Bucks Students’ Union has been awarded Gold in the Best Bar None Scheme for the fourth year in a row and have gone above and beyond to receive the Platinum Best in Class!
We have been participating in the NUS Best Bar None Scheme for several years, with our first Gold received back in 2017. Since then we have gone from strength to strength, continuing to be awarded the Gold standard across our two venues, The Lounge and the Venue. This year however, not only have we been awarded Gold, but for the second year in a row we have received 100% across our written portfolio and 100% for our on-site assessment leading to our Platinum award for 2020 – proving that our venues truly are above and beyond current industry standard.
Jamie Alexander, our Events and Licensed Trade Manager said: “We’re really impressed with the result this year and it just shows the tenacity and effort put in to this accreditation by the team. It’s really inspiring to share this result with the new incoming Venue team for 2020/2021.”
Being awarded Platinum Best in Class means that out of the seven sections including Prevention of Crime and Disorder, Public Safety, Staff Training, Community Engagement and, Social Responsibility and Public Health we have received 100% across all sections!
Seana O’Reilly, our Events Assistant said: “It’s brilliant to see Bucks Students’ Union’s Bars & Venues achieving Platinum from Best Bar None this year, the welfare of our students, staff and customers is key and receiving recognition for this is something we are so proud of.”
Some of the more successful services we offer as a part of our bars and venues are the ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme and our Bucks Students’ Union ‘Shhh Bus’.
The ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme is in place in both of our venues and mean that if someone feels threatened, they can ask for “Angela” and our trained staff will get them the help they need.
The ‘Shhh Bus’ is a free night bus that runs on our most popular night for students to get home safely and quietly. After midnight the bus starts taking students home to anywhere in High Wycombe that they need to go – for free!
We are also proud of our Fresher’s Helpers who are all current students that work during the first two weeks of University to ensure new students will always have a friendly face to help them if they get lost, need someone to talk to or just want to find out a little more about the local community. To ensure a long lasting and stable relationship between our students and the local community, each year we pay a great amount of detail to the Community Guide published by Bucks Students’ Union.
We are incredibly proud of all of our team for achieving this award and we hope to maintain this going forward into the next year even with current circumstances changing the way we operate drastically. We have created a COVID-19 safe welcome week for new and returning students and you can find out more information of what we have planned here www.bucksstudentsunion.org/whatson/
*Please Note: the photo used for this article was taken pre-social distancing*