Insurance United Against Dementia: How JLT Specialty is building a strategic partnership with Alzheimer's Society

It you needed any evidence as to how much dementia resonates with employees working in the UK insurance industry, JLT Specialty offers a valuable insight.

In July, the broking business raised £14 600 from an online charity auction for Alzheimer’s Society bringing it to within £5000 of its annual target of £50,000 in just five months.  

The partnership with Alzheimer’s Society began in March this year and is the latest in JLT Specialty’s evolving relationship with the third sector, having previously worked with Kids Company and Macmillan Cancer Support. 

JLT Specialty chairman Adrian Girling, pictured, explains: “We like to work with charities where the staff can have a practical involvement so people can get involved by using their work skills as well helping them financially.

“[So after working with Kids Company] we asked staff whether they felt a) a partnership was good thing and b) who we should partner up with and there were tons of responses. But what was clear was that they recommended that we support one of two headline charities. One was Macmillan and the other Alzheimer’s Society.”

Having helped Macmillan raise the money to fund the cost of a nurse for one year (£53,000) through 2016 into the beginning of 2017, JLT Specialty is now working with AS, a relationship that might be extended across the whole of the UK business, as part of a wider strategy, although no decision has yet to be made on what this roll out might look like.

JLT Specialty executive assistant and charity committee chair Sandy Nicholls adds: “We wanted a more strategic approach [with Alzheimer’s Society] because dementia is such as a massive problem as the biggest killer in the 21^st Century. 

“I attended the launch of a Dementia-friendly business guide with [Alzheimer’s Society patron and TV journalist] Angela Rippon and the likes of HSBC, BT, British Gas and others talking about how they have become dementia-friendly businesses, something everyone is going to have to consider eventually.

“It is a huge commitment [becoming dementia-friendly]. Our staff have busy lives and other [charities] they want to support so becoming dementia friendly is a much bigger issue, but one I am passionate we address.”

As a business JLT Specialty has already hosted a ‘lunch-and-learn’ session with Alzheimer’s Society, and it now has 30 employees signed up as ‘Dementia Friends’, with plans to hold another session for those who could not make the first over-subscribed meeting. It is also hoping to allow staff to use their designated ‘charity day’ to visit hospitals that have dementia wards to get a greater understanding of the disease.

Nicholls continues: “We are in such an embryonic stage where everybody wants to raise the money - and it is coming in from so many angles that we are going to reach our target in no time.   Hopefully that can lead us to doing more in terms of engaging with staff and hoping more people will get involved and gain a better understanding what a dementia friend is.”

Girling has met with the Insurance United Against Dementia executive members Chris Wallace from QBE and Benedict Burke from Crawford & Company and agree that its strategic aims “chime” with what JLT Specialty is doing. IUAD is the market initiative led by Wallace, Burke and a team of industry leaders to bring together the insurance sector to raise awareness and funds for dementia.

Nicholls adds: “It is fantastic that the insurance industry wants to get together and it is a wonderful platform for the City to dispel the myth that this industry cannot come together to help others. The fact they want to galvanise and come together to raise £10m over five years is fantastic and the more publicity they can get the better.”

After a successful night as charity partner at the British Insurance Awards in July, raising close to £22 000, IUAD will mark its formal launch at a drinks reception in London on 21^st September. Wallace and Burke are inviting senior leaders to join them on the night, to find out more about IUAD and how individuals and businesses are supporting Alzheimer’s Society.

If you are interested in attending the launch, please email iuad@alzheimers.org.uk for further details.

To find out more about the IUAD, visit http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/iuad
To find out more about dementia, visit www.alzheimers.org.uk