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 <div data-pmr-editable="" class="medium-editor-insert-plugin">Speaking at a preview session ahead of November’s <a href="https://www.commsvision.com/">Comms Vision</a> Convention, <a href="https://telavox.com/">Telavox</a> partner sales manager <a href="http://www.leaderscouncil.co.uk/members/andy-brunt">Andy Brunt</a> outlined his company’s view that simplicity is the most vital element when exploring UCaaS [Unified-Communications-as-a-Service] and CCaaS [Contact-Centre-as-a-Service] solutions and taking them to market. The 15th Comms Vision convention is due to take place over November 10-12 at The Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland, which will see the UK’s leading IT professionals assemble in one place. Telavox - which will appear at its first Comms Vision Convention this year - is one of the event’s silver sponsors, alongside leading Software-as-a-Service provider <a href="https://www.8x8.com/">8x8</a>.In the run-up to the convention, <a href="https://www.comms-dealer.com/">Comms Dealer</a> magazine’s <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelsergent/">Nigel Sergent</a> hosted a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/comms-dealer_comms-vision-preview-session-why-simplicity-activity-6823577068794601473-BuNV">preview session in late July</a>, in which Brunt featured as Telavox’s representative alongside 8x8’s regional vice-president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-jackson8x8/">Keith Jackson</a>.With the event still four months away, Brunt was already relishing the prospect of the IT and services business community coming together in person after a challenging year.Brunt said: “I think everyone’s excited to be out of lockdown and we are looking forward to being at the event for the first time. We are really excited to be silver sponsor at the event, and after a long 18 months we are excited about going to Gleneagles, meeting the partner community face-to-face, and having a beer together!”During the session, Brunt was quizzed about the Telavox philosophy of simplicity in the supply of cloud based UCaaS solutions, and outlined how a simplified approach was reflected in the business’ partner and engagement strategies.“Our company core values are ‘simple, relevant and fun’ and that is bred into all we do at Telavox. We build and design these solutions ourselves, and we work with our partners and their customers and are always thinking about keeping simplicity at the centre. The way in which we do that is by offering our partners a fully inclusive UCaaS licence which covers voice message, SMS, audio, video-conferencing and live chat services, which are essentially bundled into a single licence offering. This is where the simplicity lies from our point of view.“When our partners then engage with their customers, what they only really have to focus on is the minutes. So, it is simple to overlay that licence on top of that customer and that very simplicity means that our marking engagement strategy is simple, and we are focused on delivering a true UCaaS offering to our partners that helps their customers consolidate all their communications into a single provider.”Addressing the need in the marketplace for simple ICT procurement joined up with communications fuelled by the demands of the pandemic period, Brunt added: “In the new Covid or post-Covid era especially, partners and their customers just want simple, easy to use solutions that are affordable, reliable and scalable. During the pandemic, companies have gone out and bought products and services overnight and are now looking to stabilise and futureproof them.“There are so many VOIP and UCaaS solutions in the marketplace today, and endless optional add-ons and bundles, which makes the selection process complicated and time consuming for customers. We want to be different by working with our partners to deliver a simple and transparent licensing model with easy-to-understand pricing. This then takes that complex decision-making process away from customers.”Brunt also took the time to discuss Telavox’s transparent and lenient pricing structure geared toward giving partners a financial safety net in challenging economic settings.“Simplicity is the way forward. The simpler we make our solutions, the easier it for them to be taken to market for the customers. From a simplicity perspective, we do not simply keep our licensing and prices as transparent as possible, but we also work with our partners on a 30-day rolling contract. From the partner’s perspective given all of the economic uncertainty at the present time, not having that pressure from a vendor to be a two, three or even five-year contract is a real safety net.“We try to make everything about Telavox right the way through our market scheme as simple as possible and make it an easy as possible route to market for our partners.”Speaking on behalf of 8x8 during the session, Jackson highlighted his company’s innovative idea which involved unifying its UCaaS and CCaaS solutions under a new banner known as <a href="https://investors.8x8.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2021/8x8-Announces-Experience-Communications-as-a-Service-XCaaS-to-Help-Organizations-Meet-New-Work-Requirements/default.aspx">XCaaS [Experienced-Communications-as-a-Service]</a>.“This strategy shows that we listen to what is coming out of the marketplace. Partners were asking us to simplify the value propositions and make it easier for customers to understand and consume. We have had CCaaS and UCaaS on the one platform but bringing that experience together so that end users can recognise and relate to it makes it easier for our channel partners to bring customers on the journey to XCaaS with us.“With XCaaS, we are looking to bring UC and CC elements together under one message for our partners to then take to their customer base. Everything now is APR [Annual Percentage Rate] driven and the wider industry is seeing the market going this way. It is therefore up to our partners to understand what their customers want and then take that information and concept and then execute it to deliver what the customer needs. Every single customer is going to be different, but the data in the background is where there is a massive opportunity for our partners to go to market.”</div>

Speaking at a preview session ahead of November’s Comms Vision Convention, Telavox partner sales manager Andy Brunt outlined his company’s view that simplicity is the most vital element when exploring UCaaS [Unified-Communications-as-a-Service] and CCaaS [Contact-Centre-as-a-Service] solutions and taking them to market.

Telavox: "Simplicity the key in UCaaS and CCaaS solutions"

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 <div data-pmr-editable="" class="medium-editor-insert-plugin">As the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice">Ministry of Justice’s</a> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/independent-review-of-criminal-legal-aid">independent review</a> of the future and long-term sustainability of the criminal legal aid system goes on, <a href="https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en">The Law Society</a> and legal firm chiefs have been vocal in calls for the criminal defence profession to be adequately funded as an outcome or risk the collapse of equal justice. The purpose of the independent review, chaired by Sr Christopher Bellamy QC, is to explore the fundamental principles of fee schemes for criminal legal aid. The review forms part of the wider Criminal Legal Aid Review, which has already culminated in up to £51 million per year in new payments for the sector. It is hoped that the initiative will help maintain the status of criminal defence as an attractive career option for legal practitioners now and in the future.In May 2021, The Law Society <a href="https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/criminal-justice/criminal-legal-aid">responded</a> to the independent review's call for evidence, warning that the criminal defence profession could <a href="https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/contact-or-visit-us/press-office/press-releases/criminal-defence-sector-faces-collapse-without-investment">collapse</a> if the government does not increase funding.These <a href="https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/campaigns/consultation-responses/independent-criminal-legal-aid-review-law-society-response">concerns</a> have also been echoed by leading figures within legal practices across the UK. <a href="http://www.leaderscouncil.co.uk/members/paul-millan">Paul Millan</a> [pictured, second from left], founding partner at one criminal, civil and family law firm, <a href="http://www.noblesolicitors.co.uk/">Noble Solicitors</a>, described the situation with legal aid funding as a “drought” exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.<a href="https://www.theparliamentaryreview.co.uk/organisations/noble-solicitors">Millan told The Parliamentary Review</a>: “Over the last year, the sustainability of the legal aid model which has for years been under pressure, came under even greater threat due to the reduced number of court hours caused by the Covid-19 crisis.“The demise in some categories, such as reduced Crown Court sittings and decimation of legal aid fee structures at the police stations and magistrates’ courts, has brought the provision of equal justice to the brink of collapse.”Millan then went further, urging the independent review of criminal legal aid to also address the inequalities faced by suppliers and legal aid barristers across the country.“Without this action being taken, we cannot have a sustainable, diverse and flexible market-place – and a fair criminal justice system. In order for the legal aid system to be viable, it will need to be properly funded and resourced including dealing with the looming recruitment crisis, as many continue to retire from this area of work.”A final report from the independent review is expected before the end of the year.</div>

As the Ministry of Justice’s independent review of the future and long-term sustainability of the criminal legal aid system goes on, The Law Society and legal firm chiefs have been vocal in calls for the criminal defence profession to be adequately funded as an outcome or risk the collapse of equal justice.

Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid: legal firms call for adequate funding for criminal defence profession

<div class="editor-cover-image" data-dimensions="780:300" data-pmr-editor-image="" style="background-image: url(&quot;https://leaders-council-web.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/store/ff729de213c3723042df2cb4bd07d9da.jpg&quot;);"></div>

 <div data-pmr-editable="" class="medium-editor-insert-plugin">When we think of Covid-19 as having <a href="https://www.consultancy.uk/news/26372/covid-19-has-accelerated-digital-transformation-by-seven-years">accelerated digital transformation</a>, quite often we visualise businesses in the early stages of the first lockdown in 2020 moving swiftly to shift systems and processes online and then having to quickly adapt to new and safer working practices. Yet, for some businesses, working through lockdown was essentially par for the course, because they had already chosen to automate these systems and processes. <a href="http://www.bhptax.law/">Bell Howley Perrotton LLP</a>, a multi-disciplinary firm offering accountancy, tax, legal and financial advisory services to its clients, is one of these businesses that was ahead of the curve in this way. <a href="http://www.leaderscouncil.co.uk/members/simon-howley">Simon Howley,</a> managing partner at the firm, works from his base in southern Spain and would customarily fly to the UK for client meetings pre-pandemic. Meanwhile, other members of the Bell Howley Perrotton team were based in and around London and the M25, as well as in the north-eastern city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and they too would carry out their day-to-day work from home and attend in-person meetings where required.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV49Bi8JJok">Coming onto The Leaders Council podcast</a> to speak about how the business has fared during the pandemic period, Simon Howley explained that the lockdown period was almost akin to working as normal barring the lack of in-person meetings, since remote working structures were already established in the business.Simon outlined: “We have always worked remotely, so in that sense it has been like a normal working environment for us. Normally pre-Covid, I would fly across to the UK from my residence in Spain for client meetings, so we do miss that in-person interaction with clients. We have used more Zoom calls than normal for our team meetings which seems to be the biggest change, and we do still have a team-meeting once a week with all of us jumping on.”While some businesses leaders have sampled flexible working for the first time during the pandemic out of necessity and grown more accepting of it, Simon explained that he always favoured working from home and believed it was one of the best options for driving productivity.“I think people work better from home. People have busy lives and as long as my team’s work is done, it doesn’t bother me when they do it. It seems to work, and out of our workforce many of our staff have children, so it helps them and gives them that flexibility for the school run, and it leads to a much better working environment as a result. It also cuts out the daily commute into an office, which helps make staff more time efficient and has a positive knock-on effect for the environment.”Simon also spoke candidly about how the business monitors mental health and wellbeing among staff members operating under a remote working structure all of the time, revealing that a virtual open-door policy of keeping the communication channels constantly open was paramount.He said: “We communicate every day by Teams, Zoom or email. From a day-to-day processing perspective, we have not changed a lot during Covid to keep a watch on mental health, we just strive to keep the communication channels open. It is about getting the right people around you as a business leader, trusting them and instilling a level of trust in you, and having that virtual open-door policy so that they can approach you if they need to. Being approachable is critical. I also make clear to all my staff that with this flexible working model, it is never an issue if people need to shoot off to pick up their children from school or anything like that. Such a relaxed policy helps us all.“Furthermore, the fact we are largely automated and use a lot of software takes much of the stress away from our work. People have their jobs to do each week and we have done away with the era of getting up at 6:30AM and coming home at 7:30PM.”Outside of the business, Simon also revealed that with Covid-19 social restrictions forcing so many other firms to begin working from home, it has had a positive knock-on effect commercially for Bell Howley Perrotton.Simon explained: “Commercially, we have had one of our best years out of the 13 years we have been established. This is because we work with a lot of property sector clients, and in times of recession or financial hardship people do tend to purchase properties. We have also seen a lot of people moving out of London as work-from-home has become the norm, who have been buying larger properties out in the country so that they can have that bit more spatial freedom in their working lives at home.”The full interview with Simon Howley on The Leaders Council podcast can be seen below.<div class="medium-insert-embeds">
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Simon Howley, managing partner at financial services provider Bell Howley Perrotton LLP, came onto The Leaders Council podcast to discuss how having established automation and flexible working within the business helped the company thrive through the coronavirus pandemic. 

Ahead of the curve: Bell Howley Perrotton figurehead discusses how automation helped business through Covid-19

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 <div data-pmr-editable="" class="medium-editor-insert-plugin">Two years after Sir Simon Wessely delivered his landmark <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/independent-review-of-the-mental-health-act">independent review</a> of the Mental Health Act, ministers have <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-the-mental-health-act/reforming-the-mental-health-act">accepted and pledged</a> to take forward the vast majority of its recommendations for change. The final <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/modernising-the-mental-health-act-final-report-from-the-independent-review">report</a> from the 2018 independent review concluded that the Mental Health Act [1983] does not work in all cases as well as it should for patients, nor for their families and carers. In instances where the Act has failed individuals, it has led to those people becoming disempowered, excluded from decisions about their care and treatment, and being treated without dignity and respect. It also declared that existing legislation goes too far in removing people’s autonomy and does not go far enough to protect and support the ability of people to influence or make decisions about their own care.In a statement responding to the independent review, the government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-the-mental-health-act/reforming-the-mental-health-act">said:</a> “In 2017, the government asked Professor Sir Simon Wessely to lead the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983, to examine issues around the use of the act and to propose recommendations for modernisation and reform. We welcome the considered work and in-depth engagement undertaken by the review. We accept, and we will take forward, the vast majority of its recommendations for change.”In accordance with the review’s recommendations, the government has proposed a raft of changes to rebalance mental health legislation to help empower patients and put them at the centre of decisions about their own care. Four principles developed by the review will help form the government’s approach to changing legislation, policy and practice.These principles include giving patients trust and autonomy to ensure their views and choices are respected; the least possible restriction to guarantee the Act’s powers are used in the least restrictive manner; therapeutic benefit to make sure patients are supported to get betted and be discharged from the Act; and respecting patients as individuals and treating them as such.Ministers have also pledged to improve access to mental health support in the community for earlier intervention before detention and admission are necessary, through the transformation programme set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.The <a href="https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/">NHS Long Term Plan</a>, which will benefit from £2.3 billion of new funding for mental health services per year by 2023 to 2023, is geared toward improving mental health care for people of all ages and all types of mental illness.The government has said that with these services in place, better and earlier support can be provided to reduce the risks of people reaching breaking point in their conditions, as well as offering better and alternative options to detention under the Act and arrangements for swifter discharge.Detention criteria is also to be revised so that patients are only sectioned where absolutely necessary. As part of this, Westminster has acknowledged concerns around individuals with learning disabilities being admitted to mental health hospitals, and so autism and learning disabilities will not be considered reasonable grounds for detention under the reforms.After the independent review uncovered a disproportionate number of Mental Health Act detainees from BAME backgrounds, the government has also committed to acting on the underlying causes of such disparities.All reforms to the Mental Health Act proposed in the government’s White Paper on the matter follow key recommendations made by the independent review.In a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-the-mental-health-act/reforming-the-mental-health-act">joint statement</a> outlining the reforms, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers/secretary-of-state-for-health-and-social-care">Health Secretary</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/people/robert-buckland">Justice Secretary</a> said: “The review is already influencing the major decisions and actions the government is making to improve mental health care. We have already taken steps to introduce significant new investment to transform the mental health estate so that inpatients can have the privacy and dignity of their own bedrooms with en suite bathrooms.“We are investing over £400 million to rid the mental health estate of dormitory provision, just as the review recommended. We will build new mental health hospitals – with two schemes already approved and with more to come – and will tackle the maintenance work needed in the mental health facilities where patients are treated.“This government believes firmly in increasing the liberty of its citizens. And so, we will seek to implement reforms which see people not just as patients, but as individuals, with rights, preferences, and expertise, who are able to rely on a system which supports them and only intervenes proportionately, and which has their health and wellbeing as its central organising principle.“Mental health services must be improved for people of BAME backgrounds. The government asked the Independent Review to take a close look at the disparities that exist and to make proposals to address them. This White Paper reflects on the progress that has been made in response to the review to enable organisations to take the steps they need to make improvements in access, experience and outcomes for individuals from different ethnic backgrounds. It also sets out future plans, including work to develop and support a more diverse and representative workforce and to launch a programme of culturally appropriate advocates, in order to better help patients from all ethnic backgrounds voice their individual needs.”The government’s response to the independent review has been welcomed both within health circles and in the legal sector surrounding criminal, mental health, and mental capacity law.It comes as a significant boost in particular to Devon-based legal firm <a href="http://www.ah-solicitors.co.uk/">AH Solicitors</a>, who have been specialists in this arena since their establishment in 1985.Indeed, little over a year ago, AH Solicitors Managing Director, <a href="http://www.leaderscouncil.co.uk/members/sarah-ackland">Sarah Ackland</a>, outlined her hopes that following the independent review, the government would consider some of its recommendations and take tangible action geared toward change.<a href="https://www.theparliamentaryreview.co.uk/organisations/ah-solicitors">Speaking to The Parliamentary Review in 2020</a>, Ackland said: “In December 2018, Sir Simon Wessely completed the independent review of the Mental Health Act 1983. We welcomed the review and are optimistic that the government will consider some of his recommendations as they assured they would do in 2018.“Through providing our clients with more control over their treatment they would be able to gain autonomy in terms of who provides their care. Ultimately, we hope our clients are able to have more say about their own care and treatment and that we move towards fewer people being detained under the Mental Health Act.“Ensuring that our clients get the best possible treatment and care is at the core of what we do. It has always been important to us that they feel we have helped them to have their say; too often they are made to feel as though things are just happening to them.”While the White Paper is a significant milestone in the push for reform, changing legislation will only be half of the battle. For the long-term sustainable change that AH Solicitors and all others affected by the Mental Health Act are striving for, the national health and social care sector, NHS mental health services, local authorities, courts, police force and third sector will all have a part to play.</div>

Two years after Sir Simon Wessely delivered his landmark independent review of the Mental Health Act, ministers have accepted and pledged to take forward the vast majority of its recommendations for change.

UK government outlines plans for Mental Health Act reforms

Anthony Main is the Founder and Managing Director of The Distance, a company that develops intuitive mobile app solutions for iOS and Android platforms.

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Telavox: "Simplicity the key in UCaaS and CCaaS solutions"

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Ahead of the curve: Bell Howley Perrotton figurehead discusses how automation helped business through Covid-19

UK government outlines plans for Mental Health Act reforms

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