In March, we were pleased to announce that My School Portal, our parent communication and engagement software, was integrated with a specialist platform to help manage online payments in schools.
Our ambition is always to create a seamless system that helps our customers, the schools, to offer a truly seamless experience for their clients - their pupils and importantly, their parents.
Users will notice the benefits in a number of our existing features, such as the clubs and trips booking capabilities and paying for additional tutoring. But they’ll also now be able to take advantage of a new feature - online payments, allowing parents to make both ad hoc and regular payments and putting them in control of their children’s spending. They can also access a full breakdown of what their child has ordered, and top-up the account as and when is necessary.
- Topic:
- Education
A comprehensive Cost Value Reconciliation (CVR) scheme should enable you to handle the current material and labour shortages, and even take advantage of them.
Building projects are being cancelled, put on hold, and otherwise disrupted by shortages of both materials and labour. There are no shortages of explanations, though, as it has been blamed on everything from Brexit to the pandemic, shipping problems, material scarcities themselves and even the steep rise in construction demand as various lockdowns ease and contractors rush back to work. It’s a compound problem and needs a comprehensive solution.
- Topic:
- Construction
Being in the construction industry is an endless battle between pleasing the client and facing the external challenges. The last year has been strange for everyone, yet the sector has still ploughed on. As we now approach the end of the last round of lockdown restrictions (hopefully), let’s have a look at the challenges in the construction industry in 2021.
- Topic:
- Construction
Traditionally communication and reporting on a construction project has been a challenge. With the number of people involved, from construction workers to upper-level project management, working both on-site and off-site you can see why.
- Topic:
- Construction
The employment law sector has always been fast paced, both in periods of economic growth and decline however, like many other services and sectors across the UK, the sector has been impacted by the recent events. This has led to changes to the employment law landscape with a number of challenges and opportunities coming to the fore.
In this blog, we look at the trends and factors affecting the sector, the challenges these are creating and the approaches firms can take to meet new demands whilst also preparing for the future.
- Topic:
- Legal
As visitor attractions and the hospitality industry start to re-open, a question mark remains around school visits. When and how will this vital revenue stream return to pre-pandemic levels? And what can VAs do to nudge it in the right direction over the next few weeks?
- Topic:
- Visitor Attractions
Since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, most Brits – when permitted - have been taking their holidays within the UK.
- Topic:
- Hospitality
It’s been a year since the UK went into its first lockdown. Visitor attractions have been forced to pivot, flex and adapt at speeds that seemed unimaginable just 12 months ago. The alternative was closure or, worse, being responsible for helping the spread of Covid-19.
At the more extreme end of the scale, museums transformed into vaccination centres. Distilleries more accustomed to giving tours turned their hands to making hand sanitiser. Escape rooms operators opened farm shops.
But for most visitor attractions, operating during a pandemic – when restrictions allowed customers to visit – looked a little more like life as we know it, albeit it with time slots, face masks and social distancing signage. There have been positive changes too. Digital technology developed at an astonishing rate. Staff whose roles were, perhaps, under-valued have come to the fore. Visitors gained a deeper appreciation of the pleasure of a proper day out.
Some of these changes would have happened despite Covid-19; the pandemic simply hastened their arrival and adoption. Of these, many look set to stay.
Here are five changes to continue investing in and making permanent and/or more prominent features of your visitor attraction.
- Topic:
- Visitor Attractions
It goes without saying that the disruption caused by Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown impacted almost every aspect of school life, and like so many others St Bartholomew’s CE Multi-Academy Trust was forced to take swift action, to ensure pupil learning could continue and staff remained safe.
Here, Christopher Dryer, Director of Finance and Operations at the Trust, discusses how they adapted throughout the spring and summer term, the new processes put in place ahead of reopening and some of the positive learnings from lockdown.
- Topic:
- Education
During the recent Access All Areas virtual conference, Darren Gower (Access Legal Sales Director) was joined by a panel of industry experts to discuss the latest trends, challenges and opportunities we’re seeing in the legal sector. The expert panel consisted of Charlie Jones, Head of Finance - Wolferstans, Clint Milnes, Chief Information Officer - Winn Group, Stewart Mathews, Managing Partner - Neves Solicitors and David Sparkes, Owner - Milbourn Ross.
Below is a summary of the three key talking points and themes covered during the session:
- Topic:
- Legal
