PIN WM News
All the latest News stories from PIN WM
OPG Birmingham Hub
02 February 2012
On behalf of AAT Birmingham branch and PINWM I had the pleasure of attended the opening of the new offices of the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) at the Axis in Birmingham on Thursday 26th January 2012.
This occasion marked the strategic changes taking place at the OPG and the relocation of a number of key services from its London and Nottingham offices to its new servicing centre at the Axis in Birmingham and is the last piece in the relocation jigsaw and now forms the hub of OPG’s operations.
The formal opening of the new offices was performed by Jonathan Djanogly MP and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice who thanked Martin John the Public Guardian and Chief Executive of the Office of the Public Guardian and his team for inviting him to the opening and to share this important occasion with him.
He then went on to say that Since becoming a Minister and reviewing the work of the OPG, he has come to appreciate not only the challenges that the organisation has faced, but also the importance of its work in the context of the wider mental capacity agenda and the key part this new office will play in the reforms we are making to deliver a more efficient, more effective, and - above all – user focused service.Demand for OPG’s service has continued to grow. In May 2010, 15,000 powers of attorney were received for registration. But in two of the last three months, applications have been over 18,000. Likewise, OPG compliance activity has again increased. In 2009 referrals for investigation numbered a thousand. The year after, that doubled. And in 2011, the rising trend continued. In cases where a deputy has been appointed by the Court of Protection, the Public Guardian now supervises nearly 42,000 cases compared to some 35,000 in 2010.
These trends are set to continue in the context of our ageing population and within the next 10 years an additional 6½ million people will be over the age of 65.
Looking forward the OPG will continue its journey – at the heart of the Ministry’s Transforming Justice agenda – to being a model for the future. A future where the OPG can drive and manage demand; where it can raise awareness of the issues of mental capacity; and where its users are able to access the range of its services digitally.
The day concluded with a tour of the offices and introductions to the servicing teams spread over three floors of the Axis building
Malcolm Green FInstSMM MAAT TEPChairperson
AAT Birmingham Branch
CFO’s Briefing
01 December 2011
Robert Half Management Resources recently held a seminar for senior finance managers from across the West Midlands region, as chairman of the AAT Birmingham branch I was invited to the seminar, entitled ‘Looking Ahead, New Challenges, New Priorities for UK CFOs’ which was held on Tuesday 22nd November at the Malmaison Hotel in Birmingham.
Presentation
The main presentation for the evening focused around the findings of an independent report commissioned by Robert Half looking at the issues affecting today’s CFO’s and FD’s and how these results can be viewed both locally and nationally.
The data for the survey was collected during October 2011 from a number of questions put to the most senior financial decision-maker within each organisation from around the country, including Managing Directors, CFO’s and FD’s of 200 businesses in order to get answers to questions most pertinent in today’s markets.
Following detailed discussions about the report’s findings, further questions were discussed with the audience for feedback and shared experiences and planned actions on matters such as:
The recession is over, but where next for the UK economy?
What are the new priorities for businesses and public sector organisations?
How will future strategies affect the size and make-up of finance teams?
And how great is the risk of a double dip?
A copy of the full report can be downloaded on the link: Strategic priorities for UK businesses
Malcolm Green
Chairperson
AAT Birmingham Branch
AAT Birmingham Branch Joins PINWM
17 October 2011
The Birmingham branch of the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) are the latest professional Institute to join PINWM.
Malcolm Green, Chairperson for the AAT Birmingham branch, is the Midlands contact for the Institute and commented that this new association for the branch provides a number of opportunities for us to network and build relationships with other professional organisations around the West Midlands helping to enhance the reputation and presence of the AAT in the wider professional community, with access to an increased knowledge base of information and activities central to the development of our respective professions and the promotion of Birmingham and the West Midlands professional community.
For our membership this will provide access to other PINWM member CPD meetings and events to compliment our own branch programme of events, together with sharing speaker contact information and ideas and other resources all helping to raise the profile of the branch and promotion of our own events within the West Midlands. Since joining the network we are pleased to see the interest generated already for our events from other PINWM members.
Greater Birmingham Solihull LEP 21 April 2011
09 May 2011
May will see the new LEPs formally starting their work. On the 21st April the Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP which also covers North Worcestershire and South Staffordshire held an event to introduce the Board which is chaired by Andy Street CEO of John Lewis. They also provided an insight into the priorities for their region and the background to their Enterprise Zone bid. Please click here to download Keith Simpson’s brief of the event and click here to download the LEP priorities and pledges document.
If you are working in the professions there is an opportunity for you or your firm to support the LEP. If you are covered by one of the other LEPs in the West Midlands Region we would be interested to hear of your local LEPs plans.
New Chairman Appointed for PIN WM – Peter Rees-Steer
07 September 2009
Peter Rees-Steer of management consultants R-S Associates, has recently been welcomed as the new Professional Institutes Network West Midlands (PINWM) Chairman.
Peter takes up his new voluntary position as a regional representative of both the Birmingham & West Midlands Society of Chartered Accountants (BWMSCA) and the Institute of Directors (IoD) West Midlands.
Commenting on his appointment, Peter said: “I am delighted to be taking on this challenging role at a crucial time for the professions – recent unprecedented economic events have made it even more vital that clients receive the best possible advice and value from their professional advisors.
“In difficult times, our institutes regionally are in an excellent position to promote not just our contribution to the region’s economy, but also the opportunities that exist for careers in the professional services sector. As knowledge-based, meritocratic organisations we can learn much from each other, and speak with a single voice on some of the region’s pressing issues.”
The PINWM website (pinwm.co.uk) already promotes CPD and other activities across its member bodies, and is proposing a greater collaboration for 2009/10 in developing joint events and future activities. Looking ahead, the next high profile event “Leading the Way Out of the Recession,” jointly developed by BWMSCA and the IoD, will take place on November 4th 2009. Further information on this and other events can be obtained from www.pinwm.co.uk
It is envisaged that the PINWM website, will become THE one-stop-shop for professionals seeking CPD events across the region and the regional committee, led by Peter, look forward to strengthening the links between the professional institutes across the region and helping to promote both their and their members’ successes.
Chairman's parting message
12 June 2009
My first Chairman’s review will also be my last! Whilst I still have every belief in P.I.N. everyone will be aware that the economy is not faring well and that one of the few growth areas is corporate recovery – or insolvency in “old money”. As that is the sector in which I am involved, it has not been possible to dedicate as much time to the development of P.I.N. as the role deserves. It is therefore with regret that I stand down as Chairman in the hope that I may still make a contribution in the future.
P.I.N. is the only professional organisation that has a true representation of the professional bodies in the
Although as I write this note there appears to be no let up in the recession, there are some green shoots beginning to show. The Banking sector universally blamed for the start of the recession, looks as though it may be the first to recover with some Banks declaring profits. How long will it last? Bearing in mind my specialisation where we tend to see the “glass half empty”, there will be no recovery in 2009 and with increased redundancies by the end of the year, I suspect it will be well into 2010 before the green shoots develop into young saplings!
The professional sector will have a significant role in helping this country fight its way out of the recession. By working together with professional integrity we can speed up the recovery and make sure the mistakes of the past will not be made again. P.I.N. is the very best vehicle for bringing the professionals together and I wish it well for the future. To get it to the next stage will involve raising funds, if you are your professional body’s representative, please urge your organisation to pledge funds to enable P.I.N. to develop into the organisation that can truly represent the professionals in the
I wish Peter Rees-Steer, my successor, every good luck wish for the future and am confident he has the energy and determination to raise the profile of P.I.N. in the
Update from the Chair
21 May 2007
In the last few months we have finalised the detail of our sponsorship agreement with the University of Central England which will enable us to more effectively publicise the member Institutes of PINWM. Their involvement is very much appreciated. The first initiative to get the word out and about around the region will be a distribution of around 9,000 booklets to members of the professions coupled with email copies to a further 21,000 or so members, students and other associates. We are expecting that this will encourage more traffic to the www.pinwm.co.uk website. This has been a fairly heavy undertaking and particular thanks goes to our partners at PerfectArc who have helped us every step of the way to get to the stage of being able to distribute that widely. In addition I must pay tribute to the commitment of all the member institutes and their representatives for their contributions to the booklet and for agreeing to distribute it.
We hope that all our members and students will find the booklet a useful reference point but even more importantly that it will encourage them to visit the website so that they can see up to date information on the events on offer. Since the site has been up and running in early 2006 over 200 events in the West Midlands have been publicised and we are expecting that there will be even more now that we have 12 Institute members.
Reflecting back on the last year it is great to see that we have added further professional institutes to the membership and are now getting regular enquiries from other institutes to ask if they can join. Many of the most influential Institutes are already members and we are hoping that throughout the rest of 2007 and into 2008 we will be adding more, if you are visiting this site and your own Institute is not represented do please encourage them to approach us.
If you are reading this as a result of seeing the booklet, thanks for taking the time and we hope that you will add PINWM to your favourites list as the first place to look when you need to top up your cpd activity.
If you want to keep informed then please register for our regular updates on the home page.
Keith Simpson ACIB Fifs
UCE agrees 2 year sponsorship
08 May 2007
The University of Central England in Birmingham have become the inaugural publication sponsors for PINWM and we are delighted that as a result of their support we will shortly be issuing our first booklet which will provide an overview of the work of each Institute in the West Midlands. The booklet will also provide a taster of some of the wide variety of continuous professional development opportunities on offer from our member Institutes around the Region. We are proud to have the University's support which will continue into 2008.
We are expecting that as a result of UCE's help we will be able to ensure that more of the 30,000 professionals working in the West Midlands who are affiliated to one or more of our member Institutes will get to hear more of what is on offer for them.
CIOT joins PIN
10 April 2007
The West Midlands branch of The Chartered Institute of Taxation are the latest professional institute to join PINWM. Gary Ashford, a tax specialist at Grant Thornton in Birmingham, is the Midlands contact for the Institute. Keith Simpson Chair of PINWM said "we are delighted that CIOT have decided to add their name to the increasing membership of PINWM, which has particularly strong representation from the world of finance related bodies demonstrating the importance of this sector in the West Midlands".
NEW CHAIRMAN
04 September 2006
Keith Simpson has recently taken over from Margeret May as Chair of PINWM.Keith is the Commercial Area Director - Birmingham for Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets, and has been a member of the PINWM steering groups since its inception.