Life story, a star and a princess

Someone once told me that we live in a world of strangers.  What he meant by this was, say that we bumped into our neighbour we might have the highly personal conversation about the weather but rarely do we get to know them in any more depth.  That's why it was good yesterday to attend a staff lunch for Ron Gainsford, so that we can show our appreciation for all that he has done for the organisation and profession.

During the lunch I had the pleasure to get to know some members of the team a bit better:  including a Polish Princess and the winner of our UK ECC employee of the month – although I'm not quite sure what a Polish princess is doing work for us. Maybe that one isn't true!  Laura, who won the award, is one of our consumer advisors and she was recognised for the work she is doing with Westminster Trading Standards with a trader who is causing a disproportionate level of complaints from visitors to the UK.  Well done and it shows we've a really good bunch of people working for us.

The main reason for the lunch was Ron and it was really enjoyable to hear him reminisce about his time in trading standards – especially his London-boy-in-the-sticks experiences.  He is a great man and he will be sorely missed by all here.  I've been left big shoes to fill but an amazing legacy to build upon.  The whole afternoon was one of warmth, which sums the man up perfectly.

Hope you all have a lovely Easter

96 photos and not happy with any of them

If you are like me and hate having your photo taken my morning wouldn't have been good for you.  As chief executive it is important that you have a high profile and support our work generating publicity.  To help that I spent an hour this morning having a number of photos taken for profile purposes, apparently the ones from Saturday night when I attend an 80's fancy dress party weren't up to the mark.  Unfortunately for me I wasn't allowed to Photoshop* them.

*In the interest of fairness I must point out that other photo altering services are available.

Update on codes and business education

I attended the first board meeting of the new Codes Approval Board.  As background the changes announced last year by Government saw responsibility for the consumer codes approval transfer from the office of Fair Trading across to the Institute.  Lots of work has been going on behind the scenes in readiness for the transfer on the 1^st April.   What is really pleasing is that, despite it moving from something that is free for codes sponsors to a product that is charged for, the vast majority of code sponsors have agreed to come on board.  This is not just a great testament to their faith in us as an Institute and the value that the brand TSI brings to the consumer world but also a ringing endorsement to how we have approached setting up the successor regime. 

Our prime driver is to improve standards within sectors, and balance the needs of businesses and consumers.  To achieve that we have established a not for profit community interest company, that means any assets are locked into a charitable organisation.  In this case our own College of Fellows.  We are establishing an independent board, code sponsor and consumer panels to drive our work forward.

We are now embarking on our work to provide business advice and education as part of the new landscape. 

Beer's not the most important thing

On Wednesday I was invited to speak at the annual Trade Association Forum conference.  I was there to let the audience know about our work transitioning the consumer codes approval scheme from the OFT to the Institute.  I believe that approved codes provide a real opportunity to add some meat to self-regulation and leave the rogues isolated.

The budget was screened live during the conference and Anthony Hilton (the Financial Editor of the Evening Standard) provided some pre-budget thoughts.  It was certainly interesting when the news of the Evening Standard publishing details of the budget online before the speech broke!  Whilst the news on alcohol and fuel were good news for me personally, as the Chief Executive of an SME I was particularly interested in the announcements on national insurance contributions and corporation tax and their impact on our business.

Also speaking at the conference was Jo Swinson MP, Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs.  She spoke with great passion about how we support diversity in the board room – so passionately that she convinced me to sign up to Inspiring the Future ( http://www.inspiringthefuture.org/) to give an hour of my time to speak to young people about my career and role.  She also showed great confidence in the trading standards profession in delivering reduced consumer detriment in the new landscape.

Back on the manor

For those who don’t know I am a bit of a London boy.  So it was with great pleasure that on Tuesday this week I attended the London Branch meeting and the regional Young Consumers of the Year final.

To the meeting first.  I welcomed the opportunity to hear from members about their concerns and challenges and it reinforced in my mind the need for us to have a proper national conversation about the future shape of our profession.  I was also interested to hear about a new business directory that Age UK are launching in London.  Anything that adds a layer of protection to consumers and a benefit to legitimate businesses has to be welcomed - but we all have a public duty to work together to ensure that we don’t confuse consumers about the various schemes that are in existence.  Further presentations centred on the need to work together and it was particularly pleasing to hear about how coordination on weights and measures is helping to develop new officers within London.

Seven teams entered the regional YCoY final and two well fought semi-finals saw four teams – Southwark, Hounslow, Greenwich and Islington - make the final.  It was a narrow victory for Islington after some intense questions and interesting answers – Bonnie Tyler being described as that old woman, or the Sistine Chapel as that big building!  So many congratulations to them and I look forward to seeing them in Brighton at the final.  The whole day was what it should be, fun and educational. 

The teams that didn’t win can comfort themselves in the knowledge that they now know probably a lot more that the Chief Executive of the Trading Standards Institute!

Welsh double!

In my time as Chairman of the Institute one of the things I enjoyed most were the trips to branches, especially when they coincided with another event.  So last March I found myself in Wales to speak at their trading standards conference and attend the regional heat of the Young Consumer of the Year (YCoY).  It was a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days and really pleasing to see such good support in Wales for the competition.  That's why I was really pleased to hear from Alison Farrar of the lovely Isle of Anglesey about this year's regional heat.  In an apparently nail biting finish Brynteg Comprehensive beat off stiff competition to win by one point.  I wish them well in the final that takes place at our annual Conference in June and congratulate not only the winners but also the other nine teams that took part.  The competition could not take place without the support of the schools, teachers, services and sponsors so I thank them all. 

As far as I'm aware that was the only competitive event of any significance that has happened in Wales this week.  Well despite being a hardened English rugby fan I don't think I can call the events at the Millennium Stadium as competitive!!

I am attending the London regional YCoY final this week and will let you know how the teams get on.

You can read the press release for the YCoY regional final here http://www.tradingstandardswales.org.uk/news/news-item.cfm/newsid/67

What’s in it for me!!

At Wednesday’s management team we had wide ranging discussions on a variety of topics.  One of these focused upon membership trends.  Clearly, as people are leaving the profession due to local authority cut backs, the number of full members has shown a decrease but is holding up well as a percentage of those still in TS services.  We do look at the reasons for members resigning and one of the worrying trends is that where local authorities have stopped paying membership this is as cited as a reason for not renewing – as someone mentioned to me recently “why should I pay membership when it’s my authority that gets the benefit of discounted training”. 

This blog could not go on to be a paraphrasing of the Life of Brian – 'what have the Romans ever done for us'.  I’ll avoid going in to the fact that we offer one of the cheaper membership rates about, that we bring a benefit to members that is several times the cost of their membership and that we offer a free conference.  

Instead I’ll reflect that having managed a number of services outside trading standards I can tell that they have a different approach to their training and development.  By and large they pay for their own membership, their own training and their own attendance at conference.  For those that have already renewed their membership I thank you. For those that haven’t, I would simply pose the question “whose career is it?”