At the age of 25, halfway across the Indian Ocean in a small Ocean rowing boat I came up with the idea to start Streetscape. Later that year, 2009, I founded the charity and social enterprise with a close friend. We were based in Myatts Fields Park, South London.

It was a social enterprise that worked with 18-25 year old’s who were long term unemployed, providing them with a year long apprenticeship in horticulture, they worked on many gardens across London and had many experiences at the RHS Chelsea and Hampton Court flower shows. We were driven by one simple overarching goal; that each and every long-term unemployed young person we provided an apprenticeship to then moved into, and retained work, following their time with us.

At the time, social enterprise was a relatively new thing. We gained a lot of traction and grew the organisation very quickly, we closed in 2017 having run 65 recruitment days to 285 individuals, had 38 apprentices that passed their 3 month probation and an 88% success rate in those who graduated staying in employment after 12 months.

I was lucky enough to carry the Olympic torch as part of the London Olympics in 2012 in celebration of the charitable work we had accomplished.   

What is a social enterprise? 

To me, it was very clear – I came from an Accounting background having studied this at University and I felt very strongly that charitable endeavours needed to have some income generating functions embedded within them. The idea, and one that we proved was possible for many years, was to charge for our horticultural services and to raise charitable funding for the educational part of the charity. In the charity world they call it surplus not profit – so the goal was to have 3 months of reserves built up from this surplus.  

Within a few years we were running more apprenticeships in horticulture than the RHS and had become very good at doing this. It is a tough and expensive thing to do and it takes incredible trainers to truly change people’s lives, lots of time & energy and a drive for being socially conscious in every act. In 2017 the funding requirements became too tricky with the ongoing financial climate and we decided to close Streetscape. 

“It became clear to me there was a real lack of new and enthusiastic talent entering the horticulture industry; and a real opportunity for young people, eager to learn a trade and to gain employment.”

They work with our propagation team in our laboratory, plant in customers’ gardens, collect up plants ready for delivery and attend prestigious events such as Goodwood Revival and the RHS Chelsea Flower show, to represent our business.

The AP Homegrown Apprenticeship scheme sits within the AP business and is 100% funded by us. It takes away all of the strains of being a charity – fundraising is incredibly hard and soul destroying. We use our profits to fund training and opportunities. Olivia works with us 4 days a week and is doing a degree apprenticeship in marketing and we have apprentices studying level 2 Horticultural Operative Apprenticeship at Brinsbury college (Our landlord and neighbour). 

Outside of Architectural Plants I regularly speak to horticultural groups and at schools and colleges to raise awareness of our industry. I am an ambassador at Collyer’s’ in Horsham and regularly speak at student events, one of which we met Olivia below and have funded their transport costs for their annual training event held at South Lodge hotel. 

This is Olivia, she is doing a degree apprenticeship in marketing at the University of Chichester whilst working in our marketing department. Apprentices are a key part of our team and our goal is for apprentices to make up at least 10% of our workforce.

Why be social minded as a business or individual?

1: Inspire: We all remember key people in our lives that have said or done something to change the fabric of who we are, creating an environment where this happens regularly is really key. I believe that a business that has social goals is more likely to harness this power. Having a workforce that represents all ages and all backgrounds is critical.   

2: Educate: Since formalising AP Homegrown as a scheme we have witnessed a transformation across the business. Phil, who manages our irrigation system and works on the nursery, works brilliantly with our apprentices, using every opportunity to train them in various skills. With someone enthusiastic leading the function within our business we find that the apprentices learn fast and soon become invaluable members of the team. 

In December we held our first ‘bring your children to work’ day and Alex, our propagator, ran a seed sowing session teaching them all the science behind it. The production team holds regular plant identification tests and we offer horticultural courses to our retail and trade customers. We are no longer just a business, we are a site of horticultural excellence that has training and education at our core.  

3: Celebrate success: We celebrate success and excellence – something that in the UK education system I believe is lacking. If someone clips a plant beautifully or goes out of their comfort zone to represent us at the RHS Chelsea flower show we champion it on our radios at the nursery, on our company WhatsApp group or through our marketing channels. Jay has really helped to ensure this culture is within the whole business, he has a way of bringing people together and improving communications. 

“Guess what, having excellent people around you is critical and having an empathetic thread running through the leadership team is vital.”