Deloitte UK Responsible Business

What an achievement! Everyone involved should be proud of raising over £1M for the British Paralympic Association (BPA), on a night when we were also celebrating the announcement of Deloitte continuing as title sponsor of our corporate cycling challenge Deloitte Ride Across Britain, and signing on as an official partner of the BPA through to the 2016 Paralympic Games.

On Tuesday I was fortunate enough to be invited to the BPA’s £1m Celebration. It was great speaking to Paralympian Craig McCann who is taking part in Deloitte Ride Across Britain (RAB) 2013 and hearing how the money raised made a difference to ParalympisGB in the London 2012 Games. Since 2006 we have been a dedicated partner of the BPA and through Deloitte RAB we surpassed our aim to raise £1m by 2013 a year early. In fact, over the last three years Deloitte RAB riders have pedalled almost 1,800,000 miles and raised £1,151,689 in total. If every pound equated to a mile, what has been raised would get us to Rio and back 200 times and to the moon and back almost 5 times (at least I was reliably told this fact anyway!).

After our firm’s transformational impact on disability sport in the UK before and during the London 2012 Paralympic Games and the now confirmed extended support, Deloitte is clearly showing our legacy commitment to ensure the disability sport movement in the UK continues to go from strength to strength to see even more medals won in Rio 2016.

From grass roots to gold medals, we’re also proud to be sustaining our backing for the British Paralympic Association, as their Official Partner, on their journey to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. This integral support, combined with funds raised through Deloitte RAB, will help the BPA maintain the momentum of ParalympicsGB, who won more medals at the London Games than ever before. We believe that it is the continued success of this team that will inspire the nation to think differently about disability.

Jess Ronan

Jess is a Disability Sport Marketing Executive at Deloitte

What a summer this has been.  The Olympic Games exceeded even the highest expectations and the outstanding performances of our athletes left the country on a high.  After a brief respite, we did it all again.  The Paralympic Games were regarded as the biggest and best the world has ever seen and Britain’s athletes landed a spectacular haul of more than 100 medals, including four gold medals for our very own Deloitte Ambassador Sarah Storey.  More importantly perhaps, I feel this will be a landmark moment in changing the attitudes of a nation towards people with a disability.

Our firm has had a transformational impact on disability sport in the UK but now the Games are over, we ask what will be the legacy of Deloitte’s support and how do we ensure the disability sport movement in the UK continues to go from strength to strength?

There is something about the word “wheelchair”. What picture does the word create in your imagination? Disabled people (of different types) for sure, being pushed by their carers; perhaps Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson and the London Marathon? Anything else? Maybe you know someone who has to use one for the challenges of everyday life. Do you think you will watch Channel 4’s coverage of the event?

Let me create another picture for you – a collection of auditors and their clients engaged in a highly competitive game of wheelchair basketball. A collection of accountants discovering what it is like to be in a wheelchair and also discovering what fantastic fun the sport is. 

There are many ways we can build client relationships. There are many ways we can talk to our clients about our link to the Paralympic Games. There are many places to watch football. Last night was a fantastic way to combine all three. Happy clients, the famous Wembley, the GB Blind football captain and star of David Beckham video, and an England victory. A pretty normal night out for an Audit Partner and his teams. Or was it?

A few months ago, I jumped at the chance to take my clients to the Paralympic Games, a brilliant opportunity to showcase our role on the Games and watch world class sport. It’s a no brainer. However, why wait until September to educate them about disability sport and spend time deepening the existing relationships? Working with the London 2012 team, we put together a pre-Games programme - something a bit different...