No More Automatic Retirement Age

This has been in planning for some time, but the final draft regulations have been published and we've had an update from our lawyers Lupton Fawcett.

Here's a summary of the new regulations from April 2011:

+ employers will no longer be able to issue employees with notices of intended retirement based on reaching the default retirement age of 65

+ it will not amount to age discrimination to provide insurance benefits or related financial services, for example private medical cover or life insurance, to the under 65s whilst not providing them to the over 65s

+ retirement based on the default retirement age will no longer be a fair reason for dismissal when considering claims of unfair dismissal

+ Unless an employer can objectively justify the retirement age used, forced retirement at 65 or over is also likely to amount to age discrimination

If you'd like more details then check out the full Lupton Fawcett news item here

Nursery World 2011

Well we're back, counting our leads and glad to be sat down in a comfy seat!

Nursery World 2011 was such a different event to 2010 it's hard to explain.

We didn't get any any concrete numbers about visitors but we "felt" Friday was significantly down on 2010, whilst Saturday was similar if more spread out across the day.

This year there were far fewer students brought in from far and wide wearing their respective coloured shirts. Rumours circled the exhibitors about students having been restricted this year, but we didn't get that confirmed or have any real reason to think it's true.

We ran a competition this year for a bottle of champagne, and we chose a business card on Saturday - the winner doesn't know it yet but luckily is already a client of ours - we're going to surprise her this week!

Check out the pics below

Nursery World Ready!

Darren and I have spent this afternoon battling balloons,  sticky lettering and a very rainy Upper Street but we're pretty much ready for tomorrow.

From shell to build it's quite a transformation.

See you tomorrow and Saturday!sun we'll be giving away free champagne and lots and lots of CV and career advice.

Nursery World Prep - Polo Shirts In!

Just 36 hours to go before this year's Nursery show and we're almost ready. Polo shirts in, stand checked, and we're ready to go.

Come and say Hi at stand 50:

Friday 11th February 9.30-5.00, and
Saturday 12th February 9.30-4.00

Nursery World Show
Business Design Centre
52 Upper Street
Islington
N1 0QH

CRB & Vetting and Barring Scheme Announcements

We've heard via BBC news this weekend that the government is about to make 2 important announcements:

The first being that the vetting and barring scheme will be scrapped in its entirety. Bretsa welcomes this decision. Whilst we felt the scheme had potential benefits, when simply added to the current CRB system it amounted to a duplication and unhelpful cost structure.

The secondly key announcement is that CRB checks with information on will be sent directly to the individual to give them a chance to challenge incorrect information before the copy goes to the employer.

Will this increase average return times yet further? It's already not unusual for a CRB to take 12 weeks,  even with recent the development of e-disclosures.

Bretsa would like to see faster processing but crucially much more clarity and formalising over systems of portability.

We will wait at see. Check out the full article here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/uk-12372097