Member News

Businesses across west Norfolk are being encouraged to complete a new coronavirus business impact survey, to help the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk and other agencies focus their economic response and recovery efforts on current and emerging issues.   Cllr Graham Middleton, Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Cabinet Member for Business Development said: “We are acutely aware of how challenging it is for many businesses at the moment. We need businesses to take part in this survey so that we can fully understand the nature of those challenges and what sorts of things might help them now and in the future.” The survey is available online at https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/2021CouncilSurvey and should take around 15 minutes to complete.  Businesses can complete the survey more than once if circumstances or their views change. Survey response data is non-business-specific and will directly inform both our conversations and our economic response and recovery work with partners from Government, New Anglia LEP, other local authorities and local business groups. Cllr Middleton added: “The more we understand about the pressures local businesses are under, the more we can tailor support to help them recover from the pandemic.  The survey will be open for a while and we would urge businesses to complete it more than once if they are affected by changes in government guidance etc.  We recognise that this is not a static situation, but one that is ever-changing.”

Organisations across Norfolk are being asked to sign up to a countywide campaign to help victims of domestic abuse

The Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Group in Norfolk (DASVG), which involves councils, the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk (OPCCN), police and health organisations, launched the HEAR campaign for White Ribbon Day on 25 November 2020 and the 16 Days Against Domestic Abuse that followed.

The campaign asks organisations to pledge their support and make simple changes to policy which will help any employees who might be suffering domestic abuse.

So far some 35 organisations including Norwich City Football Club, Norfolk County Council, the UEA, the James Paget Hospital, Norfolk Constabulary as well as a number of smaller companies including Phoenix Events, Norfolk Community Law Service and Moore Networking, have signed up to the pledge representing more than 23,000 employees.

Companies and employers have an important role to play in helping to prevent domestic abuse where it impacts on the workplace – and when a victim’s work, productivity and safety are affected – whether working at home or in the office and more organisations are being urged to take part.

Gavin Thompson, Chair of the DASVG and Director of Commissioning, Policy and Communications at the OPCCN, which has also signed the pledge, said: “White Ribbon Day is a crucial way of raising awareness of domestic abuse while helping victims and survivors know where to find support.

“However, we must work together to prevent abuse and make sure our communities and homes are safe for everyone 365 days of the year.

“With more people having to work from home due to the pandemic, it is incumbent upon us as employers to ensure those at risk of abuse know they will be heard and help is out there.

“I would encourage organisations, no matter how large or small, to sign up to the HEAR pledge, together we can all help make a difference by saying #NoToDomesticAbuse.”

HEAR stands for Help, Educate, Awareness and Respond, with organisations being asked to pledge to:

• Help

Every employer has a duty to provide access to organisations who can help employees: We will ensure colleagues affected by domestic abuse are given access to the right specialist support.

• Educate

Every employer should ensure the right training is provided: We will make sure the right training is provided to staff to know what steps to take to support colleagues.

• Awareness

Every employer has a responsibility to be aware of domestic abuse: We will not tolerate domestic abuse in any form and will provide a supportive workplace for colleagues who experience such abuse.

• Respond

Every employer should ensure the right policies are in place to respond to domestic abuse: We will review our policies and processes and ensure they are implemented correctly.

Norwich City Football Club was one of the first organisations to have signed up to the campaign.

Zoe Ward, Norwich City Football Club’s Business and Project Director, said: “Domestic abuse is occurring every day in our community and the pandemic means that victims are having an even harder time accessing the support they need.

“Employers have a responsibility to create a safe and supportive environment and, by committing to educate and raise awareness amongst our colleagues, we can play our part in tackling domestic abuse together.”

Mandy Proctor, Chief Executive of the domestic violence and abuse services charity Leeway, added: “This is a very important campaign, raising awareness of domestic abuse and encouraging organisations to take an active role in tackling it.  

“We all have a part to play to stop domestic abuse and to break the silence that so often surrounds it.

“By signing up to the pledge, employers will ensure the wellbeing of their staff, helping them to access support at an earlier stage as well as highlighting their commitment to tackling domestic abuse.” 

Employers can sign up to the HEAR campaign here>> Sign up to the HEAR campaign

In England and Wales, Hestia, providers of refuges for victims of domestic abuse, estimate a cost to employers of £14m per year due to reduced productivity and lost output due to time off work.

During the pandemic in Norfolk, and particularly during lockdown, victims/survivors of domestic abuse are more likely to be vulnerable. At the moment, some vulnerable children and adults may be particularly isolated, meaning the family, community and professional networks they usually rely on may be unavailable or harder to access.

At the same time, any restrictions in place may increase the pressures that can contribute to abuse. This inevitably impacts on work and colleagues as well as the victims themselves.

On signing the pledge, a campaign toolkit is available for employers to download with information on help and support for staff, guidance on drafting policy about domestic abuse, internal communications and a campaign poster.

British bike share and e-scooter hire provider Beryl and Norwich-based B Corp digital agency, Selesti, have today announced an initiative that will see the shared bike and e-scooter service in the city free for all key workers during the current COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Aimed at increasing socially distanced transport choices for journeys between home and work, key workers will be able to access the scheme by signing up to the Beryl App. This will provide them with free rides, up to 60 minutes via bike and 30 minutes via e-scooter, for all bay to bay rides in the Norwich service area.

During the first lockdown Beryl supported over 10,000 free journeys for key workers across the UK with a series of initiatives across their services. Phil Ellis, CEO of Beryl said “As the COVID-19 crisis continues, many people can’t stay home as they’ll be working to protect and aid the general public. We want to ensure these essential workers can still be mobile and maintain safe distances from others while travelling to and from their places of work. As such, we’ve partnered with Selesti to make Beryl bikes, e-Bikes and e-scooters temporarily free for NHS staff in Norwich, to help them get around and to say thanks for the important work they’re doing.” 

Ollie Blackmore, CEO of B Corp Certified digital agency, Selesti, said: “We’re delighted to support this initiative which will give our local key workers a free and flexible transport option. Not only does this help support them by saving money, it is an excellent way to reduce carbon emissions and stay fit and healthy.  By providing 20,000 minutes, which Beryl will double to 40,000, we hope this is a small but important gesture that says thank you to all NHS staff in Norwich.”

Selesti initially pledged 10,000 minutes of free transport to key workers which Beryl matched, however after this initial offer was snapped up within hours, both companies decided to double the amount of time provided, increasing accessibility to even more key workers across the city. Councillor Martin Wilby, Norfolk County Council’s cabinet member for highways, infrastructure and transport said, “We are delighted with the popularity of the Beryl scheme since its launch last year and it’s fantastic that local key workers will once again be able to use it for free. Every car journey we replace in this way improves local air quality, reduces congestion on our roads and our overall carbon footprint, which is exactly what the scheme is about.”

The initiative is live from today and will continue indefinitely with Beryl and Selesti monitoring the free rides throughout the duration of the UK lockdown.

To cater for demand, Lloyd Evans has moved to a larger and more prominent shop at 1-3 Moss Grove in Kingswinford.

Lloyd Evans joined TaxAssist Accountants in 2012, and has, since then, gone on to build up a practice with more than 730 small business clients around Halesowen, Wolverhampton and Kingswinford, alongside his team of eight staff.

As part of his plans to expand his services in Kingswinford and surrounding areas, Lloyd has now opened a 1,236 sq.ft shop, in a prominent parade of shops, that no local small business can miss! “It really is a great looking shop, in a fantastic location,” explains Lloyd. “Small businesses need the services of a quality accountant more than ever before, during and post the coronavirus pandemic, so the move to this more visible location hits the mark in terms of promoting our range of services as widely as possible. “I am passionate about supporting and adding value to small businesses and have more than 30 years’ experience of doing so. It was this desire to use my skills and expertise that led me to join TaxAssist Accountants which specialises in this sector. “I’d encourage anyone interested in finding out more about our services to get in touch for a free initial consultation. We provide a comprehensive tax, accountancy and advisory service including business planning and cash flow forecasting. We can talk clients through a range of software solutions to help clients to select the right package for their needs.” For more information about Lloyd’s services, please visit his website https://www.taxassist.co.uk/Kingswinford or call on 0800 05 23 555.

Employers passionate about developing their organisation’s culture, engagement levels and workplace environment, can now sign up to take part in the new Best Employers Eastern Region 2021 Programme.

Best Employers Eastern Region is a community for organisations that believe success is achieved through their people. It brings together employers from across the East of England to develop fresh ideas to keep their culture fresh, enabling your people to thrive.

From its roots as an employee survey, Best Employers supports leaders to continuously develop their organisation’s culture, engagement levels and working environment. It encourages collaboration and provides the opportunity to hear from global industry speakers who have experienced similar challenges first-hand. Best Employers also supports organisations to develop their employee brand through awards and accreditations.

Lynn Walters, Executive Director at Pure and co-founder of Best Employers Eastern Region, said: “Following a year of incredible change, this is a great forum to share experiences and learnings – to learn from each other and understand how the change has impacted our employees, our organisations priorities, culture and values. As a professional recruitment consultancy for our region, we have seen first-hand the significant impact that the pandemic has had. Engagement, culture and values are essential to retain and attract the best talent and despite the recession, top talent in specialist areas are still in high demand.”

Through a programme of inspiring online events and webinars, participating organisations will have the opportunity to learn and hear from international speakers and business leaders across our region. They will share their experience and what they learnt from leading through a challenging time.

The Best Employers survey, provided by co-founders, eras Ltd, will give organisations the information they need to understand their current levels of engagement. George Sik, Consultant Psychologist at eras ltd says, “The timing of the Best Employer survey couldn’t be better. The opportunity for organisations to gather feedback from their staff at this time, when we have many people working remotely, is invaluable and we expect to see some significant shift in the levels of engagement. The opportunity to track your progress and benchmark your organisation against other top employers is incredibly valuable.”

The new 2021 programme will begin with a virtual launch event on 22nd April 2021 which will mark the opening of the employee engagement survey. This will be followed by webinars on:

• Engaging and leading remote and onsite teams
• Health, wellness and developing workforce resilience
• Fostering an innovative, hungry and progressive culture
• Recruitment, onboarding and rewarding your team

Hosted by Best Employers co-founders eras ltd, there will also be a series of workshops available to participating organisations that will show you how to set up your Best Employers survey.

Best Employers was born out of a collaboration in 2012, between Alex Pearce, Managing Director of eras ltd and Lynn Walters, Executive Director of Pure. 

Alex very sadly and unexpectedly died in October 2020, and to mark his legacy, Best Employers 2021 will raise money in his memory. 50% of the net proceeds raised through our 2021 programme will be donated to Winston Wishes and Nelsons Journey.

By participating, organisations enhance their profile and employer brand and commit to creating progressively engaged organisations.  The prestigious Best Employer awards and accreditations have become an exceptional showcase of the businesses people want to be a part of. In 2018, almost 150 organisations and 15,000 people took part with eight Best Employer awards and over 30 gold and platinum accreditations presented.

For more information on Best Employers Eastern Region visit – 

www.best-employers.co.uk.

On this week’s exciting episode of Impromptu Business Chat, Mark and James are thrilled to welcome broadcaster and presenter Simon Mundie.

Simon has been a presenter on BBC Radio 1, and has covered sporting events like Wimbledon as well as a number of large music events. In more recent years, Simon has been hosting BBC Radio 4’s critically acclaimed Don’t Tell Me The Score, which uses sport to explore life’s bigger questions. He has interviewed many of the most well known and successful people on the planet including Caitlyn Jenner, Jonny Wilkinson, Michael Johnson and even a former bank robber turned professional ironman – as well as psychologists, neuroscientists and former Buddhist monks.

He explores life themes including addiction, self-acceptance and tribalism, and we discuss the lessons he’s learnt from his interviews to see how we can apply this to the world of business.

If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Whilst you are there, please like us, and leave a comment. We would love to hear what you are enjoying about the podcast, and it helps others to find us!

Listen to the chat with Simon here! 

Young Norfolk Writing Competition 2021 is open for submissions

The Young Norfolk Writing Competition – the popular annual competition celebrating creative writing in all its forms – is now open for entries from 11 – 18-year-olds living or studying in Norfolk.

The competition is a collaboration between the National Centre for Writing based in Dragon Hall, Norwich and Young Norfolk Arts, supported by Norfolk County Council. It builds on the success of previous years in which over 1,100 young people have participated from over 100 schools and other settings.

Young lovers of writing and reading are encouraged to submit stories, lyrics, narrative for games, graphic stories, poems, spoken word, scripts, podcasts, plays, articles, journalism or essays in written or audio format.

Kasey Challenger, who attends Dereham Sixth Form College, was one of seven winners of the 2020 competition and was also named joint 2020 Young Norfolk Laureate alongside Mathilda Armiger and Ryan Taaffe-Fowle.  

Kasey said:

‘The Young Norfolk Writing Competition and laureateship have been an invaluable opportunity that has helped me take steps to grow my confidence and moderate my anxiety. I have been given the chance to meet new people, perform my work, and have learnt a lot about poetry through mentoring – getting to explore new writing styles with really constructive feedback and encouragement that I have never had before. This year has helped me to become a better writer and learn to love what I am writing, as well as giving me the tools to explore the role that writing can play in my life in the future.’  

Hear more from 2020’s Young Norfolk Laureates, including snippets from their winning poems, in this promotional video for the competition: https://youtu.be/L1d8ZLWWnmM

The 2021 winners will receive individual prizes, professional mentoring to help take their writing forward, and opportunities to have their work performed and published.

The competition is free to enter and closes at 5pm on Monday 31 May 2021.  Entries may be written, audio recorded or in graphic story format.  

Victoria Maitland, Programme Officer at the National Centre for Writing said:

‘This competition always showcases the very finest writing that Norfolk has to offer. 2020 was a challenging year to be a young person, but the entries to the competition proved that creativity shines in even the most difficult circumstances. I’m excited to read the entries that 2021 has to offer.’  

Lucy Farrant, Director of Young Norfolk Arts said:

‘The Competition is a great chance for the county’s young people to express themselves in their own words using a medium which they enjoy. This opportunity is vitally important at this difficult time and I am really looking forward to reading and hearing the entries. I know there is a wealth of talent out there and I can’t wait for it to be shared.’  

Robert Rickard, 14 – 19 Adviser at Norfolk County Council said:

‘More than ever, given world events, we are delighted to help devise and promote this annual competition which nurtures the very best of young people’s creative energy and brings together education settings from right across Norfolk.’  

For submission details please see nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/ynwc/

Being an Enterprise Adviser gives you the unique opportunity to work with a specific school or college, supporting them strategically and operationally to improve their careers programme and strengthen their links with the world of work.

• What is an Enterprise Adviser?
  • Enterprise Advisers are volunteer business leaders who work directly with the leadership teams of individual schools and colleges. These volunteers help to develop effective, strategic employer engagement plans to enhance careers and enterprise learning within the curriculum.
• Benefits for businesses
• A chance to help shape the future workforce.
• Easier access to schools for employer engagement and interaction.
• Great opportunities to develop your own employees.
• Showcase your company or business sector.
•  To read more about the role of an Enterprise Adviser, please click here.
• Click here to view a map of the businesses currently engaged and working with the EAN in Norfolk and Suffolk and matched with an Enterprise Adviser.
• EAN Business Coverage 

There are also lots of other ways you can get involved and support your local school or college. We are often looking for volunteers for career events such as mock interview sessions, assembly talks, CV workshops, dragon den events, mentoring and stereotype busting workshops. To learn more about supporting your local school or college or to sign up to become an Enterprise Adviser, please contact Kieren Buxton | Enterprise Coordinator, East & West Norfolk  by email  kieren.buxton@newanglia.co.uk or call on 07770 390784   ‘Employer engagement has made the single biggest impact in my school, we’ve gone from shrugs to aspirations and our teachers have noticed a difference in lessons’ – Careers Lead, Hewett Academy

Bring the Brasserie home… Enjoy delicious food, lovingly created with locally sourced produce. Local Chef Mark Elvin, has devised mouth-watering dishes for the Brasserie at Barnham Broom, which you can now prepare and enjoy from the comfort of your own home. Equipped with full instructions, elements of pre-prepared items and all the ingredients required, you can now cook along with Mark from your own kitchen. Pre-order by clicking the button below, giving 24 hours’ notice. Collection available Friday’s and Saturday’s.

For Menu Click Here

To get in touch Click Here 

In this series of insight webinars, local business leaders talk about how they’ve coped during the pandemic. The guests will be sharing their views and experiences on recent months and how they are looking forwards.

Aimed at other business leaders across all sectors, these FREE to join webinars will give you powerful and bite-sized information to take away to your own business.

Join us for our third chat in the series, hosted by Becky Ames who is joined by Michelle Pollard, Managing Director of Spider, an award-winning online job advertiser based in Ipswich. 

Find out more about Spider here.

Register your place here!

Are you interested in helping to make Norfolk a better place to live today and tomorrow? Do you have a personal drive and ambition to want to make a difference? Are you innovative, with an interest in piloting change? Would you like to learn and understand the issues facing our communities?

Following some of our Trustees reaching the end of their service time with us, Norfolk Community Foundation are looking for new Trustees to reflect evolving needs and opportunities for growth and to help strengthen a strong foundation of community action and local giving following a year when the Foundation has led the support for Norfolk’s charities during the Covid-19 crisis.

If you are interested in becoming a Trustee of Norfolk Community Foundation, playing an important role in helping us to achieve our ambitions of making local communities thrive and improving the lives of people who live there, then click here to find out more about the role and view the recruitment pack.

Closing date: Friday 12th February.