HR & employment law support for the housing sector

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1 HR & employment law support for the housing sector

2 Understanding your needs Working in social housing has never been more challenging. You re in the frontline of ensuring your organisation maintains service delivery whilst juggling budgetary constraints and planning for the future.

3 .a very good reputation for advising clients on a broad range of issues. Market sources appreciate that their advice is always very clear. They always give us detailed choices and options, and we always get excellent value from them. Chambers 2013 Social housing, health & social care specialists under one umbrella Coffin Mew s social housing division joined Capsticks health and social care practice in With both firms ranked top in the leading legal directories and sharing common expertise, it was a very natural and obvious fit on both sides. Like all teams at Capsticks, our social housing division is full of experts. They are specialists drawn from the fields of employment law, governance, asset management, development, housing management and housing litigation. Whoever you deal with, they will outline the various options open to you and the risks associated with each, but they will also give you a clear, directional view and recommend next steps based on your particular organisation and what you are looking to achieve. Our social housing team has supported the housing sector for over 30 years and recognises the increasing pressure you are under to deliver high quality essential services against ever-tighter budgetary constraints. We know your business inside out as we deal with the issues you face every day of the week. The depth and breadth of the expertise we have built up in the sector means we can help you achieve your objectives without wasting your time or money. Put simply, we give superb value for money because we are able to hit the ground running without having to learn on the job.

4 Capsticks LLP The right advice, first time In a specialist sector like housing you need a specialist employment lawyer who can advise across the full range of employee relations issues but who also understands the unique nature of the housing association business. We are keenly aware of its regulatory constraints; dual business and social imperatives; reputational focus; relationships with stakeholders and particular HR challenges. The day to day Those day to day challenges are often around non-standard shift patterns; casual work; vetting; barring and safeguarding; sickness and performance management; family friendly rights; discrimination; complex grievance and disciplinary investigations; TUPE; data protection; and governance and public sector duties. Our team has been advising housing providers of all type and scale across these areas for many years. As a result, we have a wealth of practical and strategic insight when it comes to managing these issues on the ground. The bigger picture On a more strategic level we see high contract turnover through first, second and subsequent generation outsourcing of local authority purchase contracts. TUPE can be complex, difficult disputes can arise which can present a number of different employee relations challenges. In negotiating a way through with other interested parties we are alive to the sensitivities involved, not least in terms of the need to maintain a positive on-going relationship with your local authority. This is a particularly demanding time for housing providers, operating against a backdrop of

5 HR & employment law support for the housing sector It adapts to the industry that we are in and doesn t just give off-the-shelf advice. Chambers 2014 long-term budget cuts in capital grant and Supporting People income and trying to business-plan in the face of sweeping welfare reform and rapid policy change. The personalisation agenda, and the personal budget component at its core, can often throw up unintended consequences for the workforce such as in terms of redundancy and TUPE issues, where service user choice fundamentally changes the nature of service delivery. We can help providers to plan ahead by re-branding and commoditising their services appropriately in an effort to minimise the potential for service reconfiguration and to stabilise the workforce. More than ever your business needs to adapt and change if it is to succeed in the face of budget cuts and these wider challenges. We have the skills and expertise to support clients through complex business reorganisation, redundancy and change of terms projects and have experience in supporting some of the largest scale strategic projects undertaken in the sector. These projects can be further complicated by various sets of inherited TUPE terms plus trade union involvement, and here relevant sector expertise is absolutely critical. We work closely with you at every step of the way to ensure business objectives are met with the minimum of risk and fallout whatever the size or scale of project. Integration Looking ahead, the integrated services agenda is gathering pace. Here we see housing, health and social care providers urged to move towards collaborative solutions in the drive for high quality, cost-effective services. Our unparalleled expertise in the health and social care sectors over more than three decades brings with it an extensive network of contacts and solid relationships with leading players and influencers in these sectors. We are therefore uniquely placed to help you as a housing provider explore and maximise some of the immediate funding opportunities being thrown up in these areas.

6 Capsticks LLP A large and highly rated team of specialists, it is noted for its expertise across a wide range of issues and for its fast response times Legal The disputes There are of course times when, irrespective of the way in which an employee relations matter has been handled, you will find yourself having to defend an Employment Tribunal claim. That can obviously be a time-consuming and costly process but a successful claim can also damage your relationships with stakeholders and impact negatively upon future tender bids. We have defended all manner of employment and employment-related claims at Tribunal, where the majority of claims will be heard, but also on appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal and Court of Appeal. We regularly defend complex, sensitive, multi-action claims on behalf of housing organisations and, where it arises, senior managers named alongside the organisation in the claim. We have an excellent track record in defending Tribunal claims against the social housing sector as we understand how best to convey the commercial considerations underpinning a course of action to a Tribunal who may have little awareness of these or the sector as a whole. We routinely secure early withdrawals of claims and recover costs in unmeritorious cases at levels far in excess of the statistical norm. This kind of result is critical in keeping your costs down, ring-fencing your resources for operational services, and in discouraging future claims too. We have an in-house advocacy team consisting of experienced barristers whose extensive expertise in litigating employment claims can be called upon early in particularly sensitive cases to ensure that the right result is achieved in court.

7 Like to know more? Please visit our website: or if you would like to speak with us, please call one of our team on the attached teamsheet. MARY SWAINE Consultant TOM LONG Associate MARTIN HAMILTON Partner ELAINA MOSS Senior Lawyer ANDREW ROWLAND Partner RACHEL LUDDEM Senior Lawyer CLAIRE REYNOLDS Partner RUSSELL ROCHFORD Senior Lawyer

8 Capsticks LLP London 1 St George s Road, London SW19 4DR T +44 (0) F +44 (0) DX Wimbledon Central Birmingham 35 Newhall Street, Birmingham B3 3PU T +44 (0) F +44 (0) DX Birmingham Leeds Toronto Square, Toronto Street, Leeds LS1 2HJ T +44 (0) F +44 (0) DX Leeds Park Square Winchester Staple House, Staple Gardens, Winchester, SO23 8SR T +44 (0) F +44 (0) DX Winchester sh8.indd414