A first for Helena Partnership Ltd
Helena Partnerships is a Registered Provider of housing in
Merseyside. It was formed in 2002 as Helena Housing following a
large-scale voluntary transfer of the housing stock from St Helens
Council.
The company (which has also been a registered charity since
December 2004) has its own in-house legal team which is relatively
unusual within the housing sector. Since 2002 the team has grown
from one solicitor and two law clerks to a team of 3 solicitors, a
trainee legal executive, 2 legal assistants and a Board and
Governance Officer.
Cath Phillips, Company Solicitor, who heads the team previously
worked for a local authority which had gone through the Lexcel
accreditation process and was therefore familiar with some of the
expectations of the Law Society.
It was a long-held ambition to try and obtain accreditation but,
as an extremely busy section for a newly formed company it had to
be delayed due to competing priorities. However in 2005,
ever-conscious of the requirement for high levels of customer
satisfaction, the team did undertake internal feedback on the
service it provided and made changes to its processes as a
result.
In spring 2008 initial work was commenced to find out the
options available for obtaining Lexcel accreditation. Different
tasks were distributed between the team with the lead being taken
by one of the Legal Assistants, Leanne Helm. Following discussions
with Assessment North East the pre-assessment route was chosen as
being the most suitable for the team. The initial assessment took
place at the end of November 2008 and with only a couple of minor
non-compliances to overcome, the final assessment was undertaken in
March 2009 when the team was thrilled to receive the news that it
had been successful in achieving the accreditation. The team was
even more delighted when it was subsequently confirmed that it was
the first Registered Provider in-house legal team in England and
Wales to have been awarded accreditation by the Law Society.
Cath Phillips said "This has been a tremendous effort with
everyone making a valuable contribution to the team's success. We
must now strive to keep up the good work and improve our services
to our clients even further. The assistance of Assessment North
East cannot be underestimated in helping us to achieve this target.
The next phase in our development will be to explore the
possibility of providing our services to other Housing Associations
and with the award of the Lexcel accreditation we can demonstrate
our commitment to a high quality service."