We’re pleased to announce that we are exhibitingat not one, but TWO events this year!
We will be attending both MACH 2016 andEuropean Offshore Energy 2016. Both will be heldin the same week in April at the NEC inBirmingham.
We will be displaying our weld data loggingequipment, gas flow, subsea MPI…and some brandnew equipment, to find out what, you’ll have tocome and see us!
Dismissing an employee for ‘some other substantial reason’ is often relied on by employers where the reason for the dismissal cannot be shoehorned into any of the other statutory fair reasons for dismissal.
What is SOSR?
It is not a call for help. ‘Some other substantial reason of a kind such as to justify the dismissal of an employee holding the position which the employee held’ – more fondly known in the employment law fraternity as ‘SOSR’ – is a residual potentially fair reason for dismissal.
To minimise the risk of claims of ordinary unfair dismissal claim, employers must be able to show that the reason (or principal reason) for the dismissal was a potentially fair reason. There are five statutory potentially fair reasons: conduct; capability; redundancy; breach of statutory restriction; and SOSR.
Although, there is no statutory definition of SOSR, the clues are in the statutory reason itself. The reason must be substantial and it must be some other reason. The reason must also be of the kind to justify the dismissal, as opposed to any lesser sanction such as, redeploying a member of staff where there are irreconcilable differences between colleagues.
When can SOSR be relied on?
Almost any reason which does not fall within one of the other potentially fair reasons for dismissal might amount to an SOSR. Over the years, SOSR has been found by the tribunals to be a fair reason for dismissal in a range of diverse situations including, dismissals arising out of business reorganisations (short of redundancy) or through employees’ refusal to accept changes to employment contracts; expiry of limited-term contracts; dismissals at the behest of third parties and in situations where an employer sought to protect its business interests. Personality clashes between colleagues have also been found to amount to an SOSR where the conflict is causing substantial disruption to the business.
What about a breakdown in trust and confidence?
The most commonly relied on SOSR is that of loss of trust and confidence, but employers should be wary of relying on this reason. Breach of trust and confidence goes to the root of the contract. The tribunals have no difficulty with employees citing breach of this implied term as grounds for constructive dismissal complaints. In contrast, employers relying on a breakdown of trust and confidence as SOSR have often been criticised by the appellate tribunal which has held that it is not sufficient merely to say that trust and confidence has broken down. Something more is required.
Can employers rely on SOSR as a reason for dismissal?
Yes. SOSR provides a potentially fair reason for dismissal in more unusual cases, but it should not:
be relied on where the reason for the dismissal of the employee falls squarely within one of the other potentially fair reasons; be seen as a way for employers to circumvent a fair procedure for dismissal; or used as a ‘convenient label’ to stick on any situation where the employer cannot easily rely on one of the other fair reasons for dismissal.
To avoid a finding of unfair dismissal, employers must be able to establish SOSR as the sole or principal reason for dismissal and that the decision to dismiss for SOSR was reasonable in the circumstances.
VisitEngland, the national tourist board, has announced the shortlist for Tourism Superstar 2016. The tribute to tourism star players was launched in 2012 as part of English Tourism Week (this year running from 5th – 13th March) and is supported by the Daily Mirror.
Norfolk’s Rachel Duffield, Learning & Engagement Officer at Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse near Dereham, is one of only 11 names on the national shortlist, and the only representative from the East of England.
The campaign recognises the dedication and passion of those working in the tourism industry, and is awarded to an individual who goes above and beyond the call of duty to ensure visitors to England have an unforgettable experience. Rachel has certainly been doing this in her guise as ‘Moaning Martha’, fictional inmate of Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse whose gossipy monologues about life in the workhouse – delivered in an authentic Norfolk rural accent – have been engaging and entertaining visitors of all ages and abilities for the past seven years.
Voting opened on Saturday and runs until midnight on 28 February, with the winner announced on 5 March. The winner is entirely decided on public votes, Click on this link if you would like to vote (and to watch Rachel in action in the nominees’ film):
Rachel’s commitment to living history certainly caught the eye of the Tourism Superstar judges who drew up the shortlist. Always up for a challenge and prepared to go the extra mile, in 2014 Rachel publically endured living on an authentic workhouse diet for three weeks, sharing the highs and lows via social media and her blog: https://theworkhousediet.blogspot.co.uk/ Her willingness to take on milk broth, boiled meat, pease pottage and workhouse gruel fired lots of imaginations, helping the museum reach new audiences from further afield and introducing them to what life was like within the workhouse walls.
More recently in summer 2015 ‘Martha’ has been leading lots of activities for the Voices from the Workhouse project, a three-year, £1.8m Heritage Lottery Fund project which will transform the museum displays, telling the real stories of the people who lived and worked in the workhouse. She has led tours in character to raise awareness of the Voices from the Workhouse project, and has trialled new workhouse-related activities for families including Workhouse Top Trumps!
Local accountancy firm Aston Shaw are teaming up with national enterprise agency, Nwes to deliver free business advice sessions. The sessions will provide advice to all businesses, particularly start-up companies seeking to get their business off the ground.
Leading the sessions will be Lisa Vincent from Nwes, who will be based in Aston Shaw’s newly acquired Head Office in The Union Building every other Tuesday to provide independent advisory to all range of businesses. The sessions will be completely free of charge and will be available to anyone seeking independent, no-strings attached advice.
Mark Noakes, Director, stated, “We want to drive forward local businesses in our area and give back to our community, so we decided to team up with Nwes to offer our advice and expertise to the local people who need it, but may not be able to afford it.”
Nwes has been providing business advice for over 30 years, and the experienced and friendly Business Advice Team has worked closely with over 10,000 people looking to set up in business. This knowledge and experience used in conjunction with the financial expertise of Aston Shaw will create a springboard for any aspiring entrepreneur.
Appointments are available every other Tuesday, starting Tuesday 26 January. Generally, Lisa will be available from 9am – 4pm to for appointments. To book your appointment and receive free business advice, please email:marketing@astonshaw.co.uk.
Pure (Pure Resourcing Solutions) has been awarded the IiP Gold standard, and has been praised for being a ‘great employer and an outperforming place to work’.
Investors in People (IiP) is an internationally-recognised framework which helps organisations to improve their performance and realise their objectives through the effective management and development of their people.
This prestigious award is described by IiP as an achievement of ‘world class best practice’ and is only given to organisations which can demonstrate excellence in developing and supporting staff to achieve high performance. The IiP award is held by 15,000 organisations across 75 countries in the world and the Gold award is only held by 3% of these companies.
The IiP assessors praised Pure for its vision and culture, social responsibility and creation of a committed workforce which is proud to represent the company.
Gill Buchanan, Director at Pure Resourcing Solutions, said: “We already hold the Silver IiP accreditation and we’re now extremely proud to have been awarded the Gold standard following the latest assessment. It’s a highly desirable accreditation for businesses to hold and an excellent, external acknowledgement of how we are successfully implementing our company values, which are all based around making Pure a rewarding and positive place to work.”
Organisations are only awarded with the IiP Gold standard following assessments in all aspects of people development, communications and engagement. The process includes confidential, extensive interviews with a third of the company over 165 different evidence requirements.
Lynn Walters, Director at Pure Resourcing Solutions, added: “We’re proud to continually support and celebrate other local employers who demonstrate outstanding levels of employee engagement through our Best Employers Eastern Region initiative. So it’s very rewarding to also receive our own accreditation, judged by independent assessors, in recognition of our own company’s commitment and passion to ensuring all our team is fully engaged.”
Freebridge Community Housing has made the ‘Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For’ list for the third year in a row.
The West Norfolk based housing and community organisation, which featured on the list in 2014, and 2015 has once again appeared in 2016. Freebridge has also retained its One Star accreditation meaning the organisation is ‘very good’ at employee engagement’
Through the Best Companies process, Freebridge employees were able to share their thoughts on the organisation through a confidential survey. In addition, Freebridge also completed an extensive questionnaire which provided an overview of its working practices and culture.
The process assesses companies on themes such as Leadership, My Team, Wellbeing, Personal Growth, Giving Something Back and My Manager.
Freebridge will find out exactly where it is placed on the ‘Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For’ list in February 2016.
Tony Hall, Chief Executive said: “It’s a fantastic achievement that we continue to be an organisation featuring on the Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For list.
“This is our third year in a row and it’s very much down to our employees, who make Freebridge such a great place to work. Our employees are constantly demonstrating that they live the values we hold dear as an organisation. In turn this means that our customers receive the best service that they can and people enjoy working here.”
“We are very proud that we can represent west Norfolk in this way, and the accolade goes a long way to our vision of Supporting A Better West Norfolk.”
Freebridge will now use the feedback from the Best Companies process to improve employee satisfaction and continue to make Freebridge a place where people want to work.
We are extremely proud of Luke Brown, Matthew Campion & Shahrukh Zaffar for representing KLM UK Engineering at an Apprenticeship celebration reception yesterday, which was held at No.10 Downing Street. During the reception the guys had the chance to chat with The Rt Hon Sajid Javid – Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Norfolk Community Foundation were delighted to be selected as the Norwich Business Women’s Network (NBWN) ‘Charity of the Year’ in 2015. The long running networking group established the ‘NBWN Community Fund’ which raised a staggering £7,800 which was awarded in the form of grants to four different community projects and as a contribution to Norfolk Community Foundation to support their administration and development costs. The Foundation and the charities supported received the cheque at the network’s Christmas lunch.
City Response
The City Response Centre operates in the Norwich nightime economy and offers first aid, support and referral services to anyone finding themselves vulnerable or at risk for whatever reason. Volunteers, trained in first aid support those who are most at risk from hypothermia in the night time economy. These include rough sleepers, homeless people, those in need of medical assistance, and any vulnerable adult deemed at risk such as lone females whether through alcohol/substance misuse, assault or domestic abuse. Their involvement can help to avoid a serious situation developing involving ambulance attendance. Services provided include the provision of hot drinks for the homeless/rough sleepers plus emergency clothing in severe weather. Also in co operation with the Norfolk Police Rape investigation team the centre provides a “Safe haven” where lone females at risk can be referred and a safe solution to their problems can be found. In the past 9 months over 1,800 hot drinks were provided to vulnerable people.
The grant will contribute towards the modest cost of operating this service including electricity and water costs which enable City Response to help those in need of assistance.
Norfolk Homemakers Furniture Project
Norfolk Homemakers collects donated furniture and furnishings and sells them on to people who are vulnerable or on a low income at low cost. They also recycle items thus reducing the demand for landfill. The charity also has a small workshop which provides training and support for those recovering from mental ill health, enabling them to gain confidence, new skills, make friends, provide meaningful activity, and for some enable them to go back in to employment. The charity has around 15 volunteers currently.
The grant will contribute towards the running costs of the organisation including equipment, transport to deliver to vulnerable and low income families and general costs. The project, through its workshops helps to improve life skills, education, employability and enterprise and a number of people have already started on the path to employability as a result of the project.
Time Norfolk
TimeNorfolk (previously Pregnancy Choices Norfolk) provides free, confidential support to women and their partners who have experienced a pregnancy loss through miscarriage, termination or still birth. Support is also provided for parents who decide to continue with their pregnancy. Pregnancy Loss Support counselling is offered free to clients to help deal with the pain and loss associated with miscarriage, termination or stillbirth which can lead to depression, anxiety, anger and emotional numbness and relationship difficulties.
The grant will be used to deliver 48 pregnancy loss recovery sessions in Norwich supporting four families through one to one support to help them cope better with their loss.
New Routes Integration
New Routes seeks to develop the capacity and skills of disadvantaged minority ethnic individuals and communities to support the fulfilment of potential and enable active involvement in society and to contribute towards social and racial cohesion; thereby integrating into the wider community. They provide activities such as a Women’s International Friendship Group, English classes with child-play volunteers, dance classes, craft and conversation, mentoring and befriending, homework support club for BME 11+ and music clubs for ‘hard to reach’ young people. These activities primarily support recently settled, ethnic minority individuals, families and communities in Norwich. Many have limited or no English language skills, compounded by a lack of understanding of the systems and procedures adopted in the UK. New Routes has identified that there are very skilled women that have arrived in Norwich, who in their own countries had responsible roles, but once given refugee status here, are not able to find jobs or have to take low paid roles, such as cleaning.
The grant will be used to cover the cost of a project co-ordinator and mentors to deliver a project that engages with local employers who wish to make a meaningful contribution to the integration of 6 recently settled, refugee women in Norwich. Aviva is supporting the project by hosting an employment event in 2016 and will invite other businesses. This will help to promote the project start to build the relationships needed for success.
To find out more about how businesses can get involved with the Foundation whether as part of their corporate responsibility programme or thorough selecting a ‘Charity of The Year’, visit the Corporate Giving section of the Foundation’s website.
Immaculate self-contained office suites available on first and second floor of substantial Victorian building set in quiet location and two minutes drive from the Norwich ring-road. The Grange stands in pleasant grounds with a view of parkland, has secure car parking and a private gated drive.
Office space is bright, modern and fully flexible. Office space is computer networked throughout and is available with or without modern office furniture and storage.
Businesses across Norfolk are being urged to sign up to the world’s only annual day of employee volunteering – Give & Gain Day.
Run by the charity Business in the Community the day encourages businesses to give staff paid time to volunteer to help local good causes. Over 30,000 people are expected to take part in activity, which takes place on Friday 20th May. Give & Gain Day gives local community organisations, social enterprises and schools across Norfolk the benefit of volunteered resources, skills and knowledge from business.
On Give & Gain Day 2015, businesses donated time worth £2.37 million, which highlights the growing appetite amongst business to help their local communities prosper.
The benefits to business of employee volunteering are demonstrated by a recent survey from NCVO and CIPD, which found that 81% of those who took part in volunteering reported increased community awareness, 65% had increased communication skills, and 59% reported an increase in confidence. 65% of respondents would be more likely to work for an employer that encourages and promotes volunteering, yet 39% said their employer did not support volunteering.
Stephen Howard, Chief Executive of Business in the Community, said: “Volunteering is a powerful tool which builds dialogue and relationship between groups of people and organisations who might otherwise not have the opportunity to engage in a community. It also offers genuine mutual benefit – the experience builds skills and motivates employees, while helping to make a positive contribution that meets community needs.
“Give & Gain Day is all about celebrating what can be achieved in communities through the power of volunteers – but it’s more than just a day and we urge businesses that take part to use it as a springboard into deeper long term engagement in communities across Norfolk all year round”
Tina Varns, Manager, Sustainability and Ethical Sourcing at Waitrose, sponsor of Give & Gain Day, said: “Volunteering is such an important part of what we do – each of our shops supports its staff to volunteer for local good causes. Waitrose donates thousands of paid hours a year for Partners to give their time and skills to support local good causes. This will really come alive on Give & Gain Day. “
Ms Varns added: “Over 60 of our branches were involved in Give & Gain Day last year. Our branches all reported it was such a rewarding event, they hosted community conversations, networking events that brought local businesses together with community organisations to discuss local challenges. We’re really looking forward to the 20th May. Volunteering is a key way in which businesses such as ours can help make a real and visible difference to the communities in which we operate.”
Companies can get involved with Give & Gain Day on the 20th May 2016 by visiting www.bitc.org.uk/giveandgainday #Giveandgain
TaxAssist Accountants has reached another major milestone for the brand as the national accountancy network reached a record breaking 7,600 qualified leads delivered to its network in 2015.
Senior Business Development Manager, James Mattam explains “We work hard to deliver good quality inbound leads to each office within the TaxAssist Accountants network each year and it has certainly been a record breaking year.”
“We delivered 6,600 qualified leads in 2014 and had been internally targeted to deliver nearly 7,000 at the start of the year and we were delighted to achieve and surpass the target in November. The franchise network are always happy to take more new enquiries and in 2016 we very much plan to oblige this request with further increases in lead numbers.”
Of the qualified leads provided to their franchisees, 1 in 2 leads convert in to fee paying clients. This could not be achieved as a network without a strong brand presence and professional training provision. New franchisees are provided with a week-long sales and marketing training course when they join the network and then regional training courses are offered to help franchisees and staff members of each accountancy practice be able to improve their conversion rate further.
James continues “Our National Marketing programme delivered over £2.2m in new client fees, to our network of franchisees. Further clients come from walk-in business from our fully branded shopfront units, local networking and referrals. It’s quite a testament to the hard work and effort our franchisees and their teams put in, that so many clients are happy to recommend using our service.”
At the end of December 2015 the total client number amounted to over 58,000 clients, an increase of 11% compared to last year. The total fee bank is also up 11% on last year’s results at £38.7m proving the model and brand remain strong for this established franchisor.
2016 is expected to be another year of growth with many small businesses needing to put in place a workplace pension scheme for their employees. TaxAssist Accountants has trained its network of franchisees and staff to be ready to help ensure their clients have pension schemes in place ahead of the staging dates.
“We’ve already helped hundreds of clients comply with this new regulation, the next two years will see tens of thousands of businesses stage their pension schemes every month. We are beginning to see enquiries come through from business owners who need our help as their accountant is not auto enrolment ready, so this huge competitive advantage will increase our opportunities to win new business in 2016. Being ahead of the curve is why many of our franchisees join and remain a part of that TaxAssist network”.
The franchisor has also seen an increase in the number of new franchisees it has taken on in 2015 and has taken on 3 new franchisees for their February 2016 course while progressing a number of other potential franchisees through their business plans. With over 200 franchised territories and 270 offices where clients can meet an accountant, the franchise is growing from strength to strength.
TaxAssist Accountants has franchise opportunities available all over the UK, and has recently opened up new territories in Central London. Anyone interested in finding out more should contact Jody Fiveash on 0800 0188297 for a confidential chat, before booking onto a discovery day.
On Friday 15th of January I attended the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce‘s careers focus group at the invitation of Caroline Williams. The focus group was looking at the careers service in schools and what could be done to get schools and businesses working together more effectively. Joining us to hear and collate our views were two members of the British Chamber of Commerce. The remainder of the focus group was made up from members of the Norfolk Chamber, leaders of local businesses, schools and colleges. There were 17 of us in total.
Before I arrived I wasn’t really sure who was going to be there or what to expect. However, it turned out be a great opportunity to catch up with a couple of people I hadn’t seen for a long time and to make some great new connections. The real eye-opener was what I learned about the school careers system in Norfolk, what many of the forward thinking schools are achieving and how businesses like mine can help to make a difference.
I also had the opportunity to talk to some of the further education establishments in Norwich and to try and help influence which new skills they offer to their students. There is a major shortage of software engineers in Norwich and Norfolk and one of the ways we need to address this is to produce more homegrown talent with the right skills for local software companies.
The event was chaired and well structured; the allocated two hours just flew by. The conversations were engaging and informative as well as there being a lot of laughter from a group of people clearly committed to making a positive difference to the young people in the education system in Norfolk.