Member News

Despite the current lockdown, the help offered by charities and voluntary organisations in Norfolk is needed more than ever. Norfolk Community Foundation is delighted at the generosity of so many people and organisations who have donated to our appeal so far, and here is an update on some of the ways how your donations have been put to use immediately to help people in our local communities. Getting essential supplies to those who are vulnerable We’re continuing to support many charities, community groups and parish councils all across Norfolk who are providing essential supplies such as food and medications to older, vulnerable and self-isolating people in their communities, with help towards the cost of protective equipment that their volunteers need to carry this out safely. One example is the Wellspring Family Centre in Dereham, where a large group of volunteers are working hard to keep the Centre open as a local foodbank, as a place from where to run essential errands for vulnerable and isolated people, and also to provide support via telephone for local people who are experiencing mental health issues. Helping people affected by domestic abuse during the lockdown People experiencing domestic abuse are at greater risk during these difficult times, with rates of abuse soaring due to being confined to homes and with the added stress of health and financial worries. We are supporting the following local domestic abuse charities who are working hard to protect those at risk:

• Pandora Project, a charity offering support and advice to those affected by domestic abuse in West Norfolk, is seeing a rise in self-referrals from women experiencing abuse in the home during this challenging time. The funding is helping them to buy 10 mobile phones with credit to give to women should they need to request help urgently from the charity or the police, as abusers often monitor their partner’s phone or take it away from them. They will be able to collect these phones via local collection points where possible. The charity is also being supported to provide one-to-one support to those affected by domestic abuse via telephone and online channels, and is paying for transport for women and children who need to flee to safe accommodation, if they have no access to money and need to leave the property quickly for their own safety.

• Norfolk domestic abuse support charity Leeway is currently supporting 72 children who have previously lived in households affected by domestic abuse across their eight refuges in Great Yarmouth, Norwich, North Norfolk, and King’s Lynn and West Norfolk. As these children are now out of school and in self isolation, Leeway is providing them with access to wifi and online learning opportunities that can be accessed from their refuges so that they can continue their learning during this time.

Help for people with special educational needs It is difficult for everyone to be isolated at home at the moment, and especially so for families with children with special educational needs. We’re enabling SENsational Families, a charity supporting these families, to post out packs to families containing resources, activities and sensory toys to help both parents’ and children’s wellbeing during the outbreak, helping to ease the pressures of isolation. Support for organisations to continue helping the vulnerable from a distance Many charities and community groups provide important services which cannot be delivered face-to-face during the current lockdown, although more people are struggling and the need for their services is greater than ever. We’re supporting many organisations so they can continue to provide their vital services remotely via telephone or online, for example:

• Volunteering Matters has set up a telephone and online service to provide support to vulnerable adults with special educational needs in West Norfolk
• Norfolk Community Law Service is able to offer legal advice remotely via telephone and video conferencing
• Holt Youth Project can now continue supporting local young people remotely, particularly those who are more vulnerable such as their young men’s mental health group that cannot currently meet in person.

Help us continue to help others A huge thank you to everyone who has donated to our appeal so far. However, we still need many more funds to ensure that we can support the most vulnerable during these unprecedented times. Donate today to help people in your local community. Anything that you can give will make a real difference.

Norwich City Council has made £9.9 million in payments this week to local businesses which have been identified as being eligible for the government’s small business grants fund.

The £9.9 million equates to around 500 grants, with around 2,500 more expected to be processed over the coming days

Receiving a government grant is a free and automatic service. There is no lengthy application process and no need for businesses to employ any agency or broker.

However, to speed up the payment process, the council is asking businesses who haven’t already done so to fill in an online web form, which can be found at www.norwich.gov.uk/business-support

Alan Waters, leader of Norwich City Council said:

“Our Revenues and Benefits team are working incredibly hard to make sure businesses and residents get the financial support they need during this very difficult period.

“We are delighted that the first vital payments have now been paid to help small businesses and retail businesses in the city. “If you have not had your payment yet please bear with us as we are working very hard to process the grants as soon as we possibly can.”

As part of additional support measures, the council has also actioned a Retail Relief Scheme which means retail, leisure and tourism businesses will pay no business rates in 2020-21, regardless of their rateable value.

Those businesses affected will receive a revised rates bill to confirm that they will not need to pay any rates for 2020-21. Those businesses that pay by Direct Debit and now qualify for the relief will not have a payment taken.

Read more about the grants and support on offer

Great Yarmouth Borough Council is reminding local businesses of the support available to help them during this challenging time, with more than £9m in grants already handed out to eligible businesses and a webpage with lots of information on the new support recently announced by Government.

Last week, the council wrote to the 3,000 businesses in the borough which are eligible for the Government’s relief grants, with businesses able to contact the council directly for any support.

The council are advising that businesses be wary of third-party companies offering to complete their grant form for a fee. It is a simple process requiring information each business should have easy access to. The council is able to help over the phone if needed.

By the end of Friday, April 3, more than £9m had been processed in business grant applications, out of 942 applications received. Over the weekend, a further 122 grant forms were received. Eligible businesses should only submit one form, as duplication of forms is likely to delay processing.

Cllr Carl Smith, leader of the council, said

“The council is working closely with New Anglia LEP, other local councils and business groups to ensure our local businesses get the support they are entitled to. I’m pleased we’ve managed to process over nine hundred applications in less than a week and we’re happy to see more applications coming in daily from eligible businesses.

“The council will administer and pay out the grants as soon as possible. If you are a business with any immediate concerns, then please get in touch. Lots of information and support about the grants, eligibility criteria and further business advice is available on our website which is being kept updated daily.”

An award-winning kitchen tap designer and manufacturer has lent its engineering expertise to a 3D printing project to make face shields that will protect frontline NHS staff in the fight against coronavirus.

Cawston based, Greg Rowe Limited, responded to a plea from the University of East Anglia/Team East Anglia project and was notified yesterday that it had been selected from hundreds of applications to commence an initial 3D printing run.

Design engineer Iain Prosser (pictured), who is usually engaged in the design of the company’s QETTLE 4 in 1 boiling water taps, will deliver the first batch of shields to a secure area of the UEA’s campus tomorrow.

Greg Rowe Jr, who is the managing director of the family-owned company says:

“We got in touch with Team East Anglia as soon as we heard about the need for businesses with 3D printing facilities and knowledge of specialist, 3D printing software.

“We invested in our second 3D printer around two years ago – and ordinarily, it’s used for the rapid prototyping of parts for our QETTLE taps, which, in addition to dispensing flows of hot and cold water, also deliver 100°C boiling and filtered drinking water. However, we are both delighted and proud that our engineering expertise can be deployed to support the national effort to help the NHS.”

Firstly, this is one of the most challenging times we have all had to face. We hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well.

We are setting a challenge for our supporters, as you start to Spring clean and come across any loose change we are asking you to put this aside and donate it all to The Norfolk Hospice.

Why not raid your piggy banks, reach down the back of all of the sofas and check your coat pockets for any loose change!

You can also make this into a fun maths lesson for the Kids! Once you have collected as much loose change as you can, let them count it. Use different amounts… if you have more than one child, have them count two, three, four amounts, check them with each other and add them up! (Could be a good way of getting them to clean to!!)

No matter how little or big, every penny will make a difference to the work we carry out at the hospice.

You can donate by doing one of the following:

1. Donate online using the reference ‘Loose Change’

2: Keep the money safe until you are able to go out again to the bank or to drop it at our hospice!

3: Pay this directly into our bank, sort code. 82-63-15 A/N. 90055862 ref. ‘loose change’

Start: 

25th March, 2020 at 12:00am  

End: 

23rd April, 2020 at 12:00am  

Location: The Norfolk Hospice, Wheatfields, Hillington, King’s Lynn, PE31 6BH

Wednesday, 01 April 2020

Many of you will have read or heard of ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,’ an acclaimed personal development book written by the legendary Stephen R. Covey. It’s a masterpiece of timeless principles and insights on how to be, well, more effective! Applying these habits is perhaps even more important during this COVID-19 crisis, and I’d like to highlight two habits that I feel are particularly relevant and offer you two complimentary online training courses as part of our business advisory services.

Habit number 3: Put First Things First

I use the words “COVID-19 crisis” because a crisis is precisely what this is for many businesses and people. Let’s not pretend it’s anything else. So during this period it’s essential we prioritise the way we spend our time. Begin with the urgent and important things, like furloughing staff where necessary, cutting costs wherever sensible, and being creative with our income streams. Check out our website for short videos on this: https://www.larking-gowen.co.uk/coronavirus/covid-19-videos/ Once you’ve taken care of the urgent tasks, focus on the important and non-urgent stuff, such as planning the future post COVID-19. Anything that isn’t urgent or isn’t important should be avoided or delegated wherever possible.

Habit number 7: Sharpen the Saw. The metaphor is that time spent sharpening our personal “saw” will reduce the time and effort needed to cut down our “trees.” In other words, we need to continually upskill ourselves to make life more productive in the future.

So, why am I singling out these two habits? Well, once we’ve put first things first and resolved urgent and important issues arising from COVID-19, we should be doing the important and non-urgent things like sharpening our saws. We’re all likely to have a little bit of downtime at home over the coming weeks, so why not use this time productively?

To help you with this, I’m excited to advise that together with our business advisory partners, Mindshop, MHA Larking Gowen is offering our clients and contacts two complimentary online training courses!

Complimentary online training

These interactive online training courses are all video based with business advisory exercises for you to complete as you work your way through them. What’s more, you get to choose which courses are most relevant to you and your business, and there’s absolutely no cost or obligation.

So, what are the online training courses? There really is something for everyone, so here’s a summary:

Business Intuition: Intuition is 50% of the strategy development and problem-solving process used by entrepreneurs; the other 50% are logic tools such as a decision matrix or a force field analysis. It’s essential that business leaders learn how to develop and access their intuition.

Change Success: This course focuses on how you can boost your probability of change success with regard to a specific change initiative.

Coaching/Developing People: Learn how to coach people to make sure they achieve their full potential. Discover how to adapt your coaching approach to different people and instill the key tools and methodologies to help them to achieve their goals.

Developing Strategy in Volatile Times: Very apt in today’s COVID-19 crisis. This course focuses on tools and thinking to help develop strategies and actions to make sure your business remains strategically in the game.

Entrepreneur Course: Entrepreneurship includes designing, launching and running a new business. This course will help you learn and apply the key elements of being an entrepreneur.

Growth Strategy: Understand the fundamentals of how to accelerate growth in your business.

Leadership Development: Discover how to be an effective leader regardless of your role or seniority in a business. This course focuses on implementation of leadership principles and how to be a good leader in a volatile and unpredictable marketplace.

Lean Management: Find out about a myriad of tools to promote lean thinking and continuous improvement across any organisation to improve efficiency and quality.

Personal Growth: Learn how to accelerate your personal growth to improve life balance and energy levels and to clarify your purpose.

Problem Solving: Discover how to make more robust decisions, how to rank the priority of key issues and a powerful sequence of tools to take a strategy into action.

Profit Improvement: Understand how to improve the profitability of any business by removing up to 30% of the inefficiencies (waste) that occur every day.

Project Team Implementation: Find out how to set up and implement project teams successfully in an organisation to drive change.

Sales Performance: Discover how to accelerate sales performance in any organisation.

Sales Process: Learn the fundamental processes to monitor and drive sales in any organisation.

Self Confidence: Discover the tools and processes to overcome negative self-talk, self-sabotage and fears while mapping out a clear plan to boost your levels of self-confidence.

Strategic Planning: Shape the direction of your business by establishing where it is now, where you want to get to, and how you’re going to get there.

Time Management: No matter who we are, our social position, our personal wealth or our qualifications, we are all issued with only 24 hours every day, or 168 hours per week. No one gets any more. Learn how to prioritise effectively.

How to enrol

We do hope you’ll make use of this fantastic opportunity to learn new skills without cost or obligation to you during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To enrol, simply email businessadvice@larking-gowen.co.uk and let us know your full name, business name, email address and which two complimentary online training courses you would like to study.

All requests must be received by noon on 30 April 2020, and all complimentary online training courses will be made available for use until 5pm on 30 October 2020.

James Lay

As a theatre and a small charitable business, Coronavirus affects us in many ways, but the government’s call for the public to avoid non-essential social contact and requirement for theatres to respond has resulted in the closure of the Puppet Theatre to the public as of March 17th until further notice. BUT THE SHOW MUST GO ON! Despite the fact we have some staff working from home, and some on furlough, our team is being creative and trying to bring our work to families at home in these unprecedented times. The whole company is determined to emerge once more as one of England’s 3 Professional Puppet Theatres at the other end of this crisis. We are working with our self-employed creative partners (many of whose avenues for income have abruptly dried up) to bring our lovely theatre and creative learning activities to you via digital channels. Norwich Puppet Theatre’s YouTube Channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC90yGyJLmL04mep1vCnKm7w There are several resources at https://puppettheatre.co.uk/about-us/online-puppet-theatre including templates to print and cut out at home, and videos from our lovely partners! We are exploring this at a new level for us, so we’d welcome your feedback!  Email us at info@puppettheatre.co.uk or Twitter @norwich_puppet or you can find us on Facebook. We hope you and your families will enjoy our short films and want to stay in touch with us and follow the growing range of materials on the channel. Of course, this crisis has stopped us in our tracks with none of the regular live activities in our lovely theatre, on tour, with schools and at festivals and outdoor events.  This immediately translates to a massive hit to our bottom line. We haven’t tried to introduce a subscription or pay per view model for what we are doing. There are lots of ways in which you can respond to our request to make a donation and many of our friends and customers are so doing already. We are so grateful to them! If you or your company would like to donate, here is a link  https://www.totalgiving.co.uk/donate/norwich-puppet-theatre-trust-limited THANK YOU!

Following an employee satisfaction survey carried out by independent research agency WorkBuzz, TaxAssist has once again been named as a ‘5 Star Employer’.

Above benchmark results compared to businesses of a similar size and industry, has led to TaxAssist Accountants being awarded the ‘5 Star Employer’ accolade for the second year running.

One of the biggest challenges faced by many organisations is recruiting and keeping the best talent available in their respective sectors. And within the UK’s ever-changing job market, employees’ expectations are constantly evolving – they want to feel secure in their roles particularly at times such as the present, have faster career progression expectations and demand instant change in their workplace based on their feedback.

What has made gaining WorkBuzz 5 Star Employer status unique, is that it is based on confidential feedback from employees, who are invited to complete Engagement Surveys on a regular basis.

Karl Sandall, Group Chief Executive Director, said: “We are incredibly proud that TaxAssist Accountants has once again received this award and to have received such positive feedback from the 60 members of staff at the Support Centre.

“With the world experiencing unprecedented levels of uncertainty and change right now, I hope this accolade gives our franchise network a much needed boost, knowing that they are fully supported by a happy and engaged workforce who are committed and dedicated to helping and guiding them through the months and years ahead.”

Steven Frost, CEO of WorkBuzz, said: “For several years, we’ve been helping leading organisations gather feedback from their employees, to improve employee engagement and reduce staff turnover. Through the WorkBuzz 5 Star Employer awards, we will now be able to recognise employers who are truly leading employee engagement to improve the working lives of their people.”

For more information on the award click here.

After a rapid adjustment following the government’s advice we have been able to set up all staff to work from home and arranged full access to all facilities to continue operating every aspect of our business throughout this continuing health crisis. We have also recently invested in various areas to strengthen our service departments (in particular our trade marks division) before these developments occurred as outlined below. First, in July of last year we acquired the well-known established trade marks practice of Oakleigh IP Services Limited together with its international client base and wider legal contacts – they are now fully integrated into ip21’s operations worldwide. Next, we have expanded our UK operational base to incorporate new client contact facilities in Cambridge and Ipswich with the first of these, in particular, bringing in a rapid take-up of new business from the scientific and academic community. Finally, we have in the last month been trialling a system in which we offer to supply, free of charge:

• An up-to-date schedule of a client’s IP holdings and pending contentious matters including a ‘next due date’ list
• A review of a client’s portfolio and a report identifying any gaps in protection, e.g. geographically and/or in terms of specification, logos, colours etc; or
• A brief IP holdings report identifying the pending and registered trade mark and/or patent rights of up to three of a client’s principal competitors.

I hope this has given you a snapshot of how we view the current situation and what we are doing to service our clients’ needs and ensure we all emerge stronger from it.

May I please end with the sincere wish that you and those closest to you will come safely through this challenging period, and if you would like to discuss any of the services mentioned above, or any other IP topics, please do get in touch.

Richard Jones, Operations Manager for ip21 Ltd – info@ip21.com – 01603 457008

Group Commercial Director Daren Moore has written to Rishi Sunak requesting he reconsider key elements of the government’s support and intervention packages. 

Following the flurry of recent announcements from the Government on new initiatives to support small businesses and the self-employed, the TaxAssist Accountants Support Centre team has been working flat out to offer help and guidance to its network of accountants and their 76,000 clients.

While many clients will welcome the measures announced so far, large sections of the business community have been overlooked, without the help and funding they need.

In order to address this, Daren Moore has written a letter to the Chancellor to request that he reconsider a number of key issues missing from the recent announcements.

“Whilst we support many of the measures announced to date, we are concerned that large sections of the business community are suffering and that these measures will not provide the help and funding they need,” explained Daren. “We are already seeing our clients under stress and we risk seeing many thousands of small businesses fail without prompt action.”

Daren outlined four key issues that TaxAssist’s clients and its franchisees would like to see urgently addressed including:

• Sole/small company directors and their ineligibility to be furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
• The proposal to look at three years for averaging purposes, leaving those who commenced trading since 5th April 2019 financially stranded
• The unfairness of the £50,000 trading profit threshold
• The need for emergency funding to speed up the flow of money

Daren added: “As a proud and ethical franchisor we will take every available opportunity to use our voice to highlight the needs and concerns of our core clients – small businesses – the ‘lifeblood’ of the UK economy. In these difficult times, we need to support and protect them in any way we can, now, to ensure that the sector remains intact and fully functioning when the recovery does come.”

A copy of the letter that was sent to Rishi Sunak can be viewed here.

At a time when we’re all being affected by Covid-19, many Norfolk businesses are having to adapt. Some are finding new and innovative ways to deliver their regular service, some are diversifying to reach new audiences. Some are finding new ways that their loyal customers can continue to support them whilst their doors are closed.

A new website has been launched to offer a platform for all of these local businesses to share their updates in one place, for free.

Support Norfolk is a place for businesses and local residents alike to come together and find out how they can support each other. Visitors can search for updates by business category and then find out who’s offering the service they need, or indeed, how they can support businesses in other ways.

The not-for-profit website has been created by Example Marketing. They were looking for a way to offer help during the current crisis. Example owner, Emma Raines, explains:

“Being in business is often about adapting to adversity. All around us, businesses are doing that admirably, displaying ingenuity, courage and kindness. We want to make sure people hear about what’s going on. Our hope is that the site will help us all find ways to support each other, bringing all these fantastic business updates together.”

Are you a business owner? Have you evolved to fit the current climate? Perhaps you’ve introduced a delivery service, moved online, diversified? Or are there other ways that people can continue to support you – perhaps by buying a voucher or membership? Visit https://www.supportnorfolk.com/ and add your business for free today.

As the Government considers legal practitioners as key workers during the coronavirus crisis, Clapham & Collinge Solicitors are able to continue to support you with your legal affairs and, in particular, the making of Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorneys and any queries relating to a loved one’s death.

They can assist by providing telephone appointments reducing the need for face to face meetings in order to comply with the guidelines on safe social distancing. They are also able to guide you through the process of signing your Will, Lasting Powers of Attorney or other legal documentation.

For more information on their Will and Lasting Power of Attorney services, please visit their dedicated ‘Making a Will‘ and ‘Lasting Powers of Attorney‘ webpages.

For more information or to arrange a telephone appointment, contact Clapham & Collinge on 01603 693500, email enquiries@clapham-collinge.co.uk or visit: www.clapham-collinge.co.uk