UK and its new Centre of Excellence and partner organisations will not only be able to benefit from shared best practice but also by becoming key influencers in the regional adoption of smarter working practices.  

If you want advice on how your organisation can  work smarter, Work Wise UK provides a list of accredited Work Wise Advisers, who can help you plan and execute your next steps, at whatever stage of the journey you are on.

If you would be interested in submitting a case study on how your organisation has benefited from smarter working or would like to become a Vanguard Group Partner, please contact John Horne, Programme Director for Work Wise South West, Tel: 01404 814200 Email: john.horne@workwisesouthwest.org 

If you would like to consider committing to smarter working, and to sign the concordat, please let us have your details by completing the online form.

To view the entire concordat as a pdf, click here

To view the list of organisations, who have already signed the concordat click here

Building on the success of Work Wise Week 2007, this year's Work Wise Week will commence with our annual National Work from Home Day on Thursday 15th May. Media events during the Week will cover the many aspects of smarter working practices and unlike in previous years, will end with the Work Wise Summit on Wednesday 21st May, which will again be held at the QEII Conference in Westminster, London. To see highlights of last year's summit click here