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ALL THE LATEST NEWS, ADVICE AND EVENTS FOR THE SOLIHULL BUSINESS COMMUNITY


CONTACT: Joan Smith T: 07581 629 815


New venue for Trust T


he Family Care Trust, a registered charity that has been supporting people in


Growing team: Kevin Johns (centre), with new starters (L-R): Liz McMillan, Ruark Jon-Stevens, Kieran Allen and Karen Pizey


A new year, a new team


Prime Accountants Group, which has offices in Solihull and Coventry, spent 2015 expanding its team, hiring no fewer than 15 new members of staff during the year. The new members of staff range from


administrative apprentices through to department managers. Kevin Johns, Prime managing director, said:


“We are always pleased to welcome new staff into our team; they enhance our position in a competitive market place by increasing the skills within the organisation. We are proud that our staff are of an outstanding standard.”


Solihull for 21 years, has secured planning permission for further development of its Newland Bishop Farm service at Catherine De Barnes. The trust provides educational


and vocational training opportunities for people with learning disabilities, mental health issues and brain injuries and the planning permission is for two new buildings, a bulk and volume agricultural building and a training and administration centre. The buildings will enable the trust to be used as


a wedding venue, and in addition, the old training centre will be re-developed as a farm shop. The latter will commit to sourcing 40 per cent of the products it sells from the local area, and in addition, those being supported by the charity will have some of their wares, including garden ornaments and hanging baskets, on sale there. Solihull Chamber director Jane Jackson said


that the new development would help boost the trust’s income, and turn it into ‘a real venue’. She said: “The trust will be


Solihull Chamber’s charity for the year beginning in March, and we are looking forward to helping them raise their profile and publicise this exciting expansion.” Phil Carpenter (pictured), the


trust’s CEO, said: “We are delighted to have taken the first step in the next phase of this valued service. The development of the Farm will enable the


service to support a significantly greater number of people than currently and, in the long term, give something back to the local community if the form of a farm shop and visitor centre. However, the real challenge begins now in raising funds to finance the development.” The expansion project is expected to cost


between £1.2 and £1.3 million and take up to three years to be completed, once a significant proportion of the money has been raised, Mr Carpenter added.


Winning team (L-R): NHMF chairman Shaun


Aldis, Craig Lakey (Laker director) Neil Ashford and James Lakey (Laker managing director)


Improving services


Laker and Friendship Care & Housing have won the ‘Most Improved Asset Management Service’ category in the recent National Housing Maintenance Forum (NHMF) Best Practice Awards. The award was made at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole as part of the


NHMF Conference and Awards. Neil Ashford, head of property and investment at Friendship Care, said:


“This acknowledges the hard work of our teams and our innovative partnership has produced changes in management structure and streamlined processes, resulting in increased productivity which as generated saving of nearly £150,000. “With more than 4,600 homes in the East and West Midlands, we‘ve


been able to provide a more efficient repairs service, improve customer satisfaction levels and widen social value targets.” We would like to thank everyone at NHMF for organising a fantastic


evening – both the conference and the awards proved to be an excellent platform for networking and sharing best practice.


34 CHAMBERLINK MARCH 2016


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