Helena Partnerships 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."