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The ´óÏó´«Ã½ today published its for 2009/2010 detailing its approach to managing the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s business functions in a responsible way. The Report also describes the activities across the Corporation that underline the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s commitment to its six Public Purposes in terms of outreach and connecting with audiences.

"The ´óÏó´«Ã½ exists to serve the public," commented Caroline Thomson, Chief Operating Officer, ´óÏó´«Ã½.

"Our Corporate Responsibility strategy connects us to our audiences and connects them to one another and the wider world, it brings another dimension to our output and demonstrates tangible ways in which the ´óÏó´«Ã½ can enrich peoples' lives."

In spite of the current economic climate, the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s viewers and listeners have continued to support the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s charitable causes. In 2009/2010 both Children in Need and Sport Relief (which alternates with Red Nose Day every other year) exceeded their previous fundraising totals, raising £39m and over £40m respectively.

In addition, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wildlife Fund and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Performing Arts Fund raised money for two different causes. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wildlife Fund has raised £1m for wildlife both in the UK and across the globe following the success of the live show on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two – Wild Night In – and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Performing Arts Fund has donated over £3m to aspiring performers who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford to train, since its inception in 2003, making it the largest charitable funder of musical theatre training in the UK. This year's Choral Ambition Scheme awarded over £200,000 to various singing groups across the UK, benefitting almost 6,000 choir members across 98 singing groups.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ has continued to extend its outreach programmes, connecting and inspiring young citizens, giving them platforms to participate in current affairs. In March 2010, 25,000 pupils took part in the School Report News Day, encouraging children to report local news for publication on their own school websites and linked to the ´óÏó´«Ã½. Two-hundered-and-sixty schools also participated in a world record attempt for the "largest ever interactive weather report" and the Schools Question Time Project involved around 100 other schools and around 1000 pupils. As well as encouraging participation across the nation, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ also supported international initiatives that enabled UK schools to work with schools in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and Africa.

Outreach also played a role in supporting key programming initiatives across the ´óÏó´«Ã½ platforms. As part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Year of Science, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Learning launched a bespoke roadshow based on the popular programme Bang Goes The Theory. Travelling to seven cities across the UK, over 65,000 people attended the events which brought science to life in a creative and innovative way.

In line with the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s public purpose to communicate with audiences abroad, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service Trust and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Learning English has launched a series of initiatives. In Bangladesh, two projects – ´óÏó´«Ã½ Janala and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Buzz – were launched to help the population improve or learn the English language. ´óÏó´«Ã½ Janala offers hundreds of low-cost, three-minute audio lessons via mobile phones or free online. In the first three months of launch more than one million lessons were accessed. ´óÏó´«Ã½ Buzz is a weekly youth TV show and is the country's first primetime magazine TV show, combining comedy sketches, cartoons and discussions. Within three months of the show's premiere, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Buzz was the second most popular programme in primetime and the first series was watched by five million people. Later this year the ´óÏó´«Ã½ will launch Bishaash, the first ever bilingual international drama to be set both in Bangladesh and the UK.

´óÏó´«Ã½ World Class, in partnership with the British Council, has helped to twin schools in different countries. The aim is to inspire the schools to twin, facilitated by the British Council, and create global classrooms to help children to understand different cultures. For example, the Polesworth School in Warwickshire is twinned with Shen Zhen Shi Bi Bo Zhong Xue, in Shenzen, China. Pupils from both schools worked together to celebrate the Chinese New Year – creating a dragon and learning a dragon dance to celebrate this festival.

The report also shows the initiatives put in place to support talent and culture, encouraging people to develop their own talents into a hobby or a career. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms Plus programme was designed to introduce classical music to new audiences and the 2009 Proms Season included concerts specifically designed do this – for example the Bollywood and MGM Musicals Proms.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ also extended the volunteering opportunities for staff with Connect & Create. These initiatives enable staff to gain experience outside their own workplace and meeting with the audiences that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ serves.

In 2009/2010 Connect & Create ran 81 bespoke projects with charity partners. This involved 694 ´óÏó´«Ã½ volunteers who spent a total of 772 days in face-to-face situations with approximately 2,300 members of the public. It is estimated that in total Create & Connect reached 85,000 people.

As technology continues to develop and innovate, impacting on peoples' lives, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has continued to harness new technologies to give audiences new platforms. The ´óÏó´«Ã½'s longest running community film making project, Video Nation, was relaunched in Autumn 2009, inviting members of the public to submit content that contributes to ´óÏó´«Ã½ series and features. In addition to this, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ became the first broadcaster to provide audio described TV programmes on ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer for the visually impaired.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ continued to make progress towards reaching the targets set in its 2008 Environmental Action Plan. The latest report shows reverses in last year's energy consumption with a 4% decrease in energy consumed per full-time employee and a 5.2% reduction in our CO2 emissions from energy over the baseline year.

In addition, we reduced emissions from transport by 8% compared to our baseline. Sustainability will become a key focus for the forthcoming year and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ will engage staff to think creatively about how to apply sustainability principles in the workplace. A series of guides are being developed for use by production staff and later this year the ´óÏó´«Ã½ will launch "Albert" the carbon calculator to help production teams assess and measure carbon emissions.

Alec McGivan, ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Head of Outreach, says: "This year's Corporate Responsibility Report demonstrates that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has built on last year's success in terms of offering unique participation experiences across our Public Purposes. While the year ahead will present challenges, we remain committed to corporate responsibility.

"In particular, we will focus on the community impacts of opening a new ´óÏó´«Ã½ site in Salford and we will continue to improve the way we evaluate our outreach programmes. Another priority is developing our environmental plan into a wider sustainability drive across the organisation, to include how we make our programmes – as well as the way we run our business."

´óÏó´«Ã½ Press Office