Member Benefit Spotlight

BALI HR / H&S

in association with Quest

Keeping up-to-date with employment and health & safety legislation can be timeconsuming and costly, especially if your business doesn’t have its own HR or H&S departments. BALI HR/H&S service in partnership with Quest provides our members with access to four key free services: HR, Legal, Health & Safety, and Tax. These can be accessed via a dedicated telephone line which provides access to the four advice lines and a website which features a document library with over 700 free template and guidance documents.

Save valuable time and money

These are undoubtably uncertain and financially challenging times. These four services are included as part of your membership. One Association member alone saved over £24,000 using this benefit, by not needing to employ a consultant in these areas.

Whether your business is large or small, BALI HR/H&S can benefit you.

Larger businesses may have internal expertise and management to help with compliance issues. This service can provide valuable additional support for the staff who manage employment, health & safety, legal or tax matters.

For smaller businesses who may not have specialist staff and focus resources towards generating new business and servicing existing clients, this can often mean that protecting the business can easily be forgotten. BALI HR / H&S gives you have unlimited access to a range of vital business support and a bank of expertise and information.

Take a pro-active approach

If you are looking to be proactive around compliance and protection from a HR and H&S point of view, a 1-2-1 review with a Quest Business Manager is available. This looks at how you manage all aspects of your business helping you to make sure you are compliant and working to best practice. Quest will provide you with an honest assessment of your current practice and as a member, if you do need extra support, you will automatically receive a discount on any additional products.

In more detail…

HR

Provides you with employer focused HR and employment law support through unlimited access to experienced HR advisors. They can help you with any problem or answer any question on a range of issues including discipline and grievance, training policies, employment contracts and redundancy.

Legal

Helps to support your business with specialist advice through unlimited access to experienced legal advisors who can help on a wide range of legal issues including contract disputes, debt recovery, property issues and much more.

Health & Safety

Penalties for getting health & safety wrong can be severe so a business must focus on compliance. This service provides an easy-to-follow guide to health & safety compliance, from policies and risk assessment forms to lone working and working at heights.

Tax

Gives you access to experienced tax and VAT specialists who are available to help you resolve queries on tax or VAT matters including VAT Registration, exemptions, and HMRC investigations.

All of these services are supported by the extensive document library which features over 400 free downloadable employment documents, 200 downloadable legal templates and over 100 free downloadable Health & Safety documents.

To access these services simply call your dedicated Association member line on +44(0)116 243 7881 or to take advantage of the one-to-one review contact Myles Day on

mday@questcover.com.

Alternatively contact the membership team on +44(0)24 7669 0333, or email

contact@bali.org.uk.

Using the Quest HR Service through the Association is so easy & simple. I called in relation to a query “ surrounding parental leave, I was able to obtain the information I required within minutes to then relay back to our employee. I’d highly recommend this service just for the simplicity and ease if nothing else. As a business we don’t have support in house with a HR capacity, so to have this available to us means we can take action in situations confidently. “ Ben Parkinson at Oakham Garden Services

CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS YEAR’S AWARD WINNERS

Adtrak Biotecture Bluestone Landscapes Bowles & Wyer Chengdu Dream Design Master Co. DDON Planning and Design Co. ECOLAND Planning and Design Corp. Elite Landscapes Ellicar Elmtree Garden Contractors FirstLight Landscaping Frosts Landscape Construction Garden Club London GND Design Graduate Gardeners Ground Control HG Landscapes idverde James Scott MBALI John Wyer MBALI Karen McClure MBALI Landform Consultants Living Landscapes London Stone Maylim MCM Nurture Landscapes P. Casey (Land Reclamation) Planters Horticulture PWP Landscape Rosemary Coldstream MBALI Shoots & Leaves The Design Institute of Landscape & Architecture China Academy of Art Co. The Garden Company The Landscape Academy Thirteen Housing Group Tivoli Group Tony Benger Landscaping Verde Landscapes Water Gems (Alba) Wright Landscapes

HEADLINE SPONSOR SPONSORED BY

Civils & Green Urbanisation Green-tree Topsoil

baliawards.co.uk | BALI_Awards | baliawards

Cameron Barker

BALI CHALK FUND

Top Student Award 2022

Cameron Barker adds ‘UK Top Student’ to his impressive list of accolades. The 20-year-old Myerscough student swept away the competition to take the top honours, earning himself and his college a cash prize and tickets to the BALI National Landscape Awards.

As most readers will be aware, the BALI Chalk Fund runs a range of initiatives to support and inspire students to both join land based courses and excel once enrolled. One such initiative is the Top Student Award.

Each year, all 18 UK land-based colleges that are members of the Association, are invited to select the top student from their landscape and horticulture courses, each submission earns that student a £100 cash prize. In addition, the top students from each college are judged against one another for the national title and top prize of £500, in addition the college also receives £500.

Cameron is no stranger to success, having been awarded an APL ‘Rising Star’ award, Lancashire Apprentice of the Year, and then went on to win Gold at the 2021 World Skills competition too. Whilst the judges were impressed with Cameron’s previous accolades, they also appreciated his commitment to the industry since working at a local nursery from the age of 14. At the time of his application, Cameron hadn’t completed his course due to Covid-19 disruption, but scored an impressive ‘fullhouse’ in his theory mocks!

Having worked at the nursery for 18 months, Cameron was feeling slightly frustrated at his lack of progression, so when he left school, he sought a new challenge. A chance encounter saw his father, a breakdown motor mechanic, rescuing a team from Steven Foxcroft Landscapes, they got talking and the rest, as they say, is history!

Cameron landed a full-time position with the progressive landscape

company, who, in conjunction with Landscape Architects ‘Garden Form’ deliver high quality landscape services to discerning clients in the Northwest.

Foxcroft provided the opportunity that Cameron craved, and a training programme was established, which included Landscaping Level 2 at Myerscough College whist working full time.

Cameron says “I have learned so much and grown stronger in the process, before I joined Foxcroft Landscapes I was not being taught new skills, now I’m being supported at work and I’m always learning something new. I have not only developed landscape skills but personal skills too”.

Reading the above, one would think that life had been a breeze for this talented young man, but it turns out that Cameron has his challenges, but support from his employers, and his college, has seen him grow in confidence despite his Aspergers Syndrome, a condition that affects social interaction and thinking patterns. Cameron says, “The apprenticeship has really allowed me to develop not only my landscape skills but has helped with my confidence and my disability, with the guidance of my course tutor and employer I have been able to accomplish things I previously could only have dreamed of, such as taking part in the 2021 World Skills Competition and gaining the Gold medal”.

On receiving his letter informing him of his success, Cameron said “Thank you, I’m over the moon with this award, what a year it has been for me, and I’m excited to be attending the National Landscape Awards too, where I hope to meet fellow landscapers, some I know and some that are new to me as well. I intend to invest the £500 prize money into my new business, since my recent successes, I have had a quite a few requests for work and I have started CB Landscapes and carry out projects in my own time”.

In supporting Cameron’s application, Myerscough College work-based tutor Richard Heys said “Cam prides himself on his timekeeping and punctuality, he has a hunger to learn

Cameron Barker & Richard Heys, Myerscough College Tutor new skills and a real determination to succeed, and become the best he can be, always searching for the latest trends and developments in the landscape industry. Cameron has excellent personal skills and likes to problem solve any issues that arise on site, he’s always willing to help”

As you might expect for such an achiever, Cameron is not resting on his laurels, he already has plans to get further training under his belt and gain further qualifications, targeting excavator training and Arboriculture qualifications next.

Cameron speaks highly of his employer who has supported him through such an exciting period, employer Steven Foxcroft says “Cameron is a top lad and he’s been a pleasure to support, we work on some complex projects which include detailed, bespoke elements and we try to expose Cam to these as much as possible to speed up his development, he’s really enthusiastic and a key part of our small, highly skilled team, I couldn’t be happier for him to have been recognised in this way”.

Trustee of the BALI Chalk Fund Nick Coslett said “Cameron has already received well deserved recognition for his efforts, working with a local landscaper, he has developed a range of skills and knowledge having been involved in the industry since the age of 14. Cameron has been well supported by both college and employer and we wish him every success in the future”

Richard Gardiner Trustee of the BALI Chalk Fund