West Midlands

NNDR Legislative Update/Reval 2005

Benefits - Best Practice

International Conference

The IRRV West Midlands Association’s annual dinner dance is being held at the Hilton Hotel, Bromsgrove on Saturday 30 January 2016.

Last year's event at the Ricoh Arena was a huge success, and we are looking forward to another great evening at the Hilton.  If you decide to come, you can look forward to great food, great company and dancing till the early hours.

Full details can be found in the event flyer, including how to book overnight accommodation at a special reduced rate. Rooms are limited and will be allocated by the hotel on a first come first served basis. 

If you intend to come, please e-mail us at irrvwma@googlemail.com as soon as you can, and return the booking form together with your payment to our treasurer, Margaret Elcocks,

We are sure you'll agree that at £28.00 per person, this event represents exceptionally good value!

The Association President and other members of the Executive Committee look forward to welcoming you to this great event.

Patrick left a career as an Accountant to join Central Government in 2000. He now heads up the Council Tax Policy Team at the DCLG. He has worked closely with a number of Authorities to ascertain what problems are encountered in collecting Local Taxation and is working quietly behing to scenes to try to change/amend legislation. He has also been leading on a working group on Data Protection with the aim of  issuing better guidance to Local Authorities around what can and cannot be shared. He has the ear of government and will be happy to discuss all aspects of the Lyons Review, with reference to Local Taxation and related topics.

Joint Meeting - East Mids

For the fifth year running, the IRRV West Midlands Association’s annual dinner dance will be held at the Bromsgrove Hotel and Spa, formerly the Hilton Hotel at Bromsgrove, close to the M5 and M42.

The dress code is formal/black tie.

Tickets for the evening are again £30.00 per person, which includes

• a 3-course meal with wine, followed by tea/coffee
• after-dinner speeches of the highest quality (we hope!)
• an opportunity to win a raffle prize
• a disco
• a casino!

To secure your place(s), please complete and return the booking form as soon as possible. If you have any special dietary requirements or allergies, these can be catered for – just let us know on the form.

Accommodation

For those wishing to stay overnight, rooms are available at the discounted rate of £75 for a double room or £60 for a single room, to include breakfast, overnight parking, and use of the leisure facilities. Free cancellation is allowed up to the day of the event, and payment will only be taken when you arrive.

This special rate is only available by phoning 0161 923 0300 and quoting IRRV290220 - rates quoted on the web may look cheaper but will not include any of the additional items stated above, and may be non-cancellable and payable in full at the time of booking.

If you require further information, please email us at irrvwma@googlemail.com and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

We look forward to welcoming friends old and new to what will be a great night!

Best wishes,

Neil Jinks

President
IRRV West Midlands Association

This year's West Midlands Association dinner dance will be held on Saturday 9th October 2010. Details can be found on the attached document.

Get your tickets now as this promises to be a great night!

Our next event will take place on the afternoon of Thursday 14 November 2019 at 10 Woodcock Street, Birmingham B7 4BL.

The issue of vulnerability has very much come to the fore in the world of revenues and benefits in recent times, and we are pleased to have secured the services of two experts in the field to address our members, friends and colleagues on the subject.

Bob Trahern was recently appointed Business Development Director for Marston Holdings, and has worked in the world of revenues in both the public and private sectors for over 35 years. Before taking up his current role, he led a multi-award winning team at North Warwickshire Borough Council where he had responsibility for a range of functions including revenues, benefits, fraud, financial inclusion, health and wellbeing and all aspects of customer access and engagement, including outreach services and its nationally acclaimed food hub. A past National President of the IRRV (2007-08) and President of our Association (1998-99), Bob has served on National Council since 2000 in a variety of roles. He is a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences, and has served as an adviser to central government on a range of issues.

The title of Bob's talk is Engaging with the Hard-To Reach – A Focus on Your Customer.

David Grimes is Head of Training and Development at High Court Enforcement Group, and has more than 25 years’ experience in civil enforcement. He has designed and delivered training programmes to national awarding body-accredited and regulatory standards to call centre staff, enforcement agents, local authority personnel, solicitors and paralegals on topics including taking control of goods, vulnerability, warrants of arrest and control, and commercial rent arrears recovery.

The title of David's talk is Vulnerability, Mental Health and Enforcement.

Tea and coffee will be available from 1.30 p.m.The event proper will begin at 2 p.m., and end between 4 and 4.15 p.m.

The event programme is available here.

This is a free event and open to members and non-members.

I would also draw your attention to an all-day vulnerability event organised by the IRRV Yorkshire & District Association that takes place in Harrogate on Wednesday 27 November - for further details, click here.

Don’t forget that our annual dinner dance takes place on Saturday 29 February 2020 at the Bromsgrove Hotel & Spa. Further details will be circulated shortly.
 

The West Midlands meeting will commence in the afternnoon following the IRRV Forum hosted by David Airey.

David will give his Revenues & Benefits technical update in the morning. Lunch will follow, then a member of John Viggers team at the DWP will be giving a Benefits related presentation.

This will be followed by a presentation by Alison McGrory, Income and Awards Business Manager, Solihull MBC on Maximising Council and Customer Income. This will showcase the work they have done in the Benefits arena around Value for Money. 

An Executive Committee Meeting will follow the afternoon sessions.

IRRV National President Louise Freeth has found time in her very busy schedule to speak to our members (and non-member colleagues) on the afternoon of Monday 15 April 2019 at the offices of DWF LLP at One Snowhill, Birmingham.

Louise is currently Head of Revenues and Benefits at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. She has gained experience in a range of roles within local authorities and the private sector, most recently as Change and Service Development Manager at Liberata where she  worked with a range of clients on the Welfare Reforms and Fraud and Error Initiatives. 

She is a Fellow member of the IRRV, a regular public speaker at conferences, past President of the London & Home Counties Association, writes a regular technical benefit column for the IRRV benefit magazine, and remains active in education and training at a variety of levels on subjects for the IRRV professional qualifications. She is also a member of the IRRV’s Benefits Faculty Board and Education & Membership Committee, and has assisted with the Inspection process for Performance Awards in various categories.

The title of her talk gives her a wide remit to cover all manner of issues relating to revenues, benefits and welfare reform.

There will be time for questions at the end, but if there’s anything specific you would like Louise to cover in her talk, by all means let me know and I’ll pass on your request.

The talk will begin around 2.30 p.m. followed by Q&A.

The venue for the meeting is yet to be confirmed, but will be in central Birmingham.

If you intend coming, please e-mail us at irrvwma@googlemail.com as soon possible by so we have an idea of numbers.

This event is free to all, and open to members and non-members, so please feel free to forward details to non-member colleagues. This is an ideal opportunity to hear from an expert in her field, and for those interested in joining and/or supporting the Institute to find out what we’re all about and how we can help you achieve your goals.

Hope to see as many of you as possible on the day!

Teams from all Associations will battle it out to win the 2009 Inter Association cup. If you are a member if the West Midlands Association and a keen golfer we want to hear from you! Please contact Barry Powell on 07899 021672 to register your interest.

The West Midlands Executive committee will be holding a meeting on 21st July to discuss plans for the re-development of the Association. 

At the executive meeting, Sue Williams-Lee, President of the West Midlands Association, will feedback on the discussions held at recent Association Representative Meetings on a number of Local and National issues. These include; plans for the development of the Association web pages, changes to the IRRV corporate qualification and revisions to the Level Three Certificate (formerly the Technician qulaification) syllabus which will take effect from October 08. 

The West Midlands Association organise and run the very popular Level Three Certificate qualification from Dudley College. This will again be running from October 2008. The details will be agreed on 21st July and details will be shown on the website in early August.

A schedule of dates for future Executive Committee meetings will be agreed in addition to agreeing our approach to the 2008/09 programme of events which we intend to run thoughout 2008/09 for our local members and colleagues. It is hoped that the programme will commence in September/October 2008. We would very much welcome input from West Midlands members on which topics you would like us to cover. This is an opportunity to provide some excellent training events for all levels of staff and technical  seminars which will help to keep members up to date with their knowledge and contribute towards their Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

All feedback and ideas can be sent to Sue. Just click on the email links at the bottom of this page or telephone her on 01530 454733.

For the fourth year running, the IRRV West Midlands Association’s annual dinner dance will be held at the Bromsgrove Hotel and Spa, formerly the Hilton Hotel at Bromsgrove, close to the M5 and M42.  

The dress code is formal/black tie. 

Tickets for the evening are again £30.00 per person, which includes 

• a 3-course meal with wine, followed by tea/coffee 

• after-dinner speeches of the highest quality (we hope!) 

• an opportunity to win a raffle prize 

• a disco 

• a casino! 

To secure your place(s), please complete and return the booking form as soon as possible. If you have any special dietary requirements or allergies, these can be catered for – just let us know on the form. 

Accommodation 

For those wishing to stay overnight, rooms are available at the discounted rate of £75 for a double room or £65 for a single room, to include breakfast, overnight parking, and use of the leisure facilities. Free cancellation is allowed up to the day of the event, and payment will only be taken when you arrive. 

This special rate is only available by phoning 0161 923 0300 and quoting IRRV230219 - rates quoted on the web may look cheaper, but will not include any of the additional items stated above and may be non-cancellable and payable in full at the time of booking. 

If you require further information, please email us at irrvwma@googlemail.com and we will get back to you as soon as we can. 

We look forward to welcoming friends old and new to what will be a great night!

The Association’s next professional event will take place at the Council House, Dudley on Wednesday 26th September 2018.

Organised in conjunction with Greenhalgh Kerr solicitors and Tom Gosling, a barrister experienced in dealing with disputed business rates matters, it is aimed primarily at local authority officers involved in the preparation and presentation of cases in the magistrates’ court, but will no doubt be of interest to many others and all are welcome.

Although once a rarity, contested business rate liability order hearings are becoming ever more common and proving to be a challenge even to experienced local authority court officers. This session offers an opportunity observe a mock trial and even (if you are so minded) to take part!

Full details are available here. The event starts at 10 a.m. and runs until around 1 p.m., when lunch will be provided.

If you would like to attend, please let us know by emailing us at irrvwma@googlemail.com at your earliest convenience.

Details of where to park in Dudley are available here.

Thanks again to all our sponsors for their support of our programme this year:

We are pleased to announce that our free event for revenues and recoveries professionals, held in conjunction with DWF LLP at their offices at One Snowhill, Birmingham B4 6GA, has been rescheduled and will now take place on Thursday 12th April 2018.

The event will start at 10.00 a.m. and run until around 3.30 p.m.

It will run along similar lines to last year's event, with speakers drawn from the enforcement and legal professions and from local authority revenues. The programme can be viewed by clicking here.

If you signed up to attend this event as originally scheduled on 6th March, you should have received an updated invitation and need take no further action.

If you would like to attend and weren't on the list for the 6th, please email us at irrvwma@googlemail.com at your earliest convenience to secure your place.

Thanks to all our sponsors for their support of our programme this year:

The meeting will follow the West Midlands Forum. After David Airey has given his Revenues and Benefts update, presentations will e given by Moore Stephens, Insolvency Practitioners and Joe Sansom, Senior Policy & Resources Officer, Finance & Legal Services, Coventry City Council.

Moore Stephens will give their talk on Insolvency at 1pm and Joe's presentation will commence at 2.15pm. The presentation promises to provide an insight into the techniques and methodology adopted by Coventry and will provide an opportunity to discuss current issues in recovery.

Officer Roles: President, Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Officer, Social Secretary, Information Officer, Technician Member, Education Liason Officer, Student Member, Committee Members. Should there be interest from a number of candidates fr any of the officer roles, a vote will take place and the officers will be duly elected.

The IRRV West Midlands Association annual dinner this year will be held at the Bromsgrove Hotel & Spa, formerly the Hilton Hotel at Bromsgrove, close to the M5 and M42.

The event, which promises to be a great night, will be held on Saturday 4 February 2017. We would like to see as many faces both new and familiar at the event, which as always will give you the chance to dress up, catch up and dance the night away.

We have negotiated accommodation at the hotel with special rates of £75.00 per couple (for a double room) and £60.00 per person (for a single room). Both rates are inclusive of breakfast.  Bookings should be made direct with the hotel (telephone 0121 4477888), quoting reference IRRV 020417. There are only a limited number of rooms available at these rates, so please book early.

Tickets for the evening are at £28.00 per person, which includes a drinks reception, a 3-course meal, and entertainment.

After the meal, there is the usual opportunity to win a raffle prize, chat with colleagues and friends, and dance the night away.

For those who have not attended previously, we welcome you to come along with colleagues, partners or friends for a guaranteed enjoyable Saturday evening.

If you would like to come, please email us at irrvwma@googlemail.com as soon as possible, and complete and return the booking form to ensure that you have a place reserved and to take advantage of what should be a great night.

If you require further information about the event, please contact barry.powell@blueyonder.co.uk.

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

The West Midlands Association's free event for revenues and recoveries professionals, to be held in conjunction with DWF LLP at their offices at One Snowhill, Birmingham B4 6GA, was due to take place on Tuesday 6th March 2018 but has had to be postponed due to the weather and the resulting difficulty in ensuring our speakers could get to Birmingham.

We don't yet know the new date, but it expected that the event will start at 10.00 a.m. and run until around 3.30 p.m.

It will run along similar lines to last year's event, with speakers drawn from the enforcement and legal professions and from local authority revenues. The proposed programme can be found here.

If you would like to attend and weren't on the list for the 6th, please email us at irrvwma@googlemail.com your earliest convenience to register your interest.

Thanks to all our sponsors for their support of our programme this year:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

For the third year running, the IRRV West Midlands Association’s annual dinner dance will be held at the Bromsgrove Hotel and Spa, formerly the Hilton Hotel at Bromsgrove, close to the M5 and M42.

The dress code is formal/black tie.

The evening will begin with a drinks reception at 7 p.m., and dinner will start at 7.45 p.m.

Photographs will be taken before dinner in a separate room. As well as taking the customary group photos, our photographer will do his best to satisfy any other requests - time permitting. He will also be taking informal photos during the evening. 

After dinner, there will be a raffle in support of our President's charity Acorns Children's Hospice, followed by a disco.

If you have any special dietary requirements and haven't yet let us know, please do so as soon as possible.

Accommodation

For those wishing to stay overnight, rooms are available at the discounted rate of £75 for a double room or £65 for a single room, to include breakfast, overnight parking, and use of the leisure facilities. Free cancellation is allowed up to the day of the event, and payment will only be taken when you arrive.

This special rate is only available by phoning 0161 923 0300 and quoting IRRV030218 - rates quoted on the web may look cheaper, but will not include any of the additional items stated above and may be non-cancellable and payable in full at the time of booking.

If you require further information, please email us at irrvwma@googlemail.com and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

We look forward to welcoming friends old and new to what will be a great night!

The next Association event is a presentation by Anthony Griffiths of Sandwell MBC and Ian Biggadyke of Agilysis, who together with JBW Group won the prestigious IRRV award for excellence in debt management in 2015.

It takes place on Wednesday 4 May 2016 at Colliers' offices on the 12th Floor of Eleven Brindleyplace, 2 Brunswick Square, Birmingham B1 2LP. Tea and coffee will be available from 2.30 p.m., and the presentation will start at 3.

Anthony Griffiths has worked at Sandwell MBC for 10 years, initially as team leader for sundry debt recovery but more recently for council tax and business rates also. Before he worked for Sandwell he spent 12 years working for South Staffordshire Water PLC, where he gained valuable recovery experience pursuing unpaid water rates.

Sandwell's strategy for council tax collection is to maximise both in-year council tax collection and also income from arrears. Since November 2013 they have been working in partnership with Agilisys, using their expertise to help identify and unlock potential income. 

Ian Biggadyke has 25 years' public sector experience in both revenues and in benefits, and has held the role of Head of Revenues and Benefits at both the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and at Haringey.

He joined Agilisys in 2011, and set up the award-winning Agilisys Revenue Collection Service (ARC), which focusses primarily on hard-to-collect arrears recovery and partnerships with local authorities to increase in-year recovery performance through intelligent use of data and segmented recovery strategies based on debtor circumstances. ARC is fully FCA compliant, and achieves results by working closely with debtors that struggle to pay their debts.

In addition to being a winner of the IRRV award excellence in debt management award in 2015, the ARC Service has twice been a recipient of the IRRV excellence in partnership award.

We hope very much to see you at this event. If you would like to come, please email us at irrvwma@googlemail.com as soon as possible.

(Our full 2017/18 programme is shown at the foot of this page.)

Our next scheduled meeting is our session on Universal Credit, which will take place on the afternoon of Thursday 28 September 2017 at the offices of DWF LLP at One Snowhill, Birmingham B4 6GA (close to Snow Hill station).

Our speaker is Gary Layzell.

Gary is Universal Credit Implementation Manager for Civica, and was until recently Revenues, Welfare and Customer Service Manager at Harrogate BC. He has many years’ experience within local government and of benefits in particular., so this should be a particularly useful session both for those involved in the rollout of UC and its impact on service delivery and those who just want a better understanding of the subject in general.

There will be tea and coffee from 3.00 p.m., and the event proper will begin at 3.30.

Attendance at this event is free to all, so please feel free to forward this invitation to your colleagues and associates, including those working in benefits or housing.

If you haven't already done so, please let us know as soon as possible if you would like to come.

Details of our full Association programme for the year are shown below. If you would like to attend any of these events, please let us know and we will book you a place.

You are warmly invited to the 2016 Annual General Meeting of the IRRV West Midlands Association, which takes place on Wednesday 13 April 2016 at 5 p.m. at the offices of DWF LLP, One Snow Hill, Birmingham B4 6GA.

The main business of the day will be to elect members to serve on the Executive Committee for the next 12 months.The officer roles within the Association are:

President

Vice-President

Secretary

Assistant Secretary

Treasurer

Education Liaison Officer

Membership Officer

Auditor

Information Officer

Social Secretary

You can also put yourself forward as an ordinary member of the Committee, with no specific role but with an opportunity to have a say in what the Association does for you.

Membership of the Committee is open to ALL grades of membership.

If you’re interested and would like to talk to us about getting involved, just e-mail us at irrvwma@googlemail.com or give one of us a call - our individual contact details are available here.

If you’re still not sure, don’t worry – you can decide on the day whether to put your name forward!

(Our full 2017/18 programme is shown at the foot of this page.)

Our next scheduled meeting is our session on rate reliefs, which will take place on the afternoon of Thursday 24 August 2017 at the offices of DWF LLP at One Snowhill, Birmingham B4 6GA (close to Snow Hill station).

Our speakers are Mark Fearn and Mark Radford.

Mark Fearn IRRV (Hons) has worked in revenues for almost twenty-five years, and is currently for Walsall MBC. His previous posts have included Revenues Manager at Milton Keynes Council, Head of Revenues at North West Leicestershire DC and Revenue Collection Manager at South Derbyshire District Council. He has been a member of the IRRV East Midlands Association executive since 1998, and has held the posts of Secretary and President during that time.

Mark Radford MRICS IRRV (Hons) is a longstanding member of the IRRV West Midlands Association with many years' experience in the private sector.

There will be tea and coffee from 3.00 p.m., and the event proper will begin at 3.30.

This is an excellent opportunity to hear from both sides of the fence in relation to rate reliefs. You can of course put your questions to the speakers at the end.

Attendance at this event is free to all, so please feel free to forward this invitation to your Finance or other colleagues.

If you haven't already done so, please let us know as soon as possible if you would like to come.

Details of our full Association programme for the year are shown below. If you would like to attend any of these events, please let us know and we will book you a place.

This is a free event, being hosted by DWF LLP in association with IRRV West Midlands Association at DWF's offices at One Snowhill, Birmingham.

It will highlight alternative methods of enforcement and innovative collections strategies based on debt segmentation and propensity to pay, so as to assist local authorities in their statutory obligation to attempt recovery of outstanding council tax, business rates, housing benefit overpayments, social care costs and so on.

In times of austerity, councils need to recover as much as possible to balance budgets. 

The enforcement law reforms introduced in April 2014, and recent publicity around the wholesale use of enforcement agents and subsequent concerns raised by debt advice charities, make this an ideal time to explore alternative recovery solutions. Is it always appropriate to use enforcement agents? What happens when enforcement agents are unsuccessful? Is that the end of the road? Can more be done? 

Full details of the event, including how to book, can be found here.

The Association's 2017 annual general meeting will take place at 5 p.m. on Wednesday 5 April at the offices of BNP Paribas, 9 Colmore Row.

The calling notice/agenda is available by clicking here and the the minutes of the last AGM by clicking here.

If you intend to come, please email us at irrvwma@googlemail.com.

If you are not currently a member of the executive committee but would like to put your name forward, you can of course do so even if you are unable to attend.

This event is being run by the IRRV in partnership with the West Midlands Association.

Aimed primarily at those involved in the recovery of council tax and/or business rates, it will provide an update on the impact of the recent case of R (on the application of the Reverend Paul Nicolson) and Tottenham Magistrates on the costs that can be applied for by a billing authority at a liability order hearing.

The speakers will be David Magor, Chief Executive of the IRRV and Gary Watson, Deputy Chief Executive of the IRRV.

Full details of how to book can be found here. Places are limited, so early booking is advisable.

The next Association event is a debt recovery and enforcement seminar which is being held jointly with DWF LLP at their offices at One Snowhill, Birmingham B4 6GA.

This is a a free event, open to all.

The full programme can be found here. Don't worry if you can't make the whole day, or only want to attend certain sessions - you're still welcome.

If you haven't registered your interest yet and would like to come, please let us know as soon as you can.