For almost 100 years we have supported communities and businesses in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. As well as helping our clients to thrive, create jobs and grow, our dedication to social responsibility centres around supporting local good causes that offer vital assistance and services for local people.
Our team provides support by raising money and donating our time to champion local charities as well as national and international causes.
At Duncan & Toplis, our people care about one another, their environment and the local areas in which they work and live. There’s a mutual aspiration from everyone who works with us to contribute to charities and vital community organisations. We encourage everyone to get involved, both within our own team, as well as our friends, colleagues and neighbours in the local business community.
In April 2024, we launched our ‘Growing Together’ strategy, which over the next three years will create a successful, sustainable business full of opportunity for everyone. At the heart of this is our purpose – to positively impact people, our communities, and the world around us. By creating a positive impact across these groups – our colleagues and clients, the communities in which we live and work, and our wider world – we will ensure that Duncan & Toplis remains authentic and true to our roots, whilst building an organisation that is fit for the future.
Our people are at the heart of everything we do. At Duncan & Toplis we develop talent and encourage ambitious individuals to progress their careers and expand their professional and personal development, whilst always ensuring we put our values – Trust, Partnership and Inclusivity – at the forefront of everything we do.
We focus on attracting and retaining top talent, with a growing team of over 500 of whom nearly 70 are currently engaged in professional training. We are recruiting for new roles as our business embarks on its biggest growth period since it was formed in 1925. We regularly review our offering to ensure Duncan & Toplis is a company that people choose to join.
During this year a key focus for our people strategy was values and culture. We launched a new programme involving all team members to revisit and redefine what our values mean to us and how we can ensure they are integrated into everything that we do.
We continued our focus to actively promote a truly inclusive and diverse place to work and continue to train all team members on our Equality and Diversity programme. In addition, we have commenced an updated career pathway programme which further builds on our commitment to team development both in respect of promotion and enhancing skills and experience.
This is further cemented with our soft skills training alongside technical skills webinars and training. Our aim remains to equip all our team members with the skills they need to succeed in the future and set us apart from our competitors.
For future leaders, we continue to run our prestigious Academy training programme that ensures individuals have the right skills to lead the company in the coming years as well as demonstrating our commitment to those team members.
As a responsible employer, we also look after our 500-strong team, offering agile working to make Duncan & Toplis more equitable. We actively encourage open discussion about perceived taboo subjects, including mental health and menopause through our #LetsTalk and ‘PositivePause’ team campaigns and we also offer free online fitness sessions.
We pride ourselves on helping businesses succeed, grow and meet their potential.
Since the pandemic, we have enhanced our remote services and helped clients to adapt to new systems and ways of working. Going forward, we’ll be continually investing in our use of technology to keep us at the cutting edge, ensuring we have all of the tools we need to provide outstanding services.
With each client benefitting from a dedicated adviser, we provided tailored advice and guidance at every stage. We provide free support to clients and the wider business community by publishing free advice, guidance and information on our website and in email newsletters.
Over the last year, Duncan & Toplis has launched a range of new services to enhance and expand our offer, attracting new clients and growing existing relationships. This includes the launch of Duncan & Toplis Legal Services, covering all areas of company law including deeds, company purchases and partnership agreements along with private client work. This is a time of ambitious growth for the firm, with plans to grow into areas such as employment law, residential property and trusts.
We have also launched an international business gateway, Kreston Duncan & Toplis. Set up at the start of 2021, this service line helps companies in the Midlands trade or expand overseas and supports overseas investment in the region, making use of the Kreston international network of accountants and business advisers as well as local expertise.
We also seek ways to introduce other Duncan & Toplis services to clients, to best meet their needs.
We play an active role in our local communities through our important Corporate Social Responsibility programme, the Duncan & Toplis Foundation and supporting business groups advocating for the area.
As well as helping our clients to thrive, create jobs and grow, our dedication to social responsibility centres around supporting good causes that offer vital assistance and services for local people.
At Duncan & Toplis, our people care about one another, their environment and the local areas in which they work and live. There’s a mutual aspiration from our team members to contribute to charities and vital community organisations. We encourage everyone to get involved, both within our own team, as well as our friends, colleagues and neighbours in the local business community.
In late 2022 we launched the Duncan & Toplis Foundation to lead fundraising initiatives and increase the impact of our team’s charitable activities.
The Foundation primarily supports initiatives that seek to improve the quality of local communities within a 20-mile radius of the company’s 11 office locations, with causes such as the provision of food and shelter, mental health, palliative care and youth employment among those given priority support.
Focus areas for support are determined each year and organisations and charities can request support through a simple online form. 95% of all money raised will be directed to UK-based charities, with the remaining 5% supporting international charities.
In its first year, the Foundation supported an extensive number of charities with generous donations, committing to donating over £30,000.
This has included raising money for and supporting Lincolnshire Agricultural Society, Base 51, Newark Book Festival, Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People, Children’s Bereavement Centre, Sue Young Cancer Support, Boston Girlguiding, Beaumond House Hospice Care, Tonic Health, Kirton Youth Challenge, The Respite Association, Panathlon Foundation, Carers First and St John the Baptist Catholic Church. We also donate and collect hundreds of toys and gifts for children in care at Christmastime.
Whether it’s raising funds for local charities, good causes that are close to our hearts, or helping the community to grow and prosper in the face of challenges, we continue to support the community in everything we do. This attitude is embedded in our corporate vision which places the ambitions of our team members, and the communities we serve, at the heart of our work.
Now that we’re one of the largest accountancy groups in the Midlands, we recognise that it’s even more important that our group plays a greater role in supporting people and the natural environment.
Not only do we recognise the importance of doing our bit and the benefits this has for our team, our clients, and associates alike, having a greater positive impact on the world around us is also something we want to do.
We recently achieved “On the Road to Net Zero” status from the sustainability platform Net Zero Now, meaning we’re on track to become a carbon-neutral organisation within the next five to eight years. We’re determined to reduce our emissions and build a more sustainable future for our business, the local community and our planet.
We’ve also published our first environmental, social and governance (ESG) report, which outlines our team’s collective actions to significantly improve our environmental and social impact. Projects include establishing the Duncan & Toplis Foundation to support charitable organisations within a 20-mile radius of our locations, participating in the National Forest’s ‘Dedicate a Tree’ initiative, operating waste reduction strategies across the group and electing our first-ever Sustainability Champion who works with our sustainability project team to build their skills, monitor our progress, and help clients to do the same.
By focusing on ESG, we hold ourselves more accountable for our actions and the outcomes they have so we can work toward improving the positive impact we have with far greater purpose.
Looking forward, we’re also reviewing the benefits of becoming a B Corp-certified business, which would prove that we meet the highest standards of verified performance, accountability and transparency.
