denotes premium content | Jan 8 2009 Feature
posted 23 Mar 2001 in Volume 6 Issue 3
Grey Matters:
Journal of Solicitors for the Elderly
National Conference 2001
The Shaw Park Plaza in London has been booked for the 3rd National Conference and AGM on Friday 9th November. The Committee is aware from some members of the wish to have the conference outside London, however it had been decided that we would use the same venue as last year. Hopefully as our membership increases we shall have enough interest to support the organisation of two conferences, one in London and another possibly in Birmingham.
The organisation of the conference is underway, with Margaret Richards, Head of Training, Jennifer Margrave and Liz Holdsworth as Joint Heads of Marketing and PR forming the Conference committee.
The workshops that we ran last year were so successful that we plan to run more this year. Some workshops being considered include welfare benefits and case problems – any other suggestions gratefully received. As always our aim is to ensure the conference programme reflects members training requirements.
Other Conferences
Our Chair, Anne Edis will be representing SFE when she sits as part of the plenary panel on palliative care at Action on Elder Abuse and ACTAPS joint conference entitled “A question of Capacity” on 11th July at Kensington Town Hall. Other SFE members that are speaking at this event include Joint Vice Chair, Julia Abrey who will be covering Living Wills and Jan Wright who will be examining EPA’s. Full details will be sent to all members in due course.
Another course, which may be of interest to members, is the Law Society and Department of Health’s partnership conference on Learning Disabilities on 30th March 2001, Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London. Speakers include Luke Clements and District Judge Ashton. Details from the SFE website (www.solicitorsfortheelderly.com )
A Scottish group
We are delighted to confirm that SFE has expanded into Scotland. This is particularly important with so many Judicial Review cases concerning older Scottish people, which influences the way we advise clients in England and Wales. Lets hope that we can learn and develop by sharing case experience.
Please contact our Administrator for more information on the Scottish group.
SFE Complaints and Disciplinary procedures
One of our aims has been to develop the group as a marketing tool for our members. We are pleased to have established good links with the Alzheimer’s Society, Action on Elder Abuse, the Relatives Association and The Royal College of Nursing. Creating and building on these relationships is an important way of obtaining a better understanding of client’s needs and raising our profile to the organisations’ members.
To this end the Committee feel now is the time for SFE to establish a Complaints and Disciplinary Procedure.
All member solicitor practices will need to comply with the new practice Rule 15, which includes having a written complaints procedure. In no way do we want to undermine the Law Society or re invent the wheel by dictating to members what their complaints procedure should be. The intention is that clients and the referral organisation will have a forum which will operate as a point of liaison and where appropriate assist in finding an amicable solution. A full copy of the complaints procedure will be issued shortly and will be publicised on the Internet.
As we hold ourselves out as an organisation with quality members we need to show that we have some power when members do not provide the service we would expect. Clause 9 of the constitution provides for the expulsion of a member after two thirds of members have voted; however we have no powers to do less. For example, if a member appears to need to develop skills in a particular area, should we be in a position to place a condition on the member to undertake appropriate training? We are hoping that the creation of a disciplinary procedure and the proposed Code of Conduct will address this issue. Your views on this would be welcome so if you feel inclined please share them with Caroline Bielanska on 01992 300333.
Mentoring Scheme
The majority of our memberships are full members, but we do have some enthusiastic Associates. We would like to develop a mentoring scheme to assist in the transition from being an Associate to obtaining full member status. It will not require a huge amount of time but will be give a less experienced Lawyer the chance for you to share your skills and can be extremely satisfying. If you would like to be a mentor or you are an Associate who would like to be put in contact with a mentor contact Richard Smithies on 01422 822737.
The administration of SFE
As the group has increased in size we have had to match our administrative needs by the amount of funds available. Originally Committee members, instead of paying a subscription gave their time, and their resources and those of the firms in which they worked until we had enough subscriptions to pay for part time assistance, which came in the form of Diane King and more recently Anne Smithies. Anne has only ever been able to work for us on a limited basis but due to the increasing demands of the group we need to look for an administrator who can work on a full time basis. Whilst we find such a person, Richard Smithies will be taking over the role of administrator. Hopefully by the next edition of Grey Matters we will have a permanent administrator in place.
I am sure all of you who had dealings with Anne, like the Committee will wish her well and many thanks for all the efforts in organising last year’s conference and establishing the website.
