CIVEA COVID-19 response shortlisted for Association Excellence Award

We are delighted to reveal that the CIVEA Post-lockdown Support all members and implemented smoothly. Plan has been shortlisted for an Association Excellence Award in CIVEA made a voluntary commitment to contactless visits and the Best Covid-19 Crisis Response category. The winners of this to not enter residential premises. All engagement throughout the prestigious award will be announced at a ceremony that is set to COVID-19 crisis so far has been contactless and for safety, agents take place in the events space at The Kia Oval, London on Tuesday have not been entering people’s homes but engaged on the doorstep. 29th June 2021. Body-worn cameras are mandatory and EAs must comply with social

The Association Excellence Awards salute, celebrate and encourage distancing rules and use PPE. Anyone identified as being vulnerable is the vital work that associations, trade organisations, unions and referred to the council and provided with additional support and help industry bodies do for and on behalf of their members to ensure their with their debts. voices are heard and their causes are championed. These awards are Since enforcement successfully resumed, we published a detailed open to constituted industry associations, professional organisations, report based on a survey of 21 enforcement firms and their field trade bodies and unions within the UK and Europe. All categories are agents, the responses to which allowed us to identify where awarded based on the decision of an independent panel of judges. additional training or guidance was needed. Our Post-lockdown

The Post-lockdown Support Plan was developed to ensure the Support Plan has now evolved into the COVID-19 Support Plan to safety of members of the public, clients, customers and agents. reflect ongoing changes to government advice and safety regulations. The result was a groundbreaking initiative that set a template As the national roadmap for recovery continues to be implemented for future public debt recovery. Achieving shortlisting for this in 2021, we maintain a flexible approach and offer guidance and award is a testament to the ongoing success and achievement of support to members, customers and the public by communicating CIVEA members, who contributed to the creation and continued clearly where restrictions may impact enforcement practice. implementation of this robust response to the unforeseen and In light of this, we have also launched an updated training unimaginable coronavirus pandemic. By acting quickly and decisively portal this year, containing refresher modules that are designed CIVEA members provided leadership to a diverse clientele of local to consolidate knowledge on safe enforcement. Unlike the authorities at a crucial time and they deserve to receive recognition mandatory training in the original Post-lockdown Support Plan, for their ongoing commitment and efforts. this was an optional resource to keep EAs up to date. So far, 74%

The first phase of the Post-lockdown Support Plan saw members of all Certified EAs across England and Wales that are listed on the roll out a reconnection and vulnerability identification period Ministry of Justice certificated bailiff register have completed this to ensure that all those in debt were aware of the restart of refresher training. enforcement and the precautions we were taking. This involved a Enforcement visits continue to be supported by Government template letter plus individual follow up communication by texts, and the ongoing hard work of CIVEA members is supporting emails and calls. The letter aimed to engage with customers to the responsible application of the very latest government understand how they were affected by the COVID-19 crisis and to guidance. Regardless of the outcome of the award ceremony in respond as appropriate. Collectively over two million letters were June, we are incredibly proud to have been commended for the sent out by CIVEA members to people in debt. sensible, thoughtful and successful actions of our members and

Our commitments that are already outlined in our Code of Practice the collaborative. made it possible to quickly implement a comprehensive and bespoke training programme to over 1700 Enforcement Agents (EAs) over a 10-week period. Training covered donning and doffing PPE correctly, social distancing and contact with the public. We also ‘Hello and thank you for joining the uploaded two animations to the CIVEA website to explain what this video call’ Negotiation with customers using video services. training entailed and an explanation of the standard enforcement process. These videos, ‘COVID-19 Safe Working Practices’ and ‘CIVEA Guide To Enforcement’ remain available to 2021 will see the introduction of WebRTC technology services for video calls with customers. With simple to use technology and scheduling services to support enforcement & customers reach better outcomes. view online. Communication with For more information contact Daniel Pearce customers remained essential during and join our forthcoming seminars. the health crisis especially after a five-month hiatus on enforcement daniel.pearce@telsolutions.co.uk visits, as during that suspension, www.telsolutions.co.uk councils incurred £4.8 billion of extra costs and income losses, Using intuitive customer communications to significantly impacting support and enhance income and recoveries. funding for essential local services. The Government released updated guidelines on enforcement activity three days before visits were set to Adopting behaviour automation to create efficiencies & positive outcomes. Telsolutions –Always go a little further resume in August 2020 and CIVEA ensured this was communicated to