Member News

Dear Friends,

In September, millions of people from around the world will strike to demand that governments take radical action to address the climate crisis. This started exactly a year ago with young Greta Thunberg protesting by herself outside the Swedish parliament. Since then it has led to multiple school strikes earlier in the year and a massive strike is now planned with working people around the world joining the youth strikers. You can find out more here: globalclimatestrike.net

Employees of Hudson Architects will be joining them by striking in Norwich on Friday 20th September. Our team care passionately about this topic and believe this is the moment to turn that passion into action. So for one day, the practice will be supporting employees to down tools and add their voices to those across the country and beyond. The practice will be contributing by hosting a public climate change exhibition event in our ground floor gallery space on St Andrews Street, whilst some employees will be joining the school strikes protest outside City Hall.

We will not be alone. Many companies, including other architectural practices, are signing up to allow their employees to take part. In the UK, the strike has the backing of the RIBA and the UK Green Building Council. Further afield, Germany’s service sector union, Verdi, has called on its 2 million members to join. A global movement is building.

We would like to invite you to join us by striking in any way you can. The more individuals and businesses that sign up the more likely world leaders are to heed our call. You could organise your own strike event, however small. The important thing is that our voices are heard so please do publicise your actions through whatever channels you can.

We believe it goes without saying that the climate crisis is real and poses an enormous threat to our environment and society, not to mention our businesses. This is the issue of our lifetimes and the time to act is now. We cannot continue with business as usual.

I hope you will consider joining us.

Warmest regards,

The team at Hudson Architects

The EDP EADT Norfolk & Suffolk Tourism Awards 2020 are now open for entries, and we’re on the hunt for the best marketing campaigns our region has to offer.

Show off your marketers! It’s quite often the case that excellent marketers produce some fantastic work behind the scenes. Customers might love their campaigns, but they’re not often recognised for all their hard work. That’s why we’re on the lookout for the best marketing campaigns within the region’s tourism industry. This award provides an opportunity for businesses, attractions and organisations to gain recognition for their efforts in adopting a proactive approach to marketing – be that through print, online, outdoor, press activity or a mix of all these.

Do you have what it takes? Think you can wow our judges with your creative campaigns? Enter the awards today! It takes just a couple of minutes, and is completely free. Entries close 29 September

ENTER NOW 

A new coaching and mentoring programme aimed at new or inexperienced line managers has been launched by a Norfolk-based training provider, designed to deliver results and create meaningful change through other people.

The Leadership Exploration and Development (LEAD) programme is the idea of Andrew Denny of Andrew Denny Consulting, who, after talking to a number of organisations, believes that too many first-line leaders are unprepared for their role and wishing they’d had more guidance before becoming a manager. Andrew feels that there is a gap in the market for those who simply want to gain practical experience in getting the best out of their people through effective day-to-day leadership without attending time consuming and sometimes expensive one-off training courses.

“Very often supervisors, team leaders and managers are promoted to their role, but their previous role has not prepared them for management work. People have to quickly learn new skills, the most important being performance management. The LEAD programme helps bridge the gap between any formal learning and the massive amount of information available online into something meaningful and relevant to those involved. Many people don’t learn from being in a formal environment learning leadership theory. Most of us develop from having the practical experience and learning from the mistakes we make”, says Andrew.

The flexible six month coaching led programme takes business owners, individuals or groups of managers, looks at them individually, and helps them create meaningful change for themselves, their teams and the organisation.  The programme combines group and/or individual coaching sessions with self-development projects and real time, on-the-job coaching to support positive change in behaviour and to help embed the learning.

The programme starts by focusing delegates on where they currently see themselves within several different management areas. An initial group workshop helps individuals to identify their own learning and leadership style. This session includes a goal setting session before the coaching begins.

Over the following weeks each individual is coached either as part of a group or individually, the aim being to challenge and keep them continuously learning and improving. The programme deals with specific topics such as self-awareness, leading through times of change, motivation and engagement, communication skills, delegation and time management, as well as with live issues yet always keeping an eye of the central goals.

The coaching sessions end with delegates summarising what they have learnt before setting out the actions they will commit to going forward. This may include self-learning or planning an activity to help apply the learning within the workplace.

The coaching ends with the group reconvening to reflect on the journey and talk about how they will continue this beyond the programme.  

Further details about the programme can be found by visiting www. andrewdennyconsulting.co.uk/lead-programme/ or by calling Andrew on 07798 616237.

Our vision for Passport to Puppetry

Many young people live in financially restricted households or difficult circumstances, unable to afford access to creative cultural experiences which can greatly improve children’s health and well-being, sense of aspiration and ambition.

For 40 years Norwich Puppet Theatre has inspired, entertained and enriched audiences both nationally and internationally. This unique asset in Norwich is one of only three dedicated building based puppet theatres in the country.We champion the ancient, unique and multifaceted art of  puppetry, welcoming children, young people, families and adults into a world of imagination and storytelling.  Committed to providing creative entertainment and skills for everyone, Norwich Puppet Theatre has a long history of producing high quality puppet shows and workshops.

We would like to invite Norfolk Chamber members to consider supporting the first wave of a new fund enabling Passports to Puppetry.  NPT Passports to Puppetry sponsorship will give children access to enjoyable, exciting and inspirational creative and cultural activities for free whilst at the same time supporting Norwich Puppet Theatre to provide meaningful and enriching experiences for everyone.

How it works • Companies and individuals donate to our Passport Fund.  • The passport fund will support the work of Norwich Puppet theatre and allow us to offer Passports to children, enabling them to share and enjoy the wonderful world of puppetry. • 10 donations of just £250 will enable 25 passports allowing access to show and workshop events at Norwich Puppet Theatre. With the help of our project partners, passports will be issued to a child, family or group most in need of some smiles and will be valid for 1 year. Choosing from the exciting and vast array of performances and workshops in our public programme, each passport holder will have the opportunity to journey into the magical art of puppetry.  To sample our wares please try https://www.puppettheatre.co.uk/whats-on. Maybe book yourself! This is the earliest stage of developing an exciting initiative which we hope to grow well beyond our launch critical mass of 25 passports throughout our 40th Anniversary Year, 2020.  We are working with leading local charities – Break, Benjamin Foundation, and a number of others – to set up safe and secure channels between the families with children we aim to benefit and ourselves.  We are also talking to transport providers to find ways to overcome transport difficulties which will undoubtedly arise, including Norwich Door2Door. We are really excited by the opportunities and hope you will be inspired too, and become a foundation sponsor helping to shape and grow a remarkable benefit for many children in need.  In return, if your company wants to become a foundation sponsor, you will share in the opportunities to use stories of your involvement in subsequent publicity and profile opportunities, brand placement, joint marketing and promotions. Contact our lovely team via info@puppettheatre.co.uk or 01603 515564 to discuss this further. Advanced Date for your diary! 9th October Learn about us and help launch NPT Passport to Puppetry https://www.norfolkchamber.co.uk/events/be-good-company-norwich-puppet-theatre

Staff from Aston Shaw’s payroll team have completed a 52-mile walk from the source of the River Yare in Dereham, to the mouth in Gorleston. They did this all within 24 hours in varied and difficult weather conditions, including 29-degree heat, torrential rain and strong winds.

The challenge, named ‘Mission Yare’, raised over a thousand pounds for East Anglian Air Ambulance, a charity that receives no government funding and relies solely on donations from the public.

Payroll Manager, Ben Revell, said: “Mission Yare was no walk in the park! Walking for 52-miles without sleep and in awful weather conditions took a toll on the team but by the end of it we all felt a great sense of pride. It’s a charity that’s close to my heart and so I was delighted when I learned we raised over one thousand pounds.”

Fellow team member, Gary White, added: “Approximately 10 miles in we saw a helicopter from East Anglian Air Ambulance fly overhead, and this gave the team and I a boost that carried us through to the end. I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved as I know the money raised will be put to good use, potentially saving someone’s life.”

In total, each member of the team walked 120,000 steps and climbed 3,485ft (as high as Mount Snowdon) all within just 24 hours. If you would like to donate, you can still do so here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/aston-shaw-team-payroll.

East Anglian Air Ambulance exists to save lives by delivering highly skilled doctors and critical care paramedics by air or car to seriously ill or injured people in the region. They are a life-saving charity that is only kept airborne thanks to its supporters.

https://www.astonshaw.co.uk

Five new franchisees have recently completed their initial training and have begun trading as TaxAssist Accountants in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

Mark Gibbs (Southend on Sea), Martin Murray (Swinton), Salmaan Shaikh (Surbiton) and Prav Tyagi (Manchester South), along with Declan Browne (Newbridge, County Kildare) are the latest franchisees to become part of the TaxAssist Accountants network in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Martin Murray, a FCCA qualified accountant with almost 30 years of experience, said: “Having followed TaxAssist’s progress over a number of years and long history of continuing success and development, I feel confident it will accelerate my practice development beyond what I could achieve on my own. The TaxAssist Brand and operating framework is modelled to give the most efficient working processes which are essential in a very competitive and vibrant sector of the market. I believe this translates into the best value for money a small business can get from their accountant.”

Before joining the TaxAssist network, Prav Tyagi gained more than 20 years’ experience in the finance, risk and regulatory world of UK national and global banks.

“What attracted me to TaxAssist Accountants is its unique approach of ‘retail’ accountancy shops use of scalable integrated software suite, active use of social media, and a strong technical, marketing and operational support team backing you and your business to grow,” explained Prav, who is a Fellow member of both the Association of Accounting Technician (AAT) and Institute of Financial Accountants (IFA), “I am confident of TaxAssist franchise model and look forward to build up a successful accountancy practice.”

Salman Shaikh, a Fellow member of ACCA, worked in a variety of accountancy practices for 15 years before being attracted to the TaxAssist franchise opportunity and praised the initial training he received at the Support Centre at Norwich’s Broadland Business Park. “All the staff have always been supportive, and the organisation culture is professional, progressive, friendly and positive. To work in an accounting practice is one thing, and to run one of your own is entirely another one. With TaxAssist I always get personalised continued support, which really a great thing. Joining the network as franchisee has been a wonderful experience.”

Karl Sandall said: “We were delighted to meet such a fantastic group of new franchisees and we look forward to helping them to grow their practices. They were joined by four other new franchisees who also completed their training and will be shortly be taking the reins of existing practices.” If you would like more information about becoming part of the TaxAssist Accountants network, please email our Franchise Recruitment Manager Nikki Haythorne by clicking the link at the top of this page or call 0800 0188297.  

Group Business Development Director James Mattam has recently celebrated his 20th anniversary with The TaxAssist Group

It was 26th July 1999 that James Mattam joined the fledgling franchise TaxAssist Accountants to be part of a team of just four staff and a network of 41 franchisees.

Having just completed his honours degree in Business Information Systems, James was recruited as IT Manager to build websites and provide support to franchisees. Promotions to Marketing Manager and Senior Business Development Manager followed, before joining the Board of Directors in 2016.

Reflecting on his experience with The TaxAssist Group, James said: “I’ve had a fantastic 20 years working with TaxAssist. I feel very fortunate to have found such a forward thinking and supportive employer which has enabled me to grow both on a personal and professional level and one which I am proud to represent at Board level. I am very much looking forward to the next 20 years!”

To celebrate James’ special anniversary, Karl Sandall, Group Chief Executive of The TaxAssist Group presented him with a cake and a card and thanked him for his hard work and dedication.

Karl said: “Many congratulations to James for reaching this milestone anniversary and also for dedicating himself so enthusiastically to helping to grow the network so successfully.

“Having spent his entire full-time career with TaxAssist Accountants, James has witnessed and embraced huge changes in technology and software over the years and he has played a fundamental role in delivering record client leads to the network, developing new marketing, brand and business development strategies and the expansion of our network of shops.

“James’ recent achievements have involved the launch of a national television brand campaign – the first of its kind in the UK for the accounting sector – and expanding the social media programme for the UK franchise network to drive more awareness in each local territory.

“The TaxAssist Accountants Support Centre in Norwich, which has recently expanded to allow for anticipated growth, has 51 members of staff with 359 years of experience between them. If you combine this figure with the 1,086 years of combined service of our network of 215 franchisees, this really highlights the stability of support and the experience of the accountants around the network.”

Karl Sandall himself heads towards 20 years in franchising in 2020 which also marks the 25thanniversary of the founding of the TaxAssist Accountants franchise.  

We often get asked how to create a secure password.  There are many different ways, but one option is to do the following:  

1. Create a short sentence which is personal to you, which you can remember, e.g. At the weekend, I love to paddle in the sea.
2. Take the first 2 letters of each word in the sentence: Atthwe,Ilotopainthse.
3. Change at least one character to be a symbol: Atthwe,Ilotopainth$e.
4. Change at least one character to be number: Atthwe,Ilotopainth$3.

This provides a really secure password which will make perfect sense to you but appears completely random to on-lookers. Remember, if your password can ever be recovered, rather than being reset, it has not been encrypted correctly!  This is therefore a security risk as your password could be exposed to hackers if they gained access to that system. For added security, always utilise a different password for every system or website you use!   

Spire Solicitors LLP and the Norfolk & Norwich Hospitals Charity are pleased to announce a partnership to increase the charitable aims of the Charity, as well as provide benefits to the valued members and staff who are the influential front-line of the NHS service in Norfolk & Norwich.

The partnership will allow for the N&N Hospitals Charity to continue with projects that make the hospital experience a better one for patients, visitors and staff. Donations raised by the charity are used in many ways, from funding toys on children’s wards to lifesaving equipment in various departments or wards. More recently, the Charity launched the Boudicca Appeal to fund the much-needed development of the Breast Cancer Unit at the NNUHFT.

Spire Solicitors LLP will be delivering a series of events and opportunities over the coming months to raise money for the Charity & Trust. The first event will take place in September and will be an open-forum seminar held for the 17,000 strong members of the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals Foundation Trust. It will cover the basics of inheritance tax, estate planning, wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney and later-lifetime planning to ensure wishes are met appropriately. 

Kristian Tangen-Sorgendal, Head of Marketing at Spire Solicitors LLP, commented: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to work closely alongside this instrumental charity and parent organisation to help them augment their charitable goals and objectives for members & staff.

Our first event in September is only the start of our long-term plans and we look forward to delivering a comprehensive fundraising and support strategy to all involved under the partnership.”

Louise Cook, Head of Fundraising at N&N Charities, commented: “We’re delighted to be working with the team at Spire Solicitors LLP, whose invaluable knowledge will help support our main aim of improving patient, visitor and staff welfare at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.”

With cyber security a hot topic on board agendas, the appetite has never been stronger for a safe space to learn and engage with fellow business owners on this ever-changing topic.

That is where the Norfolk and Suffolk Cyber Security Cluster (NSCSC) comes in.

The vision for the cluster is to become a trusted source of advice on cyber and information security matters.

By providing a ‘safe forum’ for members to discuss issues, challenges and security incidents and helping to enable and empower businesses and business owners to take their cyber security in hand, the cluster members hope to promote the cause across Norfolk, Suffolk and beyond.

Bi-monthly regional events are being planned to provide useful, actionable insight as well as a chance to network with other, similar businesses to yours.

Other events will include annual half-day workshops which will give access to free training and a chance to meet experts and security vendors.

How to get involved The cluster is looking for new members – sign up on the website and follow on Linked In.

They would also be keen to hear from potential sponsors and supporters as well as speakers – share your expertise, knowledge or experiences. In particular, if you feel able to share your experiences of a data breach, ransomware attack or similar please do get in touch.

A Norwich based IT expert has won an international award for his work within the software development community.

Chris Sainty, Lead Software Engineer with Flagship Group, has been recognised for his outstanding contribution by securing the prestigious ‘Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award’ run by the software giant.

The award is given by Microsoft to ‘technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community.’ The scheme has been around for 20 years and is extremely exclusive – there are only around 2,500 MVPs worldwide with just 153 in the UK. This is out of a technical community of over a million.

Chris’s achievement is due to his work on a Microsoft product called Blazor. He has been blogging about the product for the last 18 months and he has even written about it for a number of high-profile technical publications.

He also offers support and expertise online to fellow software engineers, and more recently, he was  invited to take part in a podcast and present at a software development event in Cambridge.

“I’m delighted to have won this award, I still can’t quite believe it, it’s like signing for a football team like Real Madrid in the software world” Chris explained. “From a professional perspective at Flagship, I hope having an MVP will help us attract more like-minded people that are passionate about technology and inspire others to work towards the award”.

For Chris, this recognition gives him the opportunity to work with the teams at Microsoft. All MVPs are invited to the annual MVP Summit at Microsoft’s HQ. “Having the opportunity to give feedback and help shape the products you love is pretty cool.” Chris said.

This award is highly celebrated at Flagship, an employer who encourage their staff to do great things. Matt Brazier, Director of IT & S at Flagship said: “We are thrilled to see Chris getting this recognition. He is committed to developing his knowledge and technical expertise to meet the needs of our colleagues and customers. Having such expertise in-house is a major benefit to Flagship and winning this award from Microsoft is a huge endorsement for Chris – we are very proud of all that he has achieved”.

MVP status is awarded for 1 year after which MVPs must re-submit for the next year.

*You can read Chris’ personal website here: https://chrissainty.com/

ENDS

28,000 home Housing Association, Flagship and leading national housebuilder Lovell, enter into Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) to secure land and develop more homes across the East of England. Securing land and the delivery of affordable homes is a top priority for major Housing Association Flagship Group. With their significant experience and expertise in the management and provision of affordable homes, matched with Lovell’s technical expertise and construction knowledge, talks established the firms could do more together. As a result, both parties have entered into a joint venture to secure land, in partnership for the development of mixed tenure homes. It is promised that a significant proportion will be earmarked for affordable rent, to address the shortage of housing across the East. The new LLP has been formed in equal partnership in a bid to create quality developments with a strong focus on customer service in both sale and rental provision. The venture will enable both firms to share expertise, whilst securing sites of scale and increasing development opportunities. Managing director of Flagship’s development company, Tony Tann said: “We know we can achieve more with like-minded organisations and working together in partnership, is key in helping us to achieve our ambitious development programme. “Ventures such as these, are crucial in helping support our goal of solving the housing crisis in the East of England.” Simon Medler, regional managing director at Lovell said: “We already have a strong relationship with Flagship that has been built over the past 20 years. We’re confident that our similar values and culture will allow us to deliver this development programme to the highest possible standard. The partnership will help us to deliver much needed housing and benefit communities within the region. The new LLP has been given the go-ahead to start work on an initial 89 properties at its first development in Wymondham, Norfolk. Work is expected to commence on this eagerly-awaited development in September which will see a total of 335 new homes, 111 of which will be allocated as affordable housing and made available through Flagship. To find out more about Lovell visit www.lovell.co.uk. For further information on Flagship visit www.flagship-group.co.uk ENDS