The Sparkle Appeal has received a £1000 donation after it was among deserving charities nominated by staff at leading conveyancing legal practice Your Conveyancing Services, whose clients help to raise thousands of pounds for charity each year by taking part in the Conveyancing Foundation’s Charity Lotto.
The Sparkle Appeal was nominated for help by Your Conveyancing Services Managing Director Lloyd Davies after the charity made an appeal for funds as their fundraising has been badly hit by the pandemic.
Sparkle supports children, young people and their families with disabilities and/or developmental difficulties and provides support and leisure activities throughout South Wales through its Serennu Children’s Centre in Newport, Nevill Hall Children’s Centre in Abergavenny and Caerphilly Children’s Centre.
Lloyd Davies said the charity was desperately short of funding because of the COVID pandemic, explaining:
“Their services are more in need than ever across Wales but COVID has drastically affected their fundraising.”
Sparkle spokesperson Natalie Brown said the charity supported over 300 families a week by delivering activities and clubs such as independent living skills, youth clubs, play clubs, swimming sessions, and cooking, whilst also supporting families through specialist counselling, workshops, and information and advice services.
She said “Our guiding principle is to ensure that every child is fully supported to participate in valued childhood experiences and has access to the same range of opportunities, life experiences, activities and services, as any other child.
“We are working hard to support our families at such a tough time but our work is not possible without the help and support of our communities to raise the funds we need to keep our services running. But, as you can imagine, COVID drastically changed the way we are fundraising.”
Your Conveyancing Services is one of a growing number of companies raising funds for charity through the Conveyancing Foundation’s Charity Lotto where clients of any legal practice or property company can donate a voluntary £10 at the end of their transaction, giving them a chance to win £500 in a monthly draw.
Lloyd Davies, who is also Chairman of the Conveyancing Foundation, said the Lotto had helped companies raise over £800,000 for their chosen charities over the last decade.
“I am delighted to see some of funds raised by Your Conveyancing Services clients going to such deserving charities as The Sparkle Appeal. We are very keen to help others fundraise for their own charities through our Charity Lotto so please do get in touch.”
The Conveyancing Foundation can be contacted for further information on setting up a Charity Lotto at info@conveyancingfoundation.org.uk or 01633 261794.
The Conveyancing Foundation’s Be Kind We Care initiative, launched during the pandemic, to encourage kindness between professionals in the property and conveyancing industry, has been named as the first official charity partner of the British Conveyancing Awards.
The second British Conveyancing Awards – and its first live attended ceremony – will be held on March 15, 2022, in London, following the event’s launch and virtual ceremony in 2021 during the Pandemic.
The charity was chosen after Awards organisers were impressed by its principles and aims and its provision of practical advice and resources.
The Be Kind We Care initiative was launched in early 2021 by the not-for-profit Conveyancing Foundation to combat the many stories the Foundation was hearing about professionals being unkind to each other as the stress of the pandemic and new working conditions started to take their toll.
Not only did the Foundation want to reverse this growing trend by encouraging professionals to consider the impact of treating each other harshly but it also wanted to promote wellbeing within the conveyancing, legal and property sectors at a time of unprecedented pressures.
Be Kind We Care has partnered with charities LawCare, Agents Together and the Mindstep Foundation to provide resources for businesses and individuals in the form of an online Resource Hub. The hub hosts articles, podcasts and videos aimed at promoting good mental health and wellbeing within the workplace.
In the last year, Be Kind We Care has also joined with industry experts from these organisations and with other senior figures from the worlds of conveyancing, law and property along with mental health and wellbeing experts to create a series of informative webinars.
In 2022, Be Kind We Care has already held its first webinar of the year – a forum on Junior Lawyers and the support available to them – and, in 2021, hosted successful webinars on stress management and sharing mental health best practice.
Be Kind We Care also set a first year fundraising target of £30,000 to raise much-needed funds for mental health support charities. It has already raised over £20,000 thanks to the support of its industry sponsors and hopes to reach its target by the anniversary of its launch in April 2022. Fundraising at the British Conveyancing Awards will be donated to Be Kind We Care.
Lloyd Davies, Chairman of the Conveyancing Foundation said: “We are absolutely delighted to be named as the official charity partner of the British Conveyancing Awards and to be the charity partner in the year of its first attended ceremony in London.
“The support we have had from the conveyancing and property industries since our launch has been very impressive. Everyone has overwhelmingly backed the aims of our appeal to professionals to be kinder to each other and so to improve mental wellbeing and promote better mental health in the property, legal and conveyancing sectors.”
Mr Davies added: “Thanks to the support from other industry wellbeing organisations such as LawCare and Agents Together, we have been able to present a united front of mental health promotion and resources. We are also extremely grateful to have attracted sponsorship from organisations across the industries who have backed our work. We look forward to continuing to raise our profile this year and, as part of this, to be the charity partner of the forthcoming awards.”
David Opie from Today’s Media, organisers of the British Conveyancing Awards said: “The Be Kind We Care initiative really struck a chord across the property, conveyancing and legal worlds when it launched last year at such a critical juncture. We are fully aligned with the aims of Be Kind We Care and we believe it is helping to move the industry in the right direction. It was therefore a perfect fit to choose Be Kind We Care as the first official charity partner of the Awards.”
He added: “As the 2022 Awards look towards the future of the industry, it is entirely appropriate for us to back Be Kind We Care which has helped – and is helping – to make that future kinder and brighter for so many in the industry.”
Lifesaving homelessness charity Boomerang Cardiff which provides vital care and support to the homeless community in South Wales has received a much-needed charity donation from leading charity fundraising conveyancing legal practice Your Conveyancing Services.
It received £1,000 after it was nominated by a member of staff at Your Conveyancing Services, whose clients raised the funds by taking part in the Conveyancing Foundation’s Charity Lotto.
Boomerang Cardiff works hand in hand with the community to support and prevent homelessness and poverty and help those suffering critical living conditions and social isolation. The charity also assists low-income families and the homeless by providing the equipment they need while being homed or rehomed.
Your Conveyancing Services Head of Sales Kelly Leworthy, who has been raising funds for Boomerang since it was started and nominated it for a donation, says the organisation plays a crucial role in supporting those in need in and around Cardiff.
She explained: “I have seen many friends, friends of friends and their families benefit from Boomerang Cardiff which looks after the people of Cardiff and surrounding areas when they are in need of some help or even employment.
“This really helps with our youth, especially when they are between the difficult ages of 16 – 18 and cannot get employment or proper work or cannot go to college for whatever reason.
“During these times, young people can end up going down the wrong track, can be easily influenced or even suffer from poor mental health. Having support to get them into their first flat or having volunteer work which leads to permanent work is a massive help.
“Their motto is: ‘Nobody can help everyone but everyone can help someone’ – which really sums up their fantastic attitude to helping this community and those in need step by step.”
Boomerang Operations Manager Dave Summers said the donation would be invaluable and would enable the charity’s collection service to run for ten weeks.
He explained: “We will use the £1,000 donation exclusively for fuel for our collection/delivery van. On average we use around £100 per week, so this donation will last us around 10 weeks which will enable us to carry out, over the course of the 10 weeks, at least 300 collections of furniture and also enable us to deliver at least 30 full essential home starter packs for families and individuals who are moving on from a homelessness situation.’’
Your Conveyancing Services is one of a growing number of companies raising funds for charity through the Conveyancing Foundation’s Charity Lotto where clients of any legal practice or property company can donate a voluntary £10 at the end of their transaction, giving them a chance to win £500 in a monthly draw.
Managing Director of Your Conveyancing Services and Chairman of the Conveyancing Foundation Lloyd Davies said the Lotto had helped companies raise over £800,000 for their chosen charities over the last decade.
He added: “The Foundation can help any legal practice or property company raise money through the Charity Lotto. I am delighted to see some of the funds raised by Your Conveyancing Services clients through the Lotto going to such deserving charities as Boomerang Cardiff.”
The Conveyancing Foundation can be contacted for further information on setting up a Charity Lotto at info@conveyancingfoundation.org.uk or 01633 261794.
Experienced Conveyancer, Head of Legal Practice and current Deputy Chair of the Society of Licensed Conveyancers Laura Burkinshaw, has joined specialist residential conveyancing practice Your Conveyancing Services as a Legal Director.
Laura will work alongside current Legal Director Phill Edwards and the directorial team at the award-winning South Wales-based conveyancer as it enters a period of record growth. The Your Conveyancing Services Board of Directors is now nine-strong, with a female majority of six, which reflects a largely female workforce.
Laura joins Your Conveyancing Services from conveyancing company Sort Legal, which she joined in 2020 as Head of Legal Practice, after spending 11 years at Dezrezlegal as Head of Compliance and Legal Practice.
Your Conveyancing Services Managing Director Lloyd Davies said: “I am delighted to welcome Laura on board and I am confident she is the right person to strengthen our directorial leadership team and support our ambitious expansion plans as we enter 2022.
“We currently have record staff numbers, having increased the size of the team by 50% to 150 individuals in 2021. We are recruiting and training five new conveyancers a month again throughout the course of this year, as well as welcoming experienced conveyancers.
“We will be looking to open a second office in Newport as well as working HUB offices in Swansea and Leicester this year. Our sister company Convey365 will also be launching our ground-breaking IT case management system to the conveyancing industry this year so it is going to be a very busy time.”
He added: “Knowing Laura professionally for many years through our time together at the SLC and through the Conveyancing Association, I know that she brings with her a formidable skill set in terms of client service, practice and management. She is also a specialist in conveyancing IT software architecture and design and is ideally placed to support the launch of our Convey365IT system.”
Laura, from Swansea, qualified as a Solicitor in 2006 and a Licensed Conveyancer in 2009, after completing her legal education at Glamorgan University. Laura helped to establish specialist conveyancing legal practice Dezreslegal, obtaining Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) approval for the business while growing and overseeing the business into a successful conveyancing practice, before joining Derby and Cardiff-based Sort Legal.
She said: “I am very excited to be joining Your Conveyancing Services as we enter an exciting time for the company and the industry. I wanted to work with a company who have the vision to help to move conveyancing into the digital future and, having worked with Lloyd on the SLC Board and being a member of the CA, it is clear to see that Lloyd and the rest of the Your Conveyancing Services Board have the drive to challenge current industry issues and problem areas.
“One of my key strengths is working on and developing processes within case management systems and I will initially be working with the teams here to fine tune our innovative Convey365IT case management system before it is marketed to the wider industry this year.”
Chairman of the not-for-profit Conveyancing Foundation Lloyd Davies has explained why staff wellbeing is more critical than ever for all businesses in 2022 after the challenges of the Pandemic:
Mr Davies, also Managing Director of Your Conveyancing Services, said: “The conveyancing industry experienced a tumultuous year in 2021 with quarterly SDLT or Christmas deadlines, staff having to work from home and often with increased caseloads and dealing with increasing numbers of frustrated clients and fellow professionals. An unprecedented number of conveyancers found themselves no longer able to cope and leaving the industry or looking for different roles.
“We recruited 20 Your Conveyancing Services conveyancing consultants into our Title Checking team last year – these guys had had enough of the grind of conveyancing but still loved the technical and complex legal aspects and now enjoy their work without the telephones or angry emails and working from home…or anywhere in the world!! Thankfully, we saved a few excellent conveyancers with a world of experience from leaving the industry altogether……. but how many left altogether last year?”
Mr Davies said the Conveyancing Foundation’s “Be Kind We Care” initiative was “born out of a cry of empathy with conveyancers and others in the industry being abused by frustrated clients and fellow professionals whilst working under extreme circumstances – often with more work than normal and in isolation – at home without the immediate support of their colleagues”.
He added: “We soon realised that we needed to broaden our approach and define and share best practice in looking after staff wellbeing during these unprecedented times. So we teamed up with LawCare, Agents Together and the Mindstep Foundation charities to produce a Wellbeing HUB on the Conveyancing Foundation charity website, with webinars and best practice advice.
“Today’s Conveyancer and our wonderful sponsors took up the mantle with us and we are delighted that the BKWC initiative and the wonderful charities that we support, and who have supported our cause, will be the charity of choice at the British Conveyancing Awards at their gala dinner in March 2022.
“This year, we hope to raise the bar and maintain the momentum with further webinars and great practice advice. The support from industry, especially the Society of Licensed Conveyancers and the Conveyancing Association, in asking us to take part or recommend wellbeing experts to them for their events as well as assisting with charity fundraising – we raised over £6000 at the CA Conference Dinner in 2021 – has been fantastic and long may it continue. We need as much exposure and input as possible on these issues.”
He went on: “At Convey, like most conveyancing practices, we had one of the best years on record financially last year. So, we ended the year with a massive round of bonuses and Christmas gifts for our staff and we even managed to squeeze in a Christmas party for 100 of us before the pandemic took hold once again.
“Saying thank you and being grateful for the sacrifices of those that we work with is integral to any wellbeing programme and I am sure that all conveyancing practices will be as generous as possible with salary increases and other incentives at the start of this year.
“Our bonus scheme has been running now for nearly a decade and has been successful in keeping salaries at a manageable level, with performance bonus payments set to easily achievable KPI targets, allowing conveyancers to earn up to £10k per annum on top of their salaries. This works for everyone as client service is the key driver to the bonus payments, with our conveyancers highly motivated to look after their clients and introducers of business.”
Mr Davies said Convey’s wellbeing programme was currently under review “with our staff telling us what is most important to them through a confidential online survey”.
He added: “One of the key wellbeing initiatives that we introduced over the last 30 months is complimentary in-house counselling services. Conveyancing is high paced and can be stressful at times and individuals with underlying anxiety or other issues tend to suffer the most during stressful times.
“As business leaders, managers and conveyancers, we are not trained to help these individuals and if they don’t get help, they often don’t perform well and worse, they become ill and leave!!
“We offer both in house and external counselling and over a third of our team took up the complimentary sessions to great effect in 2021. We retained more staff than in our previous history last year and, like so many legal practices, we are trying really hard to make our environment a great place to work.
“Good mental health and wellbeing is so important for us all. We hope to train Mental Health First Aiders this year within our environment, as we know first-hand from our webinar with Martyn Tolhurst Solicitors, winners of the Wellbeing Award at the British Conveyancing Awards 2021, how effective and necessary they can be.
“Working in small teams who nurture each other is also important as it provides for that sense of belonging and teamwork. An open management structure and open door policy is also critical to ensure that there are avenues for dialogue for individuals to express concerns or satisfaction – it goes both ways…. sometimes!”
Mr Davies also talked about the importance of recognising each other’s achievements:
“Saying well done to those that you work with is also critical to wellbeing. Not being congratulated for your hard work and endeavours can be difficult for people, especially youngsters – and is unnecessary. Employee awards monthly, weekly and annually is critical – we had close to 20 categories in our Annual 2020 Awards to thank our staff – with each individual receiving a financial reward, a trophy in recognition of their achievement and air space on our website and social media channels.
“If your team do well – celebrate their success – it is endemic and nothing could be better for their sense of achievement and wellbeing. We were hoping to hold a gala dinner for the team to celebrate the Annual Convey Awards but it looks more likely that we will be online again this year due to the pandemic.
“We have found that staff are good at congratulating each other for good work or a nice deed and we encourage them to share good news stories with the rest of the team. Likewise, words of thanks and gifts from happy clients are posted everywhere – to celebrate the successes and great service.”
And finally, Mr Davies talked about the importance of charity work and corporate social responsibility:
“Helping others and especially those less fortunate than us is incredibly good for the soul. At Convey, the team love to give to their chosen charities and also love to take part in charity fundraising endeavours together.
“The charity events are great team bonding adventures, they are not contrived and they allow individuals to work together in a challenging environment where teamwork and camaraderie are highly prevalent.
“Physical fitness is a precursor to mental wellbeing as we know, and training for these events provides focus throughout the year. We have a full calendar of charity events this year, from climbing mountains to trekking Hadrian’s Wall – I can’t wait!!
“Last year team Convey raised over £80k through the Conveyancing Foundation Charity Lotto, with 80% of clients being encouraged to take part by our Conveyancers to support our chosen charities.
“We supported some fantastic charities and helped individuals through some tough times – and we even managed to help fund a water filtration plant in Pakistan which now provides fresh water to thousands of people!!
“Great Corporate Social Responsibility helps to pull the team together to support each other and great causes and creates a great sense of collective wellbeing. The Conveyancing Foundation Charity Lotto is available to all legal practices to help you to raise significant funds for your chosen charities.
“Thank you all and especially our wonderful Conveyancing Foundation charity sponsors for their support in helping us to raise awareness and share best wellbeing practice during these difficult times. The best of luck to you all in looking after each other in 2022.”
Lloyd Davies, Managing Director and Founder of specialist residential conveyancing practice Your Conveyancing Services, who has worked in conveyancing for over 30 years, said the industry had faced its most difficult time since the Second World War during the pandemic with “five quarterly Christmas and SDLT deadlines, a massive backlog of work as well as the disruption to office working”.
And he predicted that while 2022 may be “steadier”, prices would continue to rise, explaining:
“I believe that the pandemic will continue to have an impact on our work and lives, perhaps for several years to come, but most conveyancing practices have adapted to home working and restricted access to the office and have been operating at full capacity for most of this year.
“Transaction volumes are still high, although the number of properties on the market is a concern. Demand will continue to outstrip supply as stock is low and so house prices will continue to increase next year – at an average of 8 – 9% I believe. Transaction attrition rates will decrease as purchasers will need to follow through due to the lack of properties to choose from.
“Volumes will remain high I believe, at well over a million residential property transactions, following on from the record residential sales year in 2021, forecast to be the busiest year since 2007, and just over a million sales in 2020 and close to that in 2019.”
“The migration away from the cities will continue with city spaces being filled readily by eager youngsters and first time buyers. Prices in rural and coastal areas will rise well above those in the cities as home working and the choice of locality is now a reality for so many.”
Mr Davies, whose charity arm The Conveyancing Foundation introduced the successful ‘Be Kind We Care’ campaign in 2021 to encourage professionals to be kinder to each other following complaints from conveyancers that they were being treated unfairly by some fellow professionals, said he believed businesses had learnt that prioritising staff welfare was vital.
He commented:
“One thing we have all hopefully learned from the last 18 months is to accurately measure and ensure that our Conveyancers are not overloaded with work; that they take regular time away from the office on holidays to avoid burnout; that they don’t overwork from home and that they look after themselves and each other.
“We have adopted a hybrid of home and office working, with Conveyancers choosing what works for them so long as service standards and targets are met effectively. Choice and trust have become the norm for most legal practices with their staff and this can only be a good thing for both the businesses and the people involved in our industry.”
He added:
“I believe that there has been a shift in the way that Conveyancers and Estate Agents liaise with each other, with a more professional and understanding approach becoming more prevalent. The wellbeing initiatives engendered by the industry such as the “Be Kind We Care” initiative will continue to drive standards up in the industry, as poor behaviour amongst professionals is no longer acceptable, and industry leaders are enlightened as to how they can get the best out of their teams through wellbeing initiatives and training.”
He also forecast “an increase in staff training and recruitment in the conveyancing sector” with “the advent of Government funded apprenticeship courses and excellent new pathways for professionals within the conveyancing industry meaning the number of youngsters qualifying as Licensed Conveyancers and Solicitors will increase, adding:
“Novices can now be trained to full conveyancing fee earners within 12 months with their wages increasing from £18k to £30k in that time period.”
Mr Davies, who is also Managing Director of Convey365 which will launch its ground-breaking IT case management systems in 2022, said that he anticipated conveyancing timescales and processes would also improve cross-industry in 2022 with Government help and reform.
He said:
“I hope that we will see some changes to conveyancing protocol and the Government intervening to kick start the changes needed to change the way that we convey to make it quicker and more effective for all concerned.
“I would like to see Legal Contract Packs, approved by the seller’s Conveyancer, prepared at the point of marketing or within three weeks of the property being placed on the market. This will speed up the time to exchange from offer by 3- 4 weeks and is a no brainer. We need to look at conveyancing digital protocols and implement them – greater input from our regulators will be required in this respect.
“A word of warning on the conveyancing changes required. To facilitate change, the changes should be non-evasive where possible and gradual in terms of processes. An example is changing the process of ordering searches at the start of a transaction by the seller. Asking sellers to pay for the cost of property searches as well as a Legal Sellers Pack could amount to £500 – £600 extra per transaction and could curtail properties coming onto the market in the first instance – not a good thing at the moment.
“We need one protocol across the industry, not varying ones for each regulator, and we need to be mindful of the impact of change on the businesses of professionals in the industry. Completely changing processes and procedures takes time and is disruptive – and we could all do with a break from the disruption of the last 18 months!”
He added:
“I think that we will see the electronic signature of deeds come to fruition next year as well as systems and defined procedures to enhance client identity measures, curtail cyber fraud and money laundering. The events of 2021 and the Simplify group with their IT systems being the target of a cyber-attack sent shockwaves across the industry and we are yet to see the full impact of the slowdown of instructions to the conveyancing giant, which was undertaking thousands of transactions every month.
“It is an exciting time for our industry and we need to grasp the nettle and work collectively to implement the changes required to make conveyancing faster and safer for all concerned. I am looking forward to something resembling “normal” and pre 2020 for next year, although based on November volumes of work it looks like the seasonal dip in completions in March and April will not materialise next year and we are in for a busy time.”